Virgin HAB at Scone

[wallace]

I had been after pictures of the "new" Cameron balloon since the season started at Easter and never quite managed to be in the right place at the right time until Sunday...

I thought it would be interesting to show the sequence of getting one into the air. I missed the start with the offloading and unpacking, so...

The envelope is dragged out and spread out ready for inflation. Two air driven fans inflate the envelope. The ground crew is busy closing up the top vent by matching up the Velcro tabs in the right order and untangling the lines.
01 G-VBFZ Cameron A-300, Scone by Wallace Shackleton, on Flickr
02 G-VBFZ Cameron A-300, Scone by Wallace Shackleton, on Flickr
It is usually the pilots job to go inside and sort everything out inside as the envelope is inflated. It's no easy task.
03 G-VBFZ Cameron A-300, Scone by Wallace Shackleton, on Flickr
Having kicked the tyres it's time to light the fires. The burners are purged, unburnt propane being released.
04 G-VBFZ Cameron A-300, Scone by Wallace Shackleton, on Flickr
We have ignition.
06 G-VBFZ Cameron A-300, Scone by Wallace Shackleton, on Flickr
As you can guess there's a lot of radiant heat.
07 G-VBFZ Cameron A-300, Scone by Wallace Shackleton, on Flickr
By this stage the envelope is well filled with hot air and it starts to lift. The ground crew holds onto the top line in case it starts to drift out of control
08 G-VBFZ Cameron A-300, Scone by Wallace Shackleton, on Flickr
Almost there, just a matter of more hot air, compounded with the envelope drifting and closing up
11 G-VBFZ Cameron A-300, Scone by Wallace Shackleton, on Flickr
Some ballast is required. The HAB is tethered to the truck by the two lines on the right
12 G-VBFZ Cameron A-300, Scone by Wallace Shackleton, on Flickr
You can see the tethering lines better. The Go-Pro camera is swung out ready for the inflight pictures.
15 G-VBFZ Cameron A-300, Scone by Wallace Shackleton, on Flickr
The customers are all on board and they are ready to go. This is just about a full load.
16 G-VBFZ Cameron A-300, Scone by Wallace Shackleton, on Flickr
The tethering lines are detached and flight begins
17 G-VBFZ Cameron A-300, Scone by Wallace Shackleton, on Flickr

I've missed out some of the photos, the full set can be seen on my Scone 2016 Flickr page https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwshack/albums/72157663127528595