6/21/2005: Upside down balloon

Undertoad • Jun 21, 2005 2:32 pm

Mark this down as one of those things that truly did not need doing, but it's nice they did it anyway. This is no fake, this is an upside down balloon.

"It was a tall order, though, in a lot of ways, for example the basket at the top is fake, and there is a real basket underneath, which is hidden by a special skirt that can be lifted as the pilot comes in to land."

full story

wolf • Jun 21, 2005 2:35 pm

"Hi, this is our balloon. We built it just to screw with you."

Trilby • Jun 21, 2005 2:41 pm

Oh, for the love of...

glatt • Jun 21, 2005 2:54 pm

The pilot must have great visibility, hidden behind a skirt. It's like piloting a submarine. Blind.

xoxoxoBruce • Jun 21, 2005 2:57 pm

Birthing, but when you lift the skirt full grown people pop out. :eek6:

BigV • Jun 21, 2005 3:52 pm

Don't know why y'all are so freaked out...in my experience every proper landing came after the skirt was raised. :blush:

Stonan • Jun 21, 2005 5:11 pm

I tried to find out the name but maybe someone here will know. I don't know if they exist but in the movie King Solomon's Mines (1985) they show a tribe of people who are unhappy with the way the world is and therefore live entirely upside down in the hopes of changing it.

Anyone happen to remember it? I think it's Abugwai or Umbugwai...

At least that's what it sounds like....

:confused:

Happy Monkey • Jun 21, 2005 5:42 pm

I don't suppose anyone's heard of Barry Louis Polisar? He's got a song about a kid who walks on his hands "because an angry face is still a smile, when you're living upside down".

capnhowdy • Jun 21, 2005 9:38 pm

Never been on or around a balloon. I always thought you RODE instead of PILOTED.
For me to be airborne, I would desire a little more control.
Only been a couple weeks ago I heard a news story where two people were killed on a hot air balloon. I'll just watch them Ride, ahem I mean pilot.

Wombat • Jun 22, 2005 2:27 am

They are piloted not ridden. The pilot changes direction by changing altitude, because air travels in different directions at different altitudes due to the coriolis effect. Obviously the range of possible directions a balloon can travel is limited, it can't do a u-turn and go back the other way.

p.s. cool ballon!

barefoot serpent • Jun 22, 2005 12:48 pm

Wombat wrote:
p.s. cool ballon!

No, actually it's a hot air balloon :p

CharlieG • Jun 22, 2005 1:19 pm

Heh - just remember - hot air does NOT rise - cold air SINKS, and displaces the hot air up