|
|
|
James Gordon-Bennett would have loved this balloon race. Dutch Rien Jurg and Ron van Houten, in third place, landed in Austria after 620 kilometers. In second place, Richard Abruzzo, together with the only woman in the race, Carol Rhymer-Davis, from the USA, landed in Italy after 745 kilometers as the crow flies and were considered to be the winners for two days. We no longer believed we had a chance to win this race again after we had won in 1995 and 1996. I will try to give a short report about this race of 70 hours and a route of 1600 kilometers. Launch in the Ardennes Previous year winners Philippe de Cock and Ron van Havere wanted to host this important race in Belgium. This wasn't easy. At Bruxelles, where the race was held from 1921 to 1925 and again in 1937, launch permission for launch could not be obtained. So they had to move it to the southern part of Belgium. But even there, it took a long time, until finally shortly before the day of the launch, permission was received to inflate with hydrogen and for VFR flights at night. So finally 17 gas balloons gathered at St.Hubert, the Belgium center for glider-planes in the Ardennes.
The organizing committee had struggled hard, to ensure that the event went smoothly. Some problems that occurred were caused by exaggerated orders from the authorities. The airfield 500 meters ASL needed a windless day which was not common in the area, and fortunately there was one the day of the launch. Cloudy sky, no thermals, no wind, a high-pressure area above Belgium. So inflation was assured. The last met briefing at 8:00 p.m. pronounced slow winds from the west on the ground and a little more wind from the west at altitudes as had occurred during the prior two days. If there was to be any wind, it should come from the west. We had drawn launch number 12 and flew straight to the west, with wind from the east up to 2000 feet. The speed was 7 to 10 kilometers an hour, and with 15°C it was comfortably warm. We had launched at 9:00 p.m. with 58 bags of sand (10 kilograms each) and a lot of equipment. Peaceful Verdun
Two hours after the launch we heard from the first balloon, that they were close to Luxemburg. Quickly we decided, to dump six bags, and climbed to 5000 feet. There, we finally got the wind from the west at 17 kilometers an hour. In the early morning we scratched an edge of Luxemburg and could see eight other balloons at sunrise. So all of them had not flown to the east very fast. The wind turned further to the north and during the first day to the east. We were caught in the high-pressure area and flew to the west with a disgusting speed of 7 km/h. Also, the temperature was 38°C at 1800 meters. Not very funny, especially, since the very strong inversion layers formed a pall of haze reducing ground visibility very much. Over Verdun we remembered the 800.000 young men, who were massacred miserably there for their nations in the First World War. If we would fly on like this, a landing in the evening would become inevitable, because a balloon can't fly across Paris. A clearance from ATC can't be achieved. For the first time, we had to vent to bring the balloon down to lower layers. Below, the heading was more to southwest, passing Paris just a little in the south. At 400 meters we discovered a good heading. But at 2:30 p.m. thermals were still too strong to perform a stable low-flight. Not before 7:30 p.m. did we have a good flight to the southwest with 17 km/h at 300 meters. Short before sunset we crossed French town Chalons-en-Champagne and prepared everything for the second night. It is a decision at rules the next eight hours, because at night, a balloon cannot land safe. Even with a full moon, night vision binoculars and a landing-beam of 150 watts, a landing at night is an unnecessary risk. Paris at night
It was dark for about one hour, when the drift turned even more to the west, and at midnight, we were heading towards Paris from the southeast. No chance, we had to make radio contact with Paris Orly and to try, to get clearance for crossing the southern part of Paris, using transponder and radio. The miracle became true. With no orders and a warm welcome Bernd and I could fly over Paris at night. Even when the wind turned to southeast, urging us to cross this metropolitan area totally, we got no more orders. During the whole four hours we needed for the crossing, our transponder with encoding altimeter was always running. First big airport Charles de Gaulle wanted to know, if we had permission. Of course we had, because Paris had agreed in the Gordon-Bennett race. What shall I write, what shall I tell, it was simply great, an overwhelming impression, its all true, but its not the whole truth. Once across Paris in a balloon or a night with Claudia Schiffer? I'd prefer the balloon flight across Paris. It was a pity, that at 2:00 a.m. the Eiffel Tower switched off its lights. So we could only see the shadow of the symbol of this town when we passed it in a distance of 800 meters. What a town! The controller of CDG gave us a farewell at 4:30 a.m. with a clearance for up to FL 70. Far behind of Paris in the north north-west, I could see a very high radio-tower about 1,5 kilometers ahead of me. The moon had set and the terrain was hilly. Bernd had been so impressed by the night crossing of Paris, that he slept well and deep now. Our Columbus IV flew absolutely stable in 400 meters above ground and requested all of my attention, because it was difficult to estimate the heights of the woody hills. The radio tower was exactly in our track, but I was 100 meters lower. Nothing helped, I had to climb higher, out of the stable layer, and I had to do this quickly, because we were approaching fast. I dumped two bags, at 900 meters the climb finished. Unfortunately, also our speed was gone. From 20 km/h at 400 meters down to 4 km/h at 1100 meters. We stood exactly above the tower and nothing moved. I put the setting of the alarm altimeter to 750 meters and waited for the morning. During the morning, the heading turned more to north north-west, which would mean, that our flight would either end at the Atlantic coast in the early evening, or that we could fly on to Great Britain with a jump of 110 kilometers across the Channel. We had covered just 330 kilometers, not enough to win a Gordon Bennett Race. Some reports said, that two balloons had flown far to the south. Do we have a chance?These two balloons had covered a distance of at least 600 to 800 kilometers. Unbeatably ahead, as we thought. So we enjoyed the flight over France and waited for more weather reports. For this, we listened to the HF radio, aircraft radio talks and got messages from my wife Claudias (not Schiffer) GB-headquarter in Duisburg. We did not want to rely any longer on weather calculations, made by a computer. The forecasts of the winds were only 10% correct, and the expected track of a balloon is the only determining element. In the afternoon, we made some considerations about climbing to use the wind in higher altitudes for a flight to the Netherlands or Denmark. But the result of our calculations was, that we had to face a crossing of the TMA of Amsterdam. So we could not expect a clearance and could not land at night, we dropped these ideas and decided to fly to England. Surface wind in England was 160° to 180° with 7 to 10 knots. This would give us an opportunity, to fly up to Scotland. A chance, we had to take. This opportunity was also confirmed by the weather-reports, my friend Klaus Stukovnik got from London and Manchester and which my wife Claudia mailed to us by SMS. We are bound for England
The decision was made at 4:00 p.m.that we would fly to England. We
had still 30 bags of ballast left - enough for two days. At Le Tréport
we crossed the French coastline in 200 meters altitude with a heading
of 345° and 22 km/h. To reach England, we had to cross 113 kilometers
of water. That should be possible. We received a message, that Thomas
Hora and Volker Löschhorn were also on their way to England. But we
had not seen them, even with a visibility of more than 50 kilometers.
After three hours of sailing above the water, we realized, that England
could not be reached for sure. There was only one opportunity left:
up to high altitudes and to try to reach the Netherlands, Denmark or
Norway. Using the GPS 195, the chances were calculated quickly. Norway
was 850 kilometers away, Denmark 660 kilometers and the Netherlands
325 kilometers. At 3000 meters we missed the north tip of France at
Calais and flew on a course of 43° and 22 kilometers to the Northeast.
We knew, this would become a long journey over water. The balloon had
stabilized and the cooling at night did cost us only five bags, so we
could continue a stable flight at 3000 meters with 16 bags. At 10:00
p.m., nothing would change anymore. Now we only had to hold out - and
I was dead tired. For two and a half hours, I had a good sleep over
the sea and was quite happy, when Bernd could report, that the balloon
was continuing with 50° and 24 km/h without any dumping of ballast.
A calming feeling. It had become quite could, not more than 3°C. This
happened for the first time during this race, which already lasted for
53 hours. A down filled sleeping bag and moon boots helped to withstand
the cold. The airspace was empty and free, so we made our way to the
northeast in the sky all alone. Balloon COLUMBUS, Bernd, me and the
sea - we had no doubts about a happy end at any time. If this happy
end would also mean another victory in this most important balloon race,
was a different question. The reports, where that the best pilots in
the world and their balloons had landed, had not been confirmed yet.
We reached our first waypoint, the Netherlands, at 7:30 a.m. In 3000
meters, we crossed the vacation island of Texel. We had not realized,
that the German team Hora/Löschhorn, having competed agressively and
with a good feeling, had to splash down to the North Sea below us the
night before. I had called them several times on our balloons frequency,
but the team had decided to use another one and also totally relied
on their fully electronically equipped ground crew. Unfortunately, you
can't believe everything, that comes out of these miraculous boxes.
Someone, who calculates, makes mistakes, and someone, who calculates
a lot, makes a lot of mistakes.
After many hours, we managed to make contact with Claudia. We had not been able to file a message for 8 hours. Over Texel, we were visited by a Dutch fighter plane. At once, we called Dutch Mil and learned, that today military exercises were planned over the North Sea. Using our transponder and with great help from Bremen airport, the fighters could fly their training around us. Distance and speed had improved to 60° with 53 km/h. In a quick flight, we approached Denmark. We were a little frightened by the clouds, that came up at 9:00 a.m. The sun warmed up the gas and Columbus IV slowly climbed up to 4000 meters, above the cu clouds. Helgoland - what a view from 3800 meters - was right below us. Soon it had become noon, and we could still count 16 bags. For 16 hours, we had used no ballast. This changed, when we were hit by the first shadow of a cloud at 4000 meters. We had struggled forward from a distance of 280 kilometers to 600 kilometers. But still quite a good distance was missing for the victory. After a trip of 21 hours over water, we met mainland again at St.Peter - Ording. But the next water crossing was shortly ahead. We crossed Schleswig-Holstein with 72° and 63 km/h and went on for Denmark - hopping from one island to the next one. ATC Bremen handled us over to Copenhagen, where we also received a warm welcome. Thunderstorms 50 kilometers behind us
We had one goal - Sweden. To reach this goal, we had to fly on with high speed. This wind speed was only available at high altitudes. With 80 km/h at 4200 meters, we had reached our maximum. The clouds became darker, the mood in the basket worse, and when Copenhagen reported a CB cloud 50 kilometers behind us, we were close to the decision to land. But in front of us, the weather was good, and so we made difficult decision, to risk the jump of 80 kilometers across the water to Sweden. Below us, we could see 1 to 2 eighths of clouds drifting quickly to the North, even lower to the West. At 4300 meters we flew East with 70 km/h. Freighters and ferries on the sea showed white crests, indicating a fast surface wind. But Copenhagen reported only 10 knots. This could be managed, if the weather would stay friendly to us. Once we went lower, to test the direction. But with 40 km/h in 18° it was too far to the North. As quick as possible, we wanted to have land below us and touch down, because weather wasn't improving. Below the clouds, visibility was 50 kilometers and more, but it wasn't fast enough. GPS indicated 18 kilometers left for Sweden. Something, that could be done. At 1500 meters, it went on to Sweden at 55 km/h. So we climbed again. Copenhagen had much air traffic, but thanks to a flawlessly performing transponder mode charley, we could continue without any orders. We had only 7 bags left, meaning reduced controlling possibilities. The landing
K.W. Becker and D. Rudolph picked us up two days later at the ferry in Travemünde. This was followed by a well prepared awards ceremony in Belgium. From me, a warm thank-you to all, who made this victory possible by their support and help. Soft landings - we'll meet again in September 2001 in Germany for the 45th Gordon-Bennett-Race. The results
|
|
OTHER ARTICLES OF ASI JANUARY 2001 ISSUE
From The Secretary General's Desk | Air Waves | | News In Brief | Letters To The Editor | World Records | | EAA Honours Nine by Inducting them into their Halls of Fame | | Across 7 Countries in 70 Hours | | The Pacific Adventure | | Gyps Africanus | 
More articles on Ballooning |
Finally,
we had reached Sweden. We decided to fly on for another 4 kilometers,
because below us, the wind turned 180° back to the sea. Then we wanted
to make a quick descend. But the balloon did not want to go down. The
thunderstorm cells in Copenhagen created up drafts, and so I had to
force the balloon. That is something, which may normally not be done,
but what else could we do? Strong pulls on the vent line made the fall
increase up to 5 meters per second. Ballast for the touch down was there,
but this touch down had to fit. At 1000 meters we were heading towards
the huge town of Malmö, 2 kilometers away. Shit, a landing there will
not work. So, down in a hurry, to use the ground wind to the South,
away from the town. We found this wind at 500 meters, but in front of
us was a huge quarry. We didn't want to enter there. At 200 meters still
a 4.5 meters per second fall. Between us and the quarry there was a
huge meadows, superb, if it works. It did not work out. With about 4
meters per second we landed five meters behind the fence on the first
terrace of the quarry. Our special ballast to reduce the fall speed,
normally a proven technique, had failed. The trail-rope and our life
raft of 20 kilograms hang just 20 meters under the basket. The rope
of 50 meters had not untangled in the hectic rush of the landing. It
wasn't long enough to level out the fall of 4.5 meters/second. After
the landing two bags of sand were left. One completely full, the other
one in the apron outside the basket. The impact was hard, very hard.
The surface wind of 40 km/h pulled us on to the next terrace. That wasn't
nice, but it was a good ending. Only a few haematomas and lost eye-glasses,
but the winning of the Gordon Bennett Cup 2000 was worth it.
