I am asked how often we travel and what our typical schedule looks like. The answer to both questions is "it depends." A perfect example would be last weekend.
We were scheduled to operate at home base over the weekend and then on Wednesday, we got the call to go to Tampa for the ACC football championship game.
Moving the airship to a new location and covering an event may seem easy but here is a very simple checklist of things that have to happen before this will work:
1. Find a hotel for 20-22 people in an area that is most likely sold out due to the event you are covering.
2. Assure a safe landing spot for the airship at an airport and arrange for fuel.
3. Apply for and receive a waiver to fly over the event from the FAA/TSA (a requirement since 9/11).
4. Attain clearance for microwave frequencies to transmit our signal for network use.
5. Find a good place for dinner while you are in town.
There are many more things that are involved in our travels and thus we normally have plenty of advance notice to make sure we are ready for a trip.
In this case, we had one day before we left and I can't say enough about my crew and fellow pilots. Everything went perfectly and just to prove it here is a shot over Raymond James Stadium during the game!
