Riding The Goodyear Blimp At AirVenture

By Chris Batcheller

Every once in a while you get to do something truly amazing. This week I got the chance to take a ride in the Goodyear Blimp that has been a staple of AirVenture for so many years.  

Here it was, the start of AirVenture and I was caught up in the ho hum of it all. Press conferences, writing, pictures - repeat. AirVenture is always in overdrive with product announcements, industry news and updates from the alphabet soup agencies (EAA, FAA, AOPA and the like). We were covering a lot of exciting stuff, but somehow it felt routine.

Then I got a call from our editor Tom. 'Can you be at the museum for 1:45? I've got you a slot on the blimp' he said. Now your talking! I blurted out the quickest 'no problem' I could muster. I started to scurry to the EAA museum, located on the edge of pioneer field. Apparently the boss 'Zoom' had made a phone call or two and managed to get me into the flight roster earlier that morning.

After everyone on the flight arrived we were whisked out to the blimp in the Goodyear van.  The pole that the blimp is tethered too was lying flat and the number one engine was running. What seemed like an infinite crew were holding onto the mighty blimp with ropes and by hand holds on the gondola. A detachable latter awaited us. Later I found out that they need a minimum of 13 ground crew for operations and today we had 20 plus crew. 

We all jumped put of the van and corralled by the door. One by one we were motioned by the ground crew to make our way out to the blimp. I was the third one out and juggled my camera bag, two cameras, cell phone and HD video camera as I scrambled up the ladder. 8 or 10 ground crew folks were holding onto the gondola and two of them helped me up inside.

Once in, I made my way to the back bench and tried to get all my gear situated. The Aero-News TV crew wanted video and I wasn't going to miss getting some great shots over the show grounds! Not to mention, I just couldn't resist posting pictures to my Facebook page from my cell phone.

Soon everyone was settled in. The number 2 engine cranked up and soon we were off. With a quick bounce, the blimp was up, and away. Whoooaaa the nose pointed skyward and we began to climb. I didn't expect that deck angle! Our Pilot Matt St. John later told me that the blimp climbs and descends between 1600 to 2200 fpm. Sitting in the back of the gondola, it felt like about 30 degrees nose up!

Soon we were floating effortlessly above Oshkosh with both engines humming along. There was very little vibration, only a slight bit could be felt in the airframe. We flew out of the airport area and into the Wisconsin countryside. Up front, Matt was giving an interview to a Milwaukee based televisions crew while listening to the air boss and the chatter from controllers.

The blimp is controlled with throttles, rudder peddles and a very large pitch wheel. The helium in the envelope is transferred using valves that are controlled by pull controls just in front of the pilots head.

I got the chance to switch to the right seat up front. The TV camera guy and I swapped places and I found the view from the front to be truly exceptional. About this time we made our way back over the air show grounds for a few laps.

Sticking my camera lens out the open window was meet with almost no resistance. I'm used to 80 or 100 knots of wind pushing back on the lens. I was mashing the button on my Canon capturing every bit of AirVenture I could. After several laps we made the approach into Pioneer Field.

Matt pitched the nose down and drove the big blimp into the landing zone. As we got close, what seemed like an entire pro football team began to run toward us. They were after the two ropes that had been dangling from our nose the entire flight. They caught the ropes and began to pull us in. We touched down and the ground crew grabbed onto the gondola. We all exited the blimp and made our way toward the Goodyear Van. I never did see the other passengers file in, but in a matter of what seemed like a minute or two the mighty blimp was off again with a new load of passengers.

The Goodyear Blimp is a truly exceptional aviation experience. I know it was hard for me to wipe the smile off my face for the rest of the day!  Be sure to check out the jump below, Goodyear has put together a great site with tons of information on the fleet and their operations. Oh and you can see the video as the opening shot of Aero-TV At Oshkosh 2010: Looking Back At Day Three.

FMI: http://www.goodyearblimp.com