Goodyear Blimp Blog

Detour

Well, after two days of canceled flights in Philadelphia, we had to leave. One day consisted of pouring rain and the next brought high winds above our flight limitations. We still enjoyed giving tours of the airship to some Albert Tire customers and made the best of the situation.

Our plan was to fly to Frederick, Md., yesterday, but due to more bad weather and winds, we flew instead to Salisbury, Md., to avoid the weather. The plan worked, and we secured the airship one hour before the rain and winds moved in.

We now needed a new location for today and given the strong winds forecast, we headed to Wilson, N.C., on our way to the Charlotte area for a customer event and to set up for race coverage this weekend. The 200 mile flight took us almost nine hours and a lot of muscle today. We fought 30-35 knot winds all the way down here. I am back at our hotel now, and honestly, I still feel like I am rocking around the airship!

Tomorrow we will attempt to make it to the Rowan County Airport, just outside Charlotte, but I doubt it will happen. A 53 knot headwind and thunderstorm forecast says we should just stay here. We will see in the morning...

Nasty weather

Well, here I sit in Florence, S.C. We were supposed to fly to Frederick, Md., today but that's not going to happen. A very nasty weather system moved over the area yesterday bringing rain, wind and even tornadoes with it. Thankfully, we were spared the worst of the weather here in Florence, but the conditions are far from safe for flying an airship.

Luckily, the bad weather held off until after the NASCAR races were over. Our camera operator, James, had a fantastic weekend behind the lens. One of his aerial shots even made the highlight reel for ESPN's SportsCenter. I'm always amazed at how well our camera operators can follow the action for three or four hours straight, while constantly in motion.

Today, the rain is gone but the wind is blowing and blowing the wrong way! The plan was to fly to Petersburg, Va., today. This is a great example of a day when we could fly, but only in certain directions. If we were headed south, we'd be on our way right now. However, our next stop is Philadelphia and that's the wrong way to go today. I did a little quick math, and with this wind, our 210 nautical mile flight would take more than 20 hours at full power!

Fortunately, we are experiencing just a minor inconvenience. Our thoughts are with those who lost so much in this violent weather over the last few days.

Blimps and dolphins

We returned home with no problem after the NASCAR races, and since the trip was uneventful, I'd like to answer a common question we get as we travel the country.

Why does the blimp bob up and down like a porpoise when it's flying?

No, that's not just us having fun up there. It has to do with rising hot air and the speed that we fly. When flying on a commercial airplane, you've probably noticed that it gets a little bumpy just after take off and right before landing. At low altitudes, an airliner encounters up and down drafts due to unequal heating of the earth. (Imagine how much heat a blacktop parking lot emits versus a nice cool lake.) Since the airliner is moving at high speeds, passengers only feel slight turbulence when encountering updrafts.

Now take that same principle and apply it to slow-moving, low-altitude cruising blimps. When we fly into an updraft, the blimp's nose is pushed upward. As soon as the blimp pilot reacts by pitching the nose lower, the same updraft is now pushing on the tail, giving the opposite effect.

As a blimp pilot, I am used to the bobbing, but I know it probably looks a little strange from the ground.