tandem jump from balloon

[skyrado 1]

Hello to all tandem instructors over the world!
Recently I've received an offer to jump from the balloon with passenger!
Does anybody make that kind of jumps anywhere?
If you do ,How do you make the exit(can I say that?)from the balloon?
Thank you in advance!
Radek

[dragon2 2]

click

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[skyrado 1]

Thank you very much for the pictures!
Maybe I will try to jump from balloon!

[SPAWNmaster 0]

I am not a TI nor am I an instructor of any kind but I do have an opinion. Here are some observations-

The very head-up attitude on exit seems to be extremely effective for this tandem couple.

With more weight on the front, in a dead air exit it's more important to leave with a head-high attitude to avoid pitching down.

Too high will result in a sit or on your back.

With no or very little airspeed I think that a drogue would be less efficient and possibly a hazard without a small delay (perhaps around 2 seconds?).

Altitude and spot will also need more consideration given the nature of balloon jumps and the specialty of a tandem from this aircraft as well.

I hope there is some video of this if/when you do it! :D

[tetra316 0]

Quote

With no or very little airspeed I think that a drogue would be less efficient and possibly a hazard without a small delay (perhaps around 2 seconds?).

I would say you should wait a lot more than just 2 seconds. That was almost a normal delay for me out of an aircraft. I would say 5-10 would be better when you actually have some airspeed to prevent the drogue from just flopping around on your back.

[dragon2 2]

A tip: make sure you have 2 stacked crates (the ones you put soda/beer bottles in) or something similar as a step in the balloon, otherwise you'll have trouble lifting up the passenger.

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[mnskydiver688 0]

Yeah out of an aircraft you wait 3-5 seconds, (more for stability and clearance issues), but think about how long it takes to get to terminal on a sport jump out of a balloon. Would be a cool thing to do though.

Sky Canyon Wingsuiters

[DENNISA 0]

Most balloon baskets are small and crowded. On the two that I have done, I hooked up standing up in the basket and then set on the low edge of the basket facing in and rolled off backwards. With this exit you don't have to do any climbing on the basket with a passenger attached and you won't catch the rig on the edge of the basket (exiting face first). You will do about 2 or 3 big slow backloops before you have enough airspeed to stabilize and throw the drogue. Be sure you have enough altitude for all of that. I had about 8000' for exit. have a good landing area picked before you exit.

Dennis Anderson
D-2759

[billbooth 10]

Please don't don't make your first tandem balloon jump with a first jump student. Get some experience with another jumper first. It is difficult to get stable at low airspeed. You don't need to be learning a new skill with a first timer.

[DrewEckhardt 0]

Quote

Quote

With no or very little airspeed I think that a drogue would be less efficient and possibly a hazard without a small delay (perhaps around 2 seconds?).

I would say you should wait a lot more than just 2 seconds. That was almost a normal delay for me out of an aircraft. I would say 5-10 would be better when you actually have some airspeed to prevent the drogue from just flopping around on your back.

After 3 seconds you're going 60 MPH and are going to have plenty of drag. It's about like getting out of a Cessna, enough to get a good sub-terminal track going.

A 46" pilot chute will get you a canopy plenty soon on a go-and-throw BASE jump. Tandem drogues look bigger.

I can't say that I'd want 100-200 pounds of nervous living payload in front of me on a zero airspeed exit, although I wouldn't want to be a pack mule on normal jumps either.

[skyrado 1]

I was thinking just like Bill(can call you that?) to take experienced passenger and try what will actually the air flow when jump couple.I've had a few jumps from balloon and from helicopter too(I think circumstances are similar) In most of the jumps you have to wait up 10 sec to feel real velocity.
Probably I have to wait(as you Drew said) more that 10 sec.
Very useful info thank to all of you guys!
Keep you in touch about the balloon jump!

[skydived19006 4]

I did one a few years ago. Nice though, it was a 105,000 cu ft balloon (big). He took us to 10k agl, which lends a level of comfort for sure! We rolled off backwards, I was probably 1000'+ into ff before I put the drogue out. Sunday morning over Talaqua OK, all the farmers were apparently at church. But figuring out how to get back to the airport is just all part of the adventure!

A couple of former skydiver, now commercial balloon pilots and I have discussed offering balloon tandems. The price point would have to be $500 to $1000 to make it work. Then, there's the damn 4:00 am "lets go!" call issue.

Martin

Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else.

AC DZ