Got To Fly In The Balloon Today!

I went down and helped crew the ballon today and I was fortunate enough to get to fly in it today. It was very peaceful and was really cool to see Mesquite from the air. Chris the owner and pilot did a great job flying the balloon. We had a feather soft landing in a section of the Tractor Supply parking lot. It was great weather for flying today (very little breeze).

If you ever get the chance to fly in a hot air balloon it is very cool. Very similar to parasailing

I am going to help them again tomorrow morning. Below is a short video I took during the flight.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/ae88ba_98052204aa5e40dda93e2525ec3a0df5/360p/mp4/file.mp4

When I got home and reflected on it. I don't know if Jennifer would have done it or not. She might have surprised me and done it, she had flown a fair bit in helicopters over the years so it was not like she had not flown a lot but I doubt she would have done it. She liked watching them but had no big desire to fly in one.

For what ever reason it got me reflecting on our first year working in Lafayette, Louisiana and got me chuckling. Since we were going to be doing work offshore we had to go through Marine Survival Training. This was a pretty intensive hands on course. We had to get in a pool with work type clothing on and learn various techniques for surviving in the water if a platform or rig was on fire and you had to evacuate it and how to egress from a helicopter if it crashed in the water.

During one part of the course, you had to don a life vest and jump of a elevated platform (simulating jumping off a platform or rig). You were supoosed to cross your legs and cross your arms and step out off the platform. Once you hit that water with that life vest on you are like a cork and you get rocketed back to the surface.

The first time Jennifer did it she let out a big scream and her technique was a little weak (she did not keep,her legs crossed) and she swallowed a good bit of the pool when she hit the water. So the instructor made her do it a second time She did fine the second time, but she was not happy about doing it a second time.

There was also a section where you learned how to egress from a helicopter if it crashed in the water. They would put three people in this crude simulator device (they have much more realistic ones now that use actual helicopter body frames). The one we did it in was three hard plastic bucket type seats (kind of like the seats you see in a school). These seats were mounted on a pole and the pole and seats were supported by a frame with a crude section that simulated a door. Each seat had a seat belt like you would wear on the helicopter. The technique was to put on hand on a reference point to the closest door of the aircraft and the other hand on your seat belt buckle before you crashed into the water.

Now the class we were in was a class that was made up of a bunch of contract drilling company roughnecks and Jennifer and I. She was the only female in the class.

Anyway it comes time for Jennifer to do her turn in the helicopter egress excercise and she get paired with two of the drilling guys. Both guys were pretty big guys and Jennifer gets put into seat farthest from the simulated helicopter door. You are supposed unbuckle and try and egress in a orderly fashion.

So you get in your seat and you buckle up and get your bearings (hand on reference point closest to the door and hand on your seat belt buckle). The instructors then turn you over backwards and you are supposed to unbuckle your seatbelt and then egress in a orderly fashion. When they roll you over backwards it get you disoriented and water goes up your nose. It is a pretty wild feeling.

Well Jennifer's groups gets rolled over and Jennifer unbuckles herself and she doesn't give a shit about orderly egress. She claws her way right over the backs of the two guys and gets her ass out of that simulated helicopter door. I think she actually scratched one of the guys pretty good. Fortunately he was a good sport about it. The instructors did not make her redo that section. I don't think they would have gotten two guys to volunteer get in the simulator with her after seeing her first performance.

The second day of the class we went out to a small pond where they had survival capsules and we learned how to safely launch them and then how to drive them. She did pretty good in that section and we both passed.

Over the years we had some good laughs about that course and she would get that sheepish grin on her face when we talked about her getting out of the helicopter simulator.