Jonathan Trappe, Cluster Balloonist

Jonathan Trappe is a sort of super-hero to some children and a crazy man to some adults. We found him inspirational. Trappe is licensed to fly beneath a group of homemade helium filled balloons. That means his aircraft is one of the most structurally redundant vehicles in the sky. But it's also challenging to fly. Trappe controls his direction by varying his altitude. He can drop water ballast or stab balloons with a knife to alter his buoyancy as he flies. Wind direction can vary with altitude and Trappe uses that to his advantage, adjusting his present reality to the forecast conditions. To stay visible to controllers and aircraft, Trappe carries a radio and transponder, making him visible on radar. For visual avoidance, Trappe relies mainly on the 50 foot brightly colored canopy of balloons above his head. At night, he uses lights.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• jonathan
• trappe
• cluster
• balloon
• helium
• flight
• lawnchair
• pilot
• oshkosh
• lake
• michigan

[yamacparasutcu]

türkiyede bende böyle uçuş yapacam rekorunu kıracam. bana derler halo dayı helyum balonuyla uçacaktır

[fivequotes]

i love baloons

[01235639]

Where is this?

[Koreelah1]

A wonderful experience for the pilot and we observers, but let's consider whether we can really afford to do this. I presume the lifting gas is not hydrogen; if it is then all power to them, because there is no shortage of the stuff. If the lifting gas is helium then I wonder how our children will view this incredibly wasteful use of a disappearing resource. Yep, that's right, disappearing, not recyclable. This gas just keeps rising, until it drifts out into space.

[NEWYORKNEWYORK7]

you are hero ! take me with you < i rather fly with ballons than crowded american airlines ahaa

[zildjiandrummr12]

Haha, saw this guy depart from Oshkosh at night. Let's just say it was this way.

"No way... there can't be a person in those balloons floating towards the water...No."

[Bagels108]

I love this guy. What an incredible idea

[gdsnuff]

Cool, but careful with the birds.

[TheophilusPWildbeest]

He's a genius - I wanna have a go.

[srstacy]

"The best I can tell, this is the aircraft" LOL!