Posted on 09/12/2013 10:43:58 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Trappe’s goal is to float across the ocean.
“The Atlantic Ocean has been crossed many times, and in many ways, but never quite like this,” the North Carolina native said on his website, which detailed his efforts.
City Manager Austin Bleess said about 150 volunteers assisted in filling the helium balloons starting Wednesday night. Trappe and his balloons lifted off from a foggy softball field in northern Maine, near the Canadian border, at sunrise Thursday.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
No way is correct. Not with those latex balloons.
He will have a bout 12 to 15 hours before the leak enough helium to put him in the sea.
Unless he has a boat trailing him he will never be seen again
no words...just shaking head.
Having a bit of LTA experience, I would say tend to agree - unless perhaps he is using Hydrogen in the balloons instead of Helium.
Using hydrogen, however, could also open the door to whole lot of other potential negative outcomes.
I agree. This is so stupid, that when he is lost at sea, the media will be so embarrassed by it, that they won't report it.
But doesn’t hydrogen tend to leak even faster than helium, being a smaller molecule?
I’m hoping that this is an elaborate hoax and that this guy isn’t going to really try this.
Wet balloons notaping.
Not doing this, would be the wisest decision he ever made.
I think you’re right Hydrogen would leak faster.
If he were using Mylar or aluminum foil balloons balloons he might have a chance of doing this though even then this would still be pretty stupid
Darwin smiled.
Daily Mail version: Video, better pictures
They are colored weather balloons. He's already flown the English Channel and over the Alps on previous record attempts. According to his tracking map, he's covered a 1000 miles on this trip already and is approaching the open Atlantic.
Everything looks well planned to me. I hope he makes it.
Cue Star Trek theme...
Our mission...to go where no loon has gone before.
...coming back optional.
Looks like he may have already gone down, just on shore of New Brunswick, not very far from “Blow Me Down” provincial park.
“For his trans-Atlantic crossing, the basket in which he’s riding is actually a lifeboat that could be used if he ditches in the ocean.”
Smart move.
“The airborne journey, if it goes according to plan, could take anywhere from three days to six days. Wind currents could bring him to northern Africa or Norway.”
Well, as long as knows where he’s going... o_O
Does he have to have an IFF transponder ???
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