Big Blimpin'

In case you were wondering what has been keeping us away lately... we have good excuses...

...Like that fact that the PGA Tournament is in town! This means that the small airport by our new house has been incredibly busy lately. There are private planes (I imagine with little tiny putting greens in them) buzzing overhead constantly. I drive by the airport every morning and night, so I am always on the lookout for new things (the newness hasn't turned into annoyance just yet). Well, this past week there was something too big to miss: Blimps!

Every day my interest grew. It started with, "cool, a blimp!", then escalated to, "I need to see that...", and finally, after spending my entire morning commute debating the internal workings of a blimp, I sat at my desk and peered out my office window. Lo and behold, the MetLife Blimp. Bobbling around like a toy in a bathtub, a literal sign in the sky. "I need to be inside of that."

Within the hour I had a date set up with Snoopy 1.

So there we were this past Saturday morning, tromping through the wet grass along the runway, with the already gigantic airship growing ever larger. It hung there, attached to a mast, just like a huge balloon. It floated around, bouncing in the wind, while we spent the next two hours grilling the pilot, Alex, with all of our inquiries. You would be surprised how much you never knew about blimps.

Now, you know me well enough by now to realize I had done some fairly extensive research on the topic before I ran out into the field and climbed into it. I knew there were somewhere between 13 and 42 similar blimps in the world. I knew there was a bag-in-a-bag concept that made it float. I knew that their primary responsibility was aerial coverage for sporting events, not flying around inquisitive little women.

In addition to the clarification that there are probably closer to 13 than 42 blimps in the world, Alex was able to answer every question we could come up with and then some. So the four of us, James and our friends and I, got to grilling.

MetLife has three blimps in the entire world: Snoopy 1 & 2, and Snoopy J (based in Japan). We were visiting Snoopy 1, more like Snoopy 1 version 2.0. The original Snoopy 1 was the longest flying aircraft in history at 25 years in the air and over 30,000 hours in flight. Surprisingly, only retired because the gondola needed updated. Snoopy 1 (version 2) has been in flight since January of this year, so it was just a wee baby blimp!

The blimps are more commonly called airships, and understandably so - as they operate more like submarines than airplanes. The propellers on the back push air behind them, like a boat propeller, as opposed to pulling the air through, like a plane.

They also fly from one event to another and are working almost every single day of the year! The longest flying time recorded in a blimp was a day and a half. Our pilot's personal record was 16 hours with a co-pilot, and 13 hours solo flying. There is also a crew of around 14 guys tracking the blimp from the ground, and to help land and take off, if the pilots need a pit stop. They don't need an airport to land, so wouldn't that be nice to come outside and find a blimp in your backyard? They only need room to set up the mast to hold it, and enough space for the blimp to rotate around the mast 360 degrees at will.

We walked round and round the airship, inspecting every inch and staring, wide-eyed at the massive ship floating 15 feet above our heads. They can fly up to 10,000 feet in the air, but typically hover around 1,000 feet, so everyone can read the sides.  The outer "envelope" is filled with helium. The balloon (ballonet) on the inside is filled with regular air from the outside to increase or decrease the altitude (the air is heavier than helium so an increase in air would bring the blimp down). The wind doesn't do too much, since they cannot fly in bad weather, but what the pilots watch out for are thermals - rising gusts of hot air that surge and twirl. When you see a blimp bobbling around like I did at work, chances are it is a thermal causing it.

They can fly up to around 65 miles an hour (with a good tailwind), but the average speed is 35 miles an hour. If you're like me you are thinking that's a really long air-trip from here to Chicago...

While we were pondering more questions we were able to grab hold of a rope attached to the car on the blimp and give it a tug. At 75 pounds lighter than air, it didn't take too much tugging. The blimp slowly came towards us. The steps folded out and James and I were able to climb aboard! The first thing I noticed was there was no steering wheel! You steer the blimp much like you would a wheelchair. Some are automated, but this one still contains the simple design. You roll forward to point the nose down, and backward to point the nose up. The direction is controlled by foot pedals. Seems simple enough! Our pilot explained that it is one of the first controllable flying technologies, but they are constantly still being studied. If that wasn't simple enough, it also takes regular 93 octane gasoline.

So while we were floating around in the car, I started to ponder some more... being my realistic self I started to think of all of the terrible things that could happen at 10,000 feet above ground. Here are some of the reassurances: There are static wands to divert electricity if the blimp gets struck by lightening; yes, the blimp has been shot before (somewhere between California and Tennessee) but the air leak is so slow that it is unnoticeable; um, no, they have never sucked a bird into the engine (most birds see it coming and have plenty of time to fly around...); and no, there are no parachutes on board.

Are you ready for some randomly assorted fun facts now? I thought so... The car is only attached to the blimp by cables, so imagine if there was some slack in the envelope... The mast that the blimp is attached to when grounded can withstand winds of up to 100mph. This was one of the only blimps that can be fully illuminated for night time flying. The blimp gets a bath with regular soap and water. Our pilot has never thrown a paper airplane out of the window and does not recommend it. He has also never jumped up and down while in flight (we wanted to know if the blimp would go up and down, too, but we decided the force created from pushing off would negate the sudden loss of weight).

Airship pilots cover hundreds of thousands of miles in the air, cover every major sporting event you can imagine (from foot races to NFL games, to, obviously, the PGA tournament), the most amazing thing our pilot, Alex, has seen from the air would be Tokyo from above. Don't worry, we've requested they come back for the Kentucky Derby.

All in all, there are only around 13 blimps in the world at any given time, and this one can only hold 4 people at a time - depending on their size, I am so thrilled to say that I am one of the privileged few who have stepped foot, and then floated above ground (IT COUNTS!), in a blimp! Think of us the next time you see Snoopy 1 traipsing past your high rise window, or lazily hanging above your baseball game.

We have to thank MetLife for making it so easy to achieve this feat and being so willing to work with their fans. I have even been told that if you tweet them and ask, and they are in the area, then don't be surprised to see the blimp circling your backyard bbq.

Of course, we also owe a huge THANK YOU to our pilot, Alex, who didn't bat an eye at any of our million questions, and was ready and willing with answers to all of them. We hope to see you again in May!

Finally, a blimp does not actually make the sound "blimp!" when flicked. You're welcome.