Post-Fight Discussion (Basic Questions)

Student: The approach to landing as you described it is a controlled stair step approach.

Did you say to level out at altitudes as we come down or just stay controlled in the rate of descent? OK maybe I remember now-at first a higher rate of decent then lower rate of decent at lower altitudes.

Instructor: Correct, You only want to slow the descent rate not stop it, It would look much like a lazy stair case where the runners were sagging or sloped downward.

Student: I never would have thought that the vent and burner controlled the flight.

Instructor: Don't forget that someone spent millions of dollars designing the vent; you might as well use it.

Student: When the balloon is landing should I maintain my grasp of the burner?

Instructor: No take your hand off the burner just before touching the ground and leave it off until the balloon comes stable. If you continue holding onto the burner you are sure to swing the burner back and forth and burn the envelope.

Student: Your lesson on fuel management was great. I will never forget to look at the Tanks Again. At what % remaining in the tank did you switch to the other tank?

Instructor: We will have many such discussions on this point.

My current practice using a Cameron setup, with liquid pilot lights, with one 10 gallon slave and two 15 gallon masters is to completely exhaust the slave tank first, then alternate between the two master tanks. I always attempt to inflate off the red handle thus using the slave tank. My way to remember is to fly off the Red (Ready) handle first which in my case is the 10-gallon slave tank then alternate between Red and Green handles. There is method in my madness and that is I want to assure the 10 galloon slave tank is totally empty and out of the process and then I can just alternate between the Red and Green handles. With 20% remaining in both masters I am then in the process of looking for landing place.

Now with an Aerostar 4 tank System it is a little different.

My current practice, using a Aerostar 4 tank, two burner system with vapor pilot lights, is to completely exhaust the slave tanks first, then fly the fixed (burner) master down to approx 5 to 10%, then fly the gimbals (burner) master until it comes off the peg, (You should be well on your way to landing by this point in a flight). This strategy has come about because of an attempt (long ago) on my part to believe that a tank with 10 to 20% has enough fuel to fly or land on. Lets see, if I start with 10 gal of propane and only have 10 to 20% remaining I only have 1 to 2 gallons of fuel left in that tank. It takes approximately that amount of fuel to inflate the balloon. Just think about having to abandon a steep approach landing with your blast valve fully open. How long would that gallon or two of fuel last? How long did it last in the inflation? I now subscribe to the theory of empty it and never go back to it. There is never the belief that there is fuel to fly on, you KNOW that the tank is EMPTY. The reason for leaving 5% or so fuel remaining in the master tanks is two fold: One is to not confuse that the tank is full, the gauge at a glance can look full if you completely empty the tank. Second, It also guaranties that there is sufficient fuel for the pilot light to continue to function from that tank. This is somewhat of a misnomer but is the standard line. The pilot light is vapor fed therefore it needs very little propane to operate. I believe that the first reason to be the most sensible.

Student: Since I gave up saving the landing, and let it hit the ground at lease twice should I have gone with both burners or just kept ahead of the flight path.

Instructor: This was just a case of not having had enough flight time. This will come with experience. The point I was making was don't underestimate the power of your burner. It will most of the time keep you from hitting the ground. What happened was that you "believed" that you were going to hit the ground therefore you stopped burning and consequently hit the ground. If you had stuck with it, you would have leveled out and actually began a climb. The climb of course is not wanted; therefore you must then initiate a vent just as you level out in order to compensate for the hard/over burn. We will practice this over and over again. It is a common maneuver used for steep approach landings.