Ticking Along

So been ticking along with the balloon. Sadly its either all throttle or nothing at all. Some days i sit down at the machine and smash out a 10 panels. Others everything goes wrong and i put it down for a week. Friday's seems to be the day for progress however that can be totally ruined with issues coming up or the folder not playing ball.

My basket has shipped from England. Its a pretty 77 T&C to go with some V-30's and my Stratus single. Should be a nice set up once i have finished modernizing a couple of the components. Ill be a busy man sewing up new everything. One thing my dad has taught me is always look after and be proud of your gear. So it will be locked away getting it right before it gets put into action.

On the sewing front i had a very productive day managing to sew 15 panels yesterday which put me to a total of 65 panels also known as 1/4. If everything plays ball we should get a couple more done today. Katie is righting my wrongs by taking each row of panels out of the individual gore rolls

On the sewing machine front the machine sometimes goes out when new bobbins are added which is no hassle. Its just a minor adjustment to get it running good again. As you can see the cotton has left behind sections of white fluff which is coating on the thread. Not sure how this will affect the balloon. I am guessing once heat is applied it will help fill any holes from where the needles have punctured. So far this hasn't affected the machine and doubt it will create an issue. Only thing is you cant go flat out on the machine which isnt an issue for me.

There are two ways to sew a balloon, horizontally or vertically. So what is the difference?
Vertically you sew together A-B-C-D to complete a gore which was the original plan and creates less clutter because you can store a gore once its complete (Big plus with the space i am working with).
Horizontally you sew the balloon left to right (A-B-A-B-A-B) but everything stays as individual gores. The big let down is space is tight because you are working on large sections of fabric for long periods of time but you know where to tension each panel to make it fit together better and you end up mastering a row. Another big plus is you can grab one sequence of panels and the next panel you are sewing and just grab whats in the heap.

I guess you can say the first balloon is the hardest as with any firsts but after the amount of set backs and knowledge i have gained the next one whenever that happens will be a breeze.

The barrier has been broken!

As i have said time and time again. Building a balloon to me is about 4 main barriers. These are making templates (Initiation of the project etc), cutting fabric, sewing fabric and all the finishing jobs to get it ready for inflation. As many of you know i have gotten hung up on the sewing part for a while now until just recently.

Towards the end of last week i sat down at the machine and played around a little bit. Managed to do a couple of seams which turned out well. Got the machine running right so i was a happy camper. With i guess ballooning firing in my gut recently i have more drive than ever before because its finally coming together. I guess you could say i see the light at the end of the tunnel and sadly for me the only thing stopping me is some hard work!

So after a couple hours of thinking it over i finally sat down at the machine and started sewing the balloon. The folder is annoying at first but once you start a panel it is an amazing tool for the novice sewer.

Actually, talking of sewing a balloon isn't sewn it is more like "industrial bonded". The reason for this is with sewing its all about beauty and it being tidy. On the slip side you have industrial bonding which is all about strength and if its tidy i guess that's a bonus. Luckily for us balloons are massive and even the professionally built balloons are filled with minor "blemishes". 

Over the years i have come to realize balloons are over engineered as i guess with all aircraft any anything you want to last for a significant amount of time. I guess things built in the 1950's are a testament to things being over engineered or built well. With that being said i have changed my mindset on how my balloon is built, Not to say it is unsafe or a weak balloon its just within parameters of tolerance and minor "blemishes" should don't affect strength.

So anyway on to what i have done over the last little while. I have managed to put together all panels A-B and halfway through B-C as of today. The machine has had some minor issues but have managed to work out most of the issues. I hope by the end i will still consider building another balloon because the next one will be super easy compared to the wealth of knowledge i have gained so far!

All Ballooned Out!

Haven't posted recently as we have been very busy over the past couple of months. First we had Wairarapa which was an amazing time and It was a great first fiesta for me followed by Waikato. Had a great time at both and felt comfortable flying with balloons around me.  

While I was in Masterton we had to get some repairs done so I met a great guy also interested in building a balloon which will turn out to be a great point of contact for me i believe. 

Lead onto Waikato where I managed to score Mitch for a few hours. We managed to sew the first panel which turned out to not be the case soon after. I found a minor screw up where I hadn't measured one side of the template right which meant I had to cut a whole new set. Luckily we managed to get out of way prior to Canowindra. 

Just before Canowindra I cut a deal to buy the last single Stratus ever made which is a bit special. It has less than 10 hours use and you can even see the bottom colour of the can. 

I picked it up in Canowindra and had a little bit of a play. So why did I buy a stratus? Its a powerful burner which all liquid set up. Vapor pilot lights to me don't really have an upside so having less hose is great. Secondly fuel, in NZ we have a horrible fuel mixture which means modern burners struggle to keep filters clean resulting in failures. In recent years i have seen this a couple times so hopefully the Stratus will chew through it.  Lastly the burner came with a mount for a firefly which is a bonus.

With one piece of bottom end sorted i now look to sort the basket and tanks.

Fiesta Season

So with fiesta season nearing i have been busy clocking up hours. Katie's balloon has a fresh airworthiness certificate so i have been giving strata some flight time as a "helpful boyfriend". Haven't flown it in 8 months so it was defiantly an experience.

A couple of things have happened in the last month. I finally sat down at the sewing machine and made a little bit of progress. The sewing machine is now set up for 4 layers of nylon. Its a hell of a process to dial it in but once its done in theory you shouldn't need to touch it. My scrap piece of fabric shows the amount of work involved in getting the tension right.

It has taken me another month to sit down again at the machine after getting everything right. I have now moved onto practicing my folding skills with the assistance of the folder. I have a few choice words to say about the french lap seam however i wont put those in writing. The professionals make it look easy but i guess it will be like riding a bicycle. After my first attempt i decided to test the strength of everything. Had the sewn fabric over a bar with my hanging and it didn't even phase it! Throw into the mix 1100kg break strain load tape and you can understand balloons are over engineered.

Sadly i have only spent about half an hour at the machine trying to fold but leading into fiesta season its time to start focusing on everything regarding flying. Looking forward to making my debut as a pilot at Wiararapa and Balloons over Waikato. I have senior pilots stepping aside to let me take their balloons out which is very daunting but its going to be a great experience and i just hope i can meet their expectations.
I have some new bits of kit in my pilot bag that i am looking forward to getting some use out of around fiesta season. Might have to do a bag breakdown at some point.

Hello 2015

Well 2014 is finally finished which is a good reason to give an update on the balloon. In December i finished up cutting the final nylon panels of the balloon. I still have a roll of nomex to cut however that will be cut later once all 20 gores have been assembled. There are a few reasons for this but the main one being nomex frays easily and the less movement it has before sewing the cleaner and easier it will be to sew. The other reason leans more towards the frustration of cutting it out.

On top of this i placed an order with Cameron Balloons for crown rings and temp flags before i left for Japan which also arrived in December. I received one last item since my last update which was a borrowed seam folder. With that crucial piece i have no excuse to not sew the balloon. I guess this is part of my procrastination but i believe once i sit down at the machine ill get a little bit done.

The panels have been sorted into their gores which will make it easier sew once i tune in the sewing machine and start the sewing of the balloon. As i have mentioned time and time again everything with balloons is super-sized including the time taken to organize everything. Took me a couple of nights just to label each corner and sort the individual panels into gores.

Finally at the end of small projects

Alright so i am procrastinating leading into a test on Friday which will be closely followed by packing for Japan which i will be leaving for in the early hours of Saturday morning.

I figured i have been crazy busy with a variety of jobs that i should probably do a quick update before i head off to Japan. We have finally finished all the tank covers including Katie's balloon which got some love while it was at my place for a couple days along with the truck which had its brake system replaced. We are 100% ready for ballooning season and ready to clock up some hours to participate in Balloons Over Waikato in March.

So while Strata was at my place we managed to fit and finish all the tank covers. Along with varnishing the floor, installed the wrapped instrument panel, repainting the firefly symbol, installing a new floor mat and several other fixes while it was pull apart. It was a really productive weekend and maintenance weekends on your kit are really beneficial to keeping everything up to par.

With all that kind of stuff out of the way it puts me in a hard spot to put off progress on the balloon. So i am guessing once i get back from Japan i will be pushing to progress with the last little section of cutting and the sewing side of it all. A couple weeks ago me and Neil managed to cut 20 panels and make a pattern which is a poor effort but considering we only planned on completing a pattern it was a productive day none the less.

So at this point we have panels A,B,F and O (Nomex) to cut then cutting will be done and i can organize it all and start sewing the gores. I will get there eventually and BOW 2015 won't be the debt of Poison Ivy but it might see a test inflation if i really get my shit together which is a tall ask.

Back pedaling with balloon progress

Since my last post we screwed up the template we were doing which was annoying but it has to be perfect. We now have some more suitable tools like a long length of box section which will help covering those distances of panel F which is one of the biggest panels.

So we haven't attempted to cut out a new template so we are not progressing at all on that front. With an assignment and test coming up i will be focusing on class work with planning for Japan on the side which i leave for on the 25th which is the day after i have my final test of my degree (hopefully).

Alright that is enough negative, lets talk about what i have managed to achieve in the last month or so since my last post. Alright so i haven't managed to get a single inquiry for tank straps but i couldn't care less. Rebecca has been over and working on the tank covers. At this point she has finished the two Kav 55l Tanks and now working on the Worthingtons of Katie's. At this point we have sewn together one electric blanket and still have to remove and sew the other two once we are ready to sort out the positions of plug holes and where the pockets will sit.

The tank covers are only one part of sorting out Katie bottom end. The images below are of the new shortened tie-off i have sewn up for those occasions that a shortened tie-off might be more suitable i.e. windy inflations. Also having a spare might come in handy.

Next item on the cards was wrapping Strata's instrument panel with some carbon fibre wrap to pretty it up a little bit.

It hasn't made its way back into the balloon yet but that will probably happen once we get ready to fly again or pull it apart to sort the pockets on the new tank covers however with Japan only 4 weeks away it may have to wait.

One of the little projects i did one night while Rebecca was working on the tank covers a took a leaf out of my friend Mitch's book and made a pocket to throw commonly used tools to keep them out of the way but not out of reach. What can also be seen it the very new looking switch which i got with the brushless motor i got this week. I decided to swap over from a clutch motor because the clutch motor runs continuously and when you push the pedal it contacts the full throttle motor Because of this it makes the clutch motor a little bit 1950's. With the new motor the machine is a lot easier to control, quieter and more energy efficient. Bonus marks for my light plugging straight into the switch box. Hopefully spending the money on a new motor will save me some time with unpicking.

Its looking like once i am back from Japan i will be busy with the general Christmas rush and clocking up hours so i can fly in Balloons over Waikato. I will hopefully find some time to sew finish off cutting and start sewing. Once i get the sewing down i will hopefully knock out a large amount of the balloon but then again we will see because it seems like every post covers the same wrap up.