Oranjemund Online

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS! => What grabbed me in the news today => Topic started by: Rhona on October 02, 2008, 06:28:11 PM

Title: Balloon man..........
Post by: Rhona on October 02, 2008, 06:28:11 PM
Does anyone know whatever happened to that priest who took a balloon flight for charity and just dissapeared - I think he took off with a load of helium balloons and then nothing..........
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: SandyB on October 02, 2008, 06:30:32 PM
That still remains a mystery  ,, maybe  he did the Icarus thing ... as the wax on the wings melted as he got closer to the sun  so did the ballons pop as altitude got higher  ??
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: Mike Stenson (RIP) on October 02, 2008, 06:33:16 PM
Was on the news a couple of weeks ago......found floating in the sea with his balloons...dead.
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: Michael Alexander on October 02, 2008, 06:33:42 PM
That was in Brazil.......   
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: Michael Alexander on October 02, 2008, 06:34:36 PM
What did he die from? Drowning? Altitude Sickness?
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: Mike Stenson (RIP) on October 02, 2008, 06:35:55 PM
Two priests ?
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: SandyB on October 02, 2008, 06:37:28 PM
Two Priests ... ??
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: Rhona on October 02, 2008, 06:39:18 PM
Had his balloons popped?
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: barb (Fry) on October 02, 2008, 07:05:17 PM
I'm told by my educated friends that Helium expands the higher the altitude so the balloons would definitely POP and then he'd fall....... fast !
He obviously didn't do his science homework.
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: Rhona on October 02, 2008, 07:09:24 PM
Oh my......so that is what happened to our priest
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: SandyB on October 02, 2008, 07:13:06 PM
Unfortunately from  " nearer my god to thee " it changed into a  dive of obviously awful  proportions  and consequences ...  why did nobody in the know stop him ??
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: Michael Alexander on October 02, 2008, 07:44:45 PM
A flying priest....are they allowed to do that? I thought that was reserved for the angels?

fantasy-18
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: Diana Rudd (Boehme) on October 02, 2008, 10:14:02 PM
Oh Blessed be He.... fantasy-18
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: barb (Fry) on October 03, 2008, 07:57:17 AM
Well my apologies, my even more educated friend Google has informed me that cluster ballooning is a eccentric extreme sport - not many followers due to the difficulty the "pilot" has with control.
Anyway the priest is still missing although his cluster of balloons where found in the ocean. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7360416.stm

Links for interested parties  http://www.clusterballoon.org/
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: Dalene Steenkamp (Coetzee) on October 03, 2008, 10:12:32 AM
Sort of the same story was on Discovery some time ago  -  a guy from a small town somewhere in the state of Tennessee took off in a garden chair  -  elevated out of sight.  About an hour later a Boeing 747 pilot that was dropping in altitude to go in for the landing at a nearby big city airport, radio'd the controll tower to rapport that at 4000 ft they had just passed a guy on a garden chair with a lot of balloons tied to it and this bloke still waved at them...  He had a BB gun with him and shot at the balloons  -  later found him still in his chair  -  well and alive, entangled in some telephone or electic cables  (he had caused a power-out and was charged for that!)
Title: Re: Balloon man..........
Post by: Michael Alexander on October 03, 2008, 10:35:47 AM
Mmmmmh! I wonder how long it would take me to travel from Omund to Cape Town in a Balloon CHair for the weekend!   23_146_26