Helium Balloons

bri-guy

bri-guy

Well-Known Member
I got a question about Balloons.

So I live just north of Orlando International Airport and as I was watching the traffic coming in to land I noticed some idiot was releasing balloons from his house. He was releasing about 10-15 balloons tied to each other and did it at least 3 times. Now his house is directly under the traffic coming in for final at KMCO 18R so anyone flying in is probably at least 1500 with airport in sight. Now I know balloons aren't going to do any damage to the plane but would balloons cause any sort of deviation if you didn't know what it was? Would you try to miss the balloons?

I would assume seeing a big purple group of something right in your line of sight coming right at you might cause you to at least think twice about it. Just curious if anyone has encountered this before. Thanks!
 
Ive heard warnings about kites and balloons. There always seems to be people flying kites from the park right on final on the 19 Visual into DCA.
 
Oh yeah, lots of balloons. One time climbing out of somewhere I remember looking out and seeing a single large foil Elmo balloon just hanging out. I made eye contact with Elmo and we just sort of nodded at each other as we passed at 9000 feet.

Heard one or two kite reports, and a smattering of RC airplanes.
 
Climbing out of KOKC in a Baron I flew through the middle of a large release of a hundred or more toy balloons - from a shopping center or car dealership opening probably. Scared the absolute CRAP out of me until I realized what it was.

Won't do any damage to the plane? It's aerial FOD - it'll get sucked in and result in either an instant problem requiring an immediate landing (at an airport where the work can't be performed), or an unknown problem that isn't detected until it does a zillion dollars in damage to a hard-to-find component.

That's aviation, right?
 
tomokc said:
Climbing out of KOKC in a Baron I flew through the middle of a large release of a hundred or more toy balloons - from a shopping center or car dealership opening probably. Scared the absolute CRAP out of me until I realized what it was.

Won't do any damage to the plane? It's aerial FOD - it'll get sucked in and result in either an instant problem requiring an immediate landing (at an airport where the work can't be performed), or an unknown problem that isn't detected until it does a zillion dollars in damage to a hard-to-find component.

That's aviation, right?
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Wow, I didn't realize it would do any damage, thanks for responding
 
Once when under the hood in the chickenhawk, I caught a glimpse of something read in the corner of my eye, which I assumed was another aircraft - freaking me the frak out. Just a balloon I discovered when I flipped up the hood.
 
I had the crap scared outta me in the PC12 one day last summer. Clear sky over Long Island sound and was already on alert since I had just gotten a traffic warning on the TIS. Looked up, a bright spot got big really fast and zoomed by it. I thought it was a helicopter, turns out it was a stupid mylar balloon that caught the sunlight just right.
 
I was over northwest Indiana one day last year at FL370 and passed a weather ballon at our altitude by a couple hundred feet at the most. At mach .80, it sure does get your heart racing quite a bit.
 
of me until I realized plane? It's aerial FOD - it'll get sucked in and result (detected until it does a zillion dollars in damage to a hard-to-find component.
I agree, I was over Austin and had 1 red and a blue zing over my starboard wing about 1800 Texas time. Too late too freak- What ya gonna do?

That's aviation, right?[/QUOTE]
 
Ironically enough, I spotted a ballon near Orlando while time building. It was scattered clouds at the time and we were on an IFR flight plane. I reported it to atc when I first saw it, however I did not exactly know what it was at first. Then we started going in and out of clouds...and BAM! It was right in front of us. A quick lift of the right wing and we cleared it. That was about 5-7k feet if I remember correctly.
 
Runincolorado said:
Ive heard warnings about kites and balloons. There always seems to be people flying kites from the park right on final on the 19 Visual into DCA.
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That's utterly insane. Gravelly Point is a nice park and the wind is good coming off the water, but you guys are less than 100' AGL sometimes before you cross the fence. I'm surprised the Park Police don't prevent it. I've never seen people flying kites there, but I guess it happens.
 
Speaking of stuff getting sucked into intakes...

I attended a fundraiser in a large hangar years ago that was full of bizjets and twin turbines. The bar was right next to a C90. Guests were invited to walk all around the locked aircraft. Near the end of the party I noticed that someone had jammed a paper cup way up into the King Air's nose inlet.

I recall that the group wasn't invited back the next year.
 
How far north? North of Orlando Executive? or in Conway between 408 and 528?

When I'm landing MCO 18R and it's VMC, I probably wouldn't notice the balloons. I'm more focused on trying to get down to intercept the glidepath from above without overspeeding the flaps because Orlando likes to keep arrivals above 2500ft at Orlando VOR (keeps us out of Executive's airspace while on the approach.)

I imagine pilots eventually become aware of the balloons just like they become aware of flocks of birds on final approach. You do what you can - at least birds have some sort of self-preservation instinct, balloons not so much.
 
Murdoughnut said:
Once when under the hood in the chickenhawk, I caught a glimpse of something read in the corner of my eye, which I assumed was another aircraft - freaking me the frak out. Just a balloon I discovered when I flipped up the hood.
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Happened to me on my long PPL cross country. red balloon at 4500, made my heart skip a beat for a sec.
 
woodreau said:
How far north? North of Orlando Executive? or in Conway between 408 and 528?

When I'm landing MCO 18R and it's VMC, I probably wouldn't notice the balloons. I'm more focused on trying to get down to intercept the glidepath from above without overspeeding the flaps because Orlando likes to keep arrivals above 2500ft at Orlando VOR (keeps us out of Executive's airspace while on the approach.)

I imagine pilots eventually become aware of the balloons just like they become aware of flocks of birds on final approach. You do what you can - at least birds have some sort of self-preservation instinct, balloons not so much.
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It was at Conway and Hoffner so just a little north of the airport. You guys are pretty low by then.
 
tomokc said:
it'll get sucked in and result in either an instant problem requiring an immediate landing (at an airport where the work can't be performed), or an unknown problem that isn't detected until it does a zillion dollars in damage to a hard-to-find component.
Click to expand...
I had a problem like that once on a GCBC, a piece of aluminium foil was blocking the airflow in the carburetor and the engine would either quit on high RPM or wouldn't turn pass 1700. It was really small and I never figured out how it got there-must have been dropped inside one of the hoses when they were off probably.
 
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