Wisconsin Balloon Group Volume 24 Issue 3 Uif!Wfoumjof! P age 1 July, Aug., Sept. 2012 Greetings from your WBG Director For me it s been a rather unusual summer. First there was cancelation of some longstanding Wisconsin rallies. Then there was the local heat and drought. Deciding to err on the side of caution, I ended up cancelling several midsummer flights because of that. Next were the BFA National Championship and the 20 th FAI World Hot Air Balloon Championship less than a month apart. While there were no Wisconsin competitors at the Nationals and not many of us serving as officials, the World Championship event was another story. As you will see from the many articles in this newsletter there were several WBG members working to support this event which was held in Battle Creek, MI, for the fourth time. In addition to the officials noted in those articles, other significant WBG names were a part of the event. The front page of the Competition Rules stated 20th FAI WORLD HOT AIR BALLOON CHAMPIONSHIP, HONORING THE MEMORY OF ALAN BLOUNT, 1993 WORLD CHAMPION. This dedication was announced during the opening ceremony and Alan s family was called to the stage and presented with a plaque in honor of Alan. They stayed to watch some of the competition and are shown in the accompanying photo at Sunday morning s launch field. Also in Alan s memory, a new award sponsored by the BFA HACD was announced at the Award s Ceremony. The Alan Blount International Sportsman Award was presented to Nick Donner for his significant and unselfish role in helping to solve the problem of obtaining U.S. pilot certificates for the Japanese competitors. The award will be presented at World Championship events, but not necessarily at each one. It will be awarded only when there is a particularly deserving recipient who demonstrates a true international spirit of sportsmanship. Insi de thi s i ssue: Upcoming Events 2 Jury Activities at 20th World Championship Waterford Balloon Rally 2,10,11 Hydrogen for Pibals 4 Seymour Hamburger Fest & Balloon Rally Insights into World HAB in Battle Creek 85 Balloons Launch in 12 minutes 3 5 6-9 10 In attendance for two days midway through the competition were Tom Sheppard and Debbie Spaeth, both founding members of WBG and organizers of the 1981 and 1985 World Championships in Battle Creek. Tom was the Event Director for both of those events, as well as several North American Championships in Battle Creek, thus playing a key role in making Battle Creek a focal point of international competition over the years. Tom is pictured with Jim Winker (see p.8), a modern ballooning pioneer with Raven Industries and Aerostar Balloons. Jim is apparently the only person in the world who has attended all 20 of the FAI World Championship events. You can find task results, lists of pilots and officials, and other event information at the official website, http://www.balloonworlds2012.com/. Or look at the Balloon Pong site, http://www.balloonpong.com/20th-worldchampionship.html, for extensive flight by flight descriptions, pictures and videos provided by the Balloon Pong pilots. Now back to our own events in Wisconsin, don t forget about the WBG Brewer game and tailgating on September 30. You should have recently received. Continued p. 2 The Blount family at the Worlds mass launch, L to R: Trevor, AJ (Alan Joseph) & Jessa Blount; Tom & Sarah (Blount) Cooper; Bennett, Rachel (Char s niece) & Richie Lyons; Char Blount
The Ventline Continued from p.1 e-mail reminder message about the outing. Details are also available on the WBG web site, http://wiballoongroup.org/ or from Corey Goebel, twogoebels@yahoo.com. I hope to see you there for an enjoyable fall afternoon. Page 2 A Memorial to Drew Roznowski Gary Britton Upcoming Events Sept. 30, 2012 WBG Brewer Game Milwaukee, WI Oct 5-6, 2012 Oktoberfest Oct 5-14, 2012 Albuquerque International Seymour, IL Balloon Fiesta Albuquerque, NM Nov. 16-19, 2012 Internacional Festival del Globo Leon, Mexico Jury Activities at the 20 th World Championship By: Gary Britton At any FAI First Category International Sporting Event there is a jury of three or five persons. The Jury President and Jury Members are appointed by the CIA Jury Board. They are selected from the CIA approved juror list. The functions of the jury during an event are to observe the general workings of the competition, attend all briefings, note specific data on tasks, be present at launches as well as at goals when possible, and verify the scoring. In addition to these general duties the jury hears all protests filed during the event. At the conclusion of the event the Jury certifies that it was conducted according to the Sporting Code and the appropriate rules, and that the results are valid. Following the event a report and general comments are submitted to the Jury Board and the FAI. Drew O. Roznowski, age 65 of Wisconsin Dells, (formerly of Madison) passed away on Thursday, June 14, 2012, at St. Clare Hospital in Baraboo, after fighting an unbelievable 18 month battle with Melanoma. Drew was born Feb. 6, 1947 in Green Bay, the son of Andrew and Dorothy Roznowski. He moved to Hillside, Illinois at the age of 3. He moved to Champaign, Illinois at the age of 17 and went to the University of Illinois. He Opened the White Horse Inn in Champaign and subsequently opened eight restaurants including the White Horse Inn in Madison. He operated other restaurants and a catering business in Madison and other cities. In 1988 Drew turned his love of hot air ballooning into a business with Sky Aces, Inc. He focused on special shape corporate balloons for companies such as Rayovac and Famous Footwear. He met his wife, Judy during Sky Aces first year and they traveled world-wide flying Drew s creative balloons until 2001. Drew truly enjoyed the past 5 1/2 years working as the Creative Food and Beverage Director of Kalahari Resorts. Drew is survived by his wife, Judy; his father, Andrew of Macungie, PA., and his brother, Bruce of Hampton, New Jersey. He was preceded in death by his mother. A Celebration of Life Service was held on Saturday, June 30, 2012 at the First United Methodist Church in Madison. At the World Championship this year the Jury President was Risto Jalava from (Continued p.10)
The Ventline The Ventline Page 3 Waterford Balloon Rally The second Waterford Balloon Rally held July 20-22, 2012 was once again blessed with beautiful weather. After the summer drought, there had been concern regarding the dry conditions, but Mother Nature took the edge off by drenching the area with rain several days in advance of the rally. Opening ceremonies were provided by the Marine Corp Color Guard which launched off 2 days of fun activities. In addition to the balloons launching and glowing (which all went off without a hitch), there was also a car show, craft fair, Brewfest, live music, kids fun zone and helicopter rides for entertainment.
The Ventline HYDROGEN FOR PIBALS Pete Asp Page 4 The helium shortage caught up with me about three weeks ago when my S cylinder from Praxair ran out. The last one I bought cost $166. I had asked about getting a cylinder of hydrogen at that time and was told they didn t have it. I left the empty cylinder on the dock, as usual, went inside and told the salesman I needed a replacement helium. He consulted his computer and someone else who I took to be the supervisor. They then informed me that I wasn t on their list for helium. Having expected this situation, I replied OK, how about hydrogen then? (more consultation among salesmen) What do you want it for? Inflating test balloons for planning of hot air balloon flights. You don t want hydrogen. I need a lifting gas. We should have helium in a couple months. I have to plan a flight this afternoon. Hydrogen is flammable. I understand that. It won t be our fault when you blow yourself up. Give me the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) and you ll be covered. Your regulator won t work. Why not? The connector is different. Do you have the connector I need? (more consulting among salesmen, checking catalogs and computer). Anyway, after about a half hour I was on my way with a bright red, but very dusty S cylinder of hydrogen (makes me think they were lying last year when they said they didn t have it) and a used hydrogen regulator. They would have sold me just the CGA-350 nut and nipple (connector) I needed, but it would have had to ship from Chicago and I didn t want to wait a day for it. The really good news is the cost. The hydrogen was $41. If I could have gotten helium, it would have been $270. The cylinder holds 135 cubic feet of helium, for a cost of $2 per cubic foot. Hydrogen works out to $0.34 per cubic foot, as the cylinder only holds 121 cubic feet of that. Safety concerns? I suppose there are some. In my situation, I m inflating pibals in my shop and immediately taking them outside for release. It s my practice to keep all high pressure cylinders turned off when not in use. If one is carrying the cylinder in a trailer and inflating there, the same precautions would be in order as when refueling. In a pickup bed, the hydrogen will go up when it escapes, rather than pooling like propane would. I won t be filling birthday balloons for the grandkids and placing them on the table with the cake and candles anymore. Now that the price of pibals is cheap again, I may release some just for fun again!
The Ventline Page 5 2012 Seymour Hamburger Fest #1 # 2 # 3 # 4 #5 # 6 # 7 # 10 # 11 #12 Less than stellar weather prevailed at this year s Hamburger Fest, with the only flight & glow taking place on Friday night. Wind at launch time Friday evening was in the 9-10 kt range. Some pilots elected to fly, with the remainder staying back to glow. Most pilots did manage to stand their balloons for a glow, if only briefly due to squirrely winds. No-one flew Sat am as wind direction was toward Green Bay airspace. A brief heavy downpour late Sat. afternoon hampered an evening flight & glow with storms predicted for Sunday. We still had fun with our crew going to Heritage Hill State Park, Captain s Walk winery, and to DePere Saturday evening for the best Mexican food we ve ever had. We love Seymour, rain or shine! # 8 # 9 #1. Going Up! #2. Evan Koenig hot inflating #3. Kurt Hintz ready to launch # 4, #7, # 10 Dave Koenig s remote control balloon he built from Bob O Brien s old Melloon envelope #5. Moon viewing from the propane refueling line Friday night. #6. Pete preparing to light up the night #8. Eric putting some heat to it #9. Launching soon # 11. Friday night glow #12. Just a wee bit of wind
The Ventline Page 6 Wisconsin Pilots Support Japanese Teams at 2012 Worlds By: Debbie Spaeth In Spring 2012, I was contacted by two of our Japanese ballooning friends, Hiromori (Hiropon) Soejima and Akari Sue. Hiropon was crewing for World Competitor #50. Kazu Isakari, and Akari's husband, Tetsu, was Competitor #52. They were looking for multiple tanks and fans to use with their personal balloons that would be shipped in from Japan. Shortly after that, Katsura, crew for Competitor #54, Yoshi Kodama, came with the same request for tanks and a fan. Thanks to the following pilots who supplied the equipment: Kathy Lester-Ross and David Ross Herb & Jan Kohlman Gary Britton Ken Walter Debbie Spaeth Kathy, David, Tom Sheppard and I met the three crews in the parking lot of the Red Roof Inn near O'Hare Airport on August 14th. It was organized chaos as the equipment was unloaded and re-loaded by the teams. As you can see in the picture, despite being up all night on their flight to the USA, the Japanese teams were definitely pumped up and happy to be in the USA for the event. There were issues with the FAA over the Japanese Pilot Licenses and Japan registered balloons. But with the help of USA event officials, these were all smoothed over before the start of the event. So the Japanese pilots flew, with help from Wisconsin. And a Japanese Pilot, Yudai Fujita, (age 21) was on the podium in third place. First time that Japan was represented on the podium at the World HAB Championship. And because of the FAA issues, the first time a pilot with a USA student pilot certificate, was a place winner in the World Competition. Another Wisconsin tie - Masahiko Fujita, Yudai's father, flew in the Honda World Grand Prix-Round 1 - in Monroe, Wisconsin from 1998-2006. My Mom, Donna, has a picture of (a young) Yudai playing on a dirt pile while in the crew holding area at Propane. Father and Son are both great competitors. Thanks to the pilots who helped out. And congratulations to the Japanese for the successful week in Battle Creek. Insights into World HAB in Battle Creek Did you ever think you would be wishing for rain or wind at a balloon event? Well, I have to be honest.by the end of the week I was asking Brad (marvelous weather guy) isn t it too windy? Needless to say we flew 30 tasks a world s record. I was a target team leader. I found out how difficult it is to drive to a target in the dark through a farmer s field and two gates. People laughed at my tracks when the same came up. (Continued p 7 )
The Ventline Page 7 (Continued from p 6) I had great measurers on my team, Patty Stiglich, Judy Wright, Wayne Warren and Woody Watson. We had 89 baggies the first task, 50 on another, 92, and ended the event with 92. ( and not one baggie lost). It was an adventure to watch all the balloons fly over and a challenge to watch for gravity drops. On the days we did not have a hard target; our team was assigned intersection targets. This is where it got scary. Imagine 100 chase crew lookielou s and locals trying to get to work while balloons are approaching an intersection. I now can apply for a job directing traffic. To be honest, it was very scary and my voice sure got a work out. The observers were measuring the baggies, traffic wanted to go through and other balloons wanted to throw their baggies unimpeded. It was an awkward dance of stopping traffic and moving them on. We all had yellow vests on but I did comment to Kathy and David Lester-Ross that I could see how David s accident happened. Our last task of the event had quite a show of the balloons coming in one by one with most of the drops within 30 meters. We saw some great flying during the week. I brought too much cheese and not enough off time to enjoy it, but we were there for competition. The committee in Battle Creek worked very hard to put on a successful world championship. I was very lucky to be a part of it. **** By: Georgene Voutila My only disappointing moment is that we did not get a Wisconsin picture, we had quite a contingency there. ***By: Linda Gavigan Here is a list of Wisconsinites and friends, as complete as I can make it. Gary Britton Jury Brad Temeyer Weather Linda Gavigan Chief Observer Ron Wiseman, Mike Tuten Debriefers Alex Jonard Asst. Safety Officer David Ross Logger Intake Margie Groom, Rita Odegaard, Adele Pitt, Kathy Lester-Ross, Jim & Kelly Neill, Tom Oberheide, Cyndy Fox, Jack Walsh, Terry Bartman, and Peggy Ogland Mueller with her two daughters Ariel & Ellie All Observers Harold and Mary Graves Measurers Peggy Wolfe Measuring Team Capta in Georgene Voutila Measuring Team Captain Jim Dieball Chief of Measurement Lots of great memories, but of course the bad ones make the best stories. An Event car with a 5 year old battery: Bobby Bradley (and his Dad) had to give me a jump start one afternoon. After that I carried jumper cables with me. Driving through the woods out to a Target, coming out to the field and seeing the Chinese balloon landed short of the Target. The envelope was still 20 feet high, potentially blocking the approach of other balloons. While beating the envelope down I lost my cell phone in the fabric. I had the Observer call the phone and of course it was at the squeezed down equator. I had to paw through most of the 150 feet of the fabric to find it. Then I find out that the landing wasn t the Pilot s fault. He had gotten hit so hard by a basket that the borrowed envelope had several 10 foot long rips starting at the parachute. Fortunately he had already cleared the powerline and was at only 20 feet altitude. Supervising Observers at a road intersection with huge amounts of traffic: Sixty drops in twenty minutes or so. I would run an Observer in, hold the zero end of his tape and get him/ her back out of the intersection in 10 seconds or so. And then repeated it for the next drop and measurement and the next and the next. I had one person watching my back for cars, another watching my front and a third watching my head so that I didn t get hit (Continued p 8)
The Ventline Page 8 The Ventline Continued from p 7 by the next baggie. I had the Observers stand at the southeast edge of the intersection to GPS the goal (and add 5 meters to the Easting and 5 meters to the Northing) to avoid the on-my-way-to work crowd. Neither group was happy about it *** By: Jim Dieball David Levin and Tom Sheppard. Tom was Championship Director for the World HAB in Battle Creek in 1981 and 1985. David was declared Champion at the 1985 Worlds. David was the Director for 2012 Worlds in Battle Creek Mass launch on Monday pm from a farmers field NE of Battle Creek. Peggy Wolfe returning from wet field, but she has dry feet! Harold & Mary Graves Officials on the Measuring Team Yudai Fujita at flight check-in table returning his GPS to David Ross Jim Winker and Tom Sheppard at the launch field. Reunion Time - Tom & Debbie with Barb Brenner- Haluska, Barb's daughter Logan and Charlie Medler. Barb was on the BC Chamber staff for the 1981 Worlds. Charlie has been Landowner Relations for all the BC Balloon events. Tom was Championship Director and Debbie was Asst. Championship Director for events at BC from 1980 thru 1990. Thank you!!!! Thank you to everyone who contributed articles and pictures to this issue of the Ventline. Acknowledgments are as follows: Pete Asp, Georgene Voutila, Linda Gavigan, Sue Gourdoux, Jim Dieball, Deb Spaeth and Gary Britton. It is much appreciated, we couldn t do it without you!!! The pictures from the Worlds HAB in Battle Creek were submitted by Debbie Spaeth and Gary Britton. Continued p 9
The Ventline Page 9 Continued from p 8 Observers at the Worlds and Pre- Worlds It s hard to believe that it was only two years ago that David Levin asked me to be the Chief Observer for the 2012 Worlds Championships. It was funny how the question seemed to have silenced the table as everyone seemed to be watching and waiting for my answer. I obviously said yes and then started to wonder how I could take on this honor and responsibility. I wonder how anyone ever did this job before email, and I was so happy that we didn t have to learn. I was lucky enough to have Annette Gillespie take on the roll of Deputy Chief Observer. We needed 60 observers for 2011 and 120 for 2012. 2011 saw a good number of applications but we lost 10 people in the last 14 days before the event so some scoring team members observed during some flights. 2012 applications did not come in as we hoped they would, so Annette began reaching out or maybe I should say stalking people to observe, anywhere she could, Facebook, chief observers, old observer lists, any place she could reach out to people she did. Once again in the 14 days before the event we lost about 10 observers. Once we arrived in Battle Creek on Wednesday, we had many volunteers jump in to help and I apologize if I missed anyone, Betty Gavigan, Pat Huebner,Patt Hanson, Vicki Palmer, Diane Wadas, Kathy and Gregg Spetz, Mike Tuten organizing teams to mark intersections and Mike Bertin creating and running refresher classes. Many people asked what computer program we used for assignments; truth is it was a very random process of dealing cards. I played a version of the old fashioned concentration game. I dealt the pilots cards out in random order, dealt the observer cards out on top of the pilot cards and then looked at each pilot/ observer pairings for conflicts and adjusted as necessary. Annette had another method, she would shuffle the pilot s and the observer cards and then draw one card from each stack to match pilots with observers, she also made adjustments when necessary. We had brainstormed in 2011 and came up with our check in boards and pilot cards, at each flight the observers card with a picture of the balloon that they were observing for, to make it easier to track their balloon. Check-in at flight briefings went great, Observers picked up their assignments, hung their observer cards on their assigned pilots space on the board, put their pilot card on their lanyard and then took their seats. It was easy for Annette and me to check for missing observers by looking at the board or for empty chairs at the tables. Fifteen minutes before pilots entered the arena we had an observer briefing with Maury Sullivan, Deputy Event Director. Maury was great; he advised everyone of what the flights tasks would be and answered all our questions. This year it was great to actually get out of the hotel to see balloons in the sky, seeing old friends, making new ones and being part of what I believe will be the last World Championship with Observers. What is in my future? I don t know, but having two more weeks of vacation will give me lots of opportunities. I am very proud and honored to have been recognized with the Annie Pryne Observer Award at the awards ceremony. Annette and I were a team and I could not have done this job or won this award without all her hard work and dedication. Thank you to everyone, observers, de-briefers, scoring teams, staff, pilots and crew who helped to make this such a wonderful event. Linda Gavigan Condolences Our deepest sympathy to Gary & Jean Britton and their family on the passing of Gary s mother Dorothy on July 31, 2012. Gary mentioned that his mother thoroughly enjoyed hearing about their balloon activities. He also said that she had flown in competition with him once at the Corn Palace Balloon Rally shortly after she turned eighty. Bless her heart!!
The Ventline Page 10 85 Balloons Launch in 12 Min- utes at Worlds On Thursday evening at the World Championship in Battle Creek, MI, Event Director David Levin called two Pilot Declared Goal tasks with a mass launch. The accompanying five photos show the beginning of the launch period. In the first photo you see all of the chase vehicles lined up and the balloons laid out 10 seconds prior to the beginning of launch. The next photo shows rows of partially inflated balloons 1:30 into the launch period. Only 3:07 after the green flag went up two balloons are already above the field, evidently off the ground within three minutes. The photo with the green flag and supplemental wind data posted was taken 4:15 into the launch period and the final photo of this sequence shows a portion of the field at 5:15 minutes into launch. In the end, 85 of the 99 balloons were in the air within 12 minutes. Officials in the yellow vests were present but no launch directors were used. Competitors and crews were completely responsible for when to launch and they did so without incident. Continued from p 2 Jury Activities at the 20 th World Championship Finland. Zoltan Palhegyi from Hungary and I were Jury Members. In addition to carrying out the general functions noted above, we heard two protests this year. In one case a pilot was assessed a reckless flying penalty for ascending too rapidly in the vicinity of another balloon. The computer scoring software uses the track of the official GPS units in each competitor s balloon to determine such cases. The Event Director and his staff then analyze the details and assess the penalty. The software flags those cases where the two balloons are within 30m of each other and have a closure rate faster than 3m/s (approximately 600 ft/min). After studying all the information and hearing comments from the competitor and officials, the jury denied the protest. Thus the penalty remained. Continue p 11
The Ventline Page 11 Continued from p 10 Jury Activities at the 20 th World Championship In the other case a pilot was given a no result in a Fly On (FON) task. Scoring FON tasks is always a challenge because officials need to determine that the pilot declared the intended goal properly and prior to a certain point or time in the flight, and then measure to that declared goal. These procedures are complicated by the combined use of observers and GPS loggers. Various methods have been tried so that it is fair to all concerned. In this case officials had determined that the competitor had not properly declared his fly on goal and thus scored him as a no result. The pilot protested, claiming that he had met the conditions of the FON rule as well as the task data sheet. Again, the jury examined all relevant data and held a hearing to listen to what both the pilot and officials had to say. Subsequently the jury ruled the pilot had met the conditions of the task and stated that he should be given a result. In both cases the jury s decision was unanimous. I find that the jury process is challenging and interesting. If you would like to be involved in competition in an additional way I encourage you to look into the procedures to be included on the jury list. We need additional qualified participants and I d be glad to visit with you about your interests. This fun little article /question (with picture) was submitted to the local paper the beginning of July.
The Ventline Pilot $20.00 WISCONSIN BALLOON GROUP Membership Application Additional pilots in household $10.00 each Crew $15.00 (per household) New Member Event Official $15.00 (per household) Renewing Member Business / Corporate add $50.00 Life Membership - $200 Name(s): For new members and renewing members with changes, please complete the following. Address: City, State, Zip: Phone: ( ) Secondary Phone: ( ) E:Mail: Balloon Owner: No/Yes N# Balloon name: N# Balloon name: Preferred communication: E:Mail Surface mail: Please check box if you would like your information withheld from the membership roster. [ ] Note: The Wisconsin Balloon Group does not publish the contact information of its members. Related Memberships: [Circle and/or complete] BFA No/Yes # EAA No/Yes # AOPA No/Yes # Other: Please complete the following information. Check all that apply. [ ] Pilot [ ] Crew [ ] Observer Student ( ) BFA Crew Achievement BFA Observer Achievement Private ( ) Level: Level: Commercial ( ) Primary Pilot(s) Crewed: ( ) Hot Air [ ] Sport [ ] Competition ( ) Gas [ ] Rides [ ] Promotion ( ) CIA Registered Observer [ ] Instruction / Accept Students BFA Pilot Achievement Level: [ ] Event official Ratings: Hot Air Gas Other Role(s): Indicate areas where you would consider volunteering, to advance ballooning and the WBG: Ventline Reporter Social Events Membership Special Events Land Owner Relations Safety Seminar Other: Send application form and dues to: Pete Asp, WBG Membership Director or Gary Britton, WBG Executive Director W1341 County Road B 4458 Summit Ridge Sullivan, WI 53178 Slinger, WI 53086 wisaero@centurytel.net gary.britton@uwc.edu 262-593-2251 414-333-5664 Page 12
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