What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knots?

fholbert

fholbert

Mod's - Please don't edit my posts!
Launching a camera and iPhone hung from a weather balloon seems to be getting pretty popular. Seems like it's only a matter of time before an aircraft is damaged or destroyed when an impact occurs at cruise speed. I don't see any pilot organizations responding to this threat. The FAA typically only responds to body parts shown on the evening news.

This yoyo launched across the final approach path of at John Wayne. I device free fell to the ground very near Gillespie Field in San Diego. The entire flight occurred in and above the busiest approach control in the word counting ONLY IFR operations.

Am I missing something?

 Father and son team try to send helium balloon to 107,000-feet, captures California Coast.:


DIY Father and Son project sends digital camera's into Near Space

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2011/11/father-and-son-team-try-to-send-helium.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGIi7XJjfdI
 
Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

It's a big sky.
 
Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

ljg said:
It's a big sky.
Click to expand...

That's what the fed's said until June 30, 1956

DA_crash_map.gif



800px-1956_Grand_Canyon_mid-air_collision.png
 
Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

According to FAR 101.1 the FARs only pertain to balloons that:

(i) Carries a payload package that weighs more than four pounds and has a weight/size ratio of more than three ounces per square inch on any surface of the package, determined by dividing the total weight in ounces of the payload package by the area in square inches of its smallest surface;

(ii) Carries a payload package that weighs more than six pounds;

(iii) Carries a payload, of two or more packages, that weighs more than 12 pounds; or

(iv) Uses a rope or other device for suspension of the payload that requires an impact force of more than 50 pounds to separate the suspended payload from the balloon.
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Also....
§101.33 Operating limitations.

No person may operate an unmanned free balloon --

(a) Unless otherwise authorized by ATC, below 2,000 feet above the surface within the lateral boundaries of the surface areas of Class B, Class C, Class D, or Class E airspace designated for an airport;

(b) At any altitude where there are clouds or obscuring phenomena of more than five-tenths coverage;

(c) At any altitude below 60,000 feet standard pressure altitude where the horizontal visibility is less than five miles;

(d) During the first 1,000 feet of ascent, over a congested area of a city, town, or settlement or an open-air assembly of persons not associated with the operation; or

(e) In such a manner that impact of the balloon, or part thereof including its payload, with the surface creates a hazard to persons or property not associated with the operation.
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Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

TallFlyer said:
According to FAR 101.1 the FARs only pertain to balloons that:



Also....
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I agree, we get many of our winds aloft forcasts from information these weather baloons transmit back multiple times a day from hundreds of locations
 
Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

I had a buddy that did this and he was in close contact the the FAA and was given a 5 minute slot from which he could launch. It's governed by the FAA when the governee goes through the proper steps.
 
Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

ljg said:
It's a big sky.
Click to expand...
What Fholbert said is correct and it will keep happening until someone loses an engine and Sully isn't at the controls to save the day! Then there will be some lose emails running around and a congressional hearing about the deaths of two hundred people and why it might have been a "bad" idea to let loose unguided balloons in some of the busiest airspace on the planet...
 
Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

HVYMETALDRVR said:
What Fholbert said is correct and it will keep happening until someone loses an engine and Sully isn't at the controls to save the day! Then there will be some lose emails running around and a congressional hearing about the deaths of two hundred people and why it might have been a "bad" idea to let loose unguided balloons in some of the busiest airspace on the planet...
Click to expand...

Ok, a valid opinion. I don't fly with Sully so next time I'm climbing out of JFK or EWR I will look for flocks of helium balloons with iphones attached to them. You guys do realize that this happens hundreds of times daily in accordance with FAA regulations though. Without balloon launches we would have no base data for the reporting and forecasting of winds aloft, icing, turbulence, temperature inversions, upper troughs, jetstreams, and surface pressure systems. I thought the photo returns of the pre-dawn launch video were pretty cool.
 
Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

We had an A310 hit a weather balloon at 38,000 feet the other day... pilots seemed to be "Huh never did that before, moving on"
 
Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

As long as they have the new phone and apple care it should be fine, presuming they recover the phone. Apple care on the new phones covers physical and water damage.
 
Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

They climb from the surface to 50K+ in a matter of minutes. The chances of you hitting that is extremely slim. Also, they weigh like 5-10 lbs. How many billions of birds are in the air at any given time and how often do you hit them? Now, how many times does a bird of 5-10 lbs take down an aircraft?

I understand that we do have bird strikes and we do get damage, but if you're going to use sully he hit dozens. How often will people be sending dozens of high altitude cameras that get spooked and suddenly become self aware to fly themselves into your aircraft. Not to mention the GIANT BALLOON that REFLECTS LIKE CRAZY on top of it that should be a hint not to hit it.

Just sayin...

weather_balloon.jpg

meh.ro4033.jpg
 
Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

ProudPilot said:
They climb from the surface to 50K+ in a matter of minutes. The chances of you hitting that is extremely slim. Also, they weigh like 5-10 lbs. How many billions of birds are in the air at any given time and how often do you hit them? Now, how many times does a bird of 5-10 lbs take down an aircraft?
Click to expand...

We are back to the big sky theory.
 
Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

I'm pretty sure we flew by one and missed it by a couple hundred feet or so a couple months back. Up around 340 near Kansas.
 
Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

It will be OK as long as they have the iPhone in a case.
 
Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

SONOFA! Probably unrelated balloon. But I checked my journal for the 9th of October.

Dear Diary... Blah blah Blah. Time building flight to Van Nuys this morning. Almost had a middair with some kind of balloon near the OCN VOR... etc
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Personally, I think if I took on a balloon in the old PA-28 I was flying that day, I would be in a mangled wreck plummeting through the restricted airspace, and the balloon would be ascending none the wiser...
 
Re: What Happens When Someone Hit's One of These at 400 Knot

ProudPilot said:
They climb from the surface to 50K+ in a matter of minutes. The chances of you hitting that is extremely slim. Also, they weigh like 5-10 lbs. How many billions of birds are in the air at any given time and how often do you hit them? Now, how many times does a bird of 5-10 lbs take down an aircraft?
Click to expand...

3 June 1995. An Air France Concorde, at about 10 feet AGL while landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport (NY), ingested 1 or 2 Canada geese into the #3 engine. The engine suffered an uncontained failure. Shrapnel from the #3 engine destroyed the #4 engine and cut several hydraulic lines and control cables. The pilot was able to land the plane safely but the runway was closed for several hours. Damage to the Concorde was estimated at over $7 million. The French Aviation Authority sued the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and eventually settled out of court for $5.3 million.

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23 October 2007.A Piper 44 flying at 3,400 feet AGL disappeared during a night training flight from Minneapolis, MN to Grand Forks, ND.The instructor and student pilot did not report any difficulties or anomalies prior to the accident. Wreckage was found 36 hours later, partially submerged upside down in a bog. The NTSB sent part of a wing with suspected bird remains inside to the Smithsonian.Remains identified as Canada goose. The damage that crippled the aircraft was to the left horizontal stabilator. NTSB investigated. Two fatalities.
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The plane, a US Airways Airbus A320 bound for Charlotte, N.C., struck a flock of birds during takeoff minutes earlier at LaGuardia Airport and was submerged up to its windows in the river by the time rescuers arrived in Coast Guard vessels and ferries. Some passengers waded in water up to their knees, standing on the wing of the plane and waiting for help.US Airways Flight 1549 took off at 3:26 p.m. It was less than a minute later when the pilot reported a "double bird strike" and said he needed to return to LaGuardia, said Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. He said the controller told the pilot to divert to an airport in nearby Teterboro, N.J.

(I believe, also Geese)
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Canadian Geese:
The male usually weighs 3.2–6.5 kg (7.1–14 lb), and can be very aggressive in defending territory. The female looks virtually identical but is slightly lighter at 2.5–5.5 kg (5.5–12 lb)

Sure Big Sky Theory.
But Birds of 5-10lbs hurt.

(http://www.birdstrike.org/commlink/signif.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28678669/ns/us_news-life/t/ny-jet-crash-called-miracle-hudson/#.TsTTHT1CqU8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Goose )
 
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