I once flew in a hot air balloon and it was pretty amazing. When the flamethrower was off it was super quiet and you could hear the sounds from below. Also being able to constantly have this drop-down view is something you don’t have anywhere else and it just gives you a new perspective on the stuff you see
Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis taught me that hot air balloons are extremely easy to fly and to steer. I won’t believe anything else unless it is in a better point and click adventure game. Hint: there is no better point and click adventure game. Day of the tentacle comes close but doesn’t beat it
I dunno, man, I think KQ6 beats Fate of Atlantis. QFG4 as well, and one or two Space Quest games. I could go on, but that seems sufficient to disprove your thesis!
I’m actually with you on the hot air balloon thing.
Interesting thesis. Please bear with me while I do several months of research.
Man that was one of the first games I ever played. Good times
It’s actually possible to navigate longitude and latitude by just going up and down. It’s how spy balloons traverse.
No that’s altitude! (jk)
I have around 6 take offs in a Hot Air Balloon.
Never landed. Jumped, deliberately, out of each one.
I’m super jealous. You just use a normal rig, or is it the base jump style?
I’m imagining them getting a foot off the ground and noping out
I’m in the USA, so a BASE rig would be illegal to use from a Balloon. Any jumper exiting from an aircraft must carry two parachutes, one of which is packed by an FAA Certified Senior or Master Rigger. The other chute must be packed by a Senior, or Master Rigger, someone under the direct guidance of a Rigger, or the person who would be jumping the chute. BASE rigs typically do not carry a reserve as there typically isn’t enough time to deal with malfunctions.
To specifically answer your question, yes I used a sport skydiving rig. The lowest was from 2500 feet, so essentially I pulled my pilot chute right as I exited the basket (at least that’s the story I tell). I’ve jumped from as high as 5k on other balloon jumps. Early in my career I jumped a Sunpath Javelin J2. Later I had a Sunpath Odyssey. The only BASE jump I’ve ever made was off the bridge in West Virginia and even that was using a sport rig where the main parachute was modified with a mesh slider and a BASE pilot chute.
My favorite was being the only jumper going up. There were 4 or 5 other passengers plus the pilot. She took off from the DZ and the DZO told her if she used his airport, yes he owned it, then she had to take at least one jumper up. No one else was ready to go, as it was really early in the morning, so I got to go. The eyes on those passengers when I jumped… Oh man you would have thought they were seeing someone killing themselves. I was probably safer than they were.
I’ve been retired from skydiving since 2006.
what happened in 06
Both my competition and Demo teams decided to call it quits, for various reasons. One was we were all burnt out and it caused some of the deep seated interpersonal issues in the teams to explode. That actually all happened in 2004 and I jumped another two years. However, by that time I had met and started dating Mrs Canopyflyer, who is not a jumper. No, she did not force me to quit. Being with her just made me realize that there were other things I wanted to do in life. I’m also neurodivergent, so when I burn out, I tend to burn out completely and have to leave what ever activity that caused me to be in that state. So I sold my gear, turned that money into a wedding, honeymoon, and down payment on a house. We’ve been together 20 years and have two kids.
Today, I’m old and have a bad back so there is no going back, but I have no regrets.
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Ah, I didn’t realize the balloons got that high, and thought you were jumping from heights where you’d normally be praying your AAD would activate by now.
They can go as high as they have fuel and oxygen for. The highest skydives ever were all done from balloons, although they were helium and not hot air balloons.
