FIRST GAS BALLOON RECORD ATTEMPT

Inflight Photographs from Andy and Sam

Flight time: 62 hrs. 45 min.
Distance: 1,966.1 km 1,221.7 miles
landed: Crete, NE 08:45 CST N 40- 39.165 W 096- 51.950

From Andy,
Feb. 5, 2007:

I just want to take this opportunity to tell everyone thanks and what a great time this little gas flight was. We didn't make the distance mark that we had wish for, but far exceeded any goals in adventure ! Total planning time for this flight and putting this outstanding team together was less than 40 days. To my team and all the people around the world that followed the flight, I hope the time spent with us was time well spent. Many lessons on our equipment in extended freezing temperatures were learn. Hopefully, flight following in the future will be better. Sam and I are talking about maybe trying to finish the task. We may pick-up where we landed and finish the flight before his end of March deadline. Stay tune and see what we come up with to keep Sam from losing his 10 year old bet.
Best Regards to All,

Andy Cayton

From Sam Canders
Feb 03, 2007:

Wow! Guys, that was one amazing ride. I know we did not get the record, but it was one heck of a try. I want to thank you all for everything you did. Special thanks to Barbara Fricke, Peter Cuneo, John Hager and any one else dealing with airspace (I KNOW you had your hands full), Bert Padelt, Troy Bradley, Jim Bilbrey, Mark Caviezel (recovery team out of OKC, great source of information on high altitude ballooning: www.strato-x.com), Danni Suskin, Website Bill (everyone I spoke to loved the site), Tim Baggett (thanks for the tracking help! Small world, my Army Buddy was your college roommate!), Don Day on weather, Stuart Enloe and Sam Parks (I sure wish I could have met you two on this trip) and of course special thanks to the good old crusty Warrant Officer, Andy Cayton.

I think there were some great lessons learned on this attempt and I am sure we will be discussing them in detail over the next few months. I am quite confident that next time we will reach our goal. The way I see it, if we can put together this outstanding attempt with the amount of time we had, with more planning and more preparation we will have success. I will definitely consider another try (after I thaw out) and maybe you all would like to do the same. Let's wait until the dust finally settles and see what happens!

In the meantime, as you may all be aware, this adventure started about 9 years ago with a bet with a college buddy. The wager was that I would fly a balloon across the US before I turned 30. If I win, his yet to be conceived child will have my name (Samantha if it is a girl and his wife has not say in this matter), if I lose I will have to get a 2"x2" tattoo on my arse. The way I see, the hardest part is behind me. If you all have any friends or contacts that might be interested, I would like to pick up where we left off on head east of the 96o 51.95? line towards the east coast before my 30th birthday on the 12th of March. I plan to have the week prior to that date off and could be available on weekends to do small hops working my way east. Mark maybe you would like to kick it off out of OKC some weekend between now and then? So, if you have any contacts or ballooning friends in Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia (Andy, maybe you might want to finish what you started?) have them get in touch with me.

In the meantime, I would also be happy to take tattoo suggestions. Any design will do but it must have the initials of my college bud, TLH. I think a balloon of some design would be appropriate...

Take care and talk to you soon,

Sam Canders

31 January 8 p.m. EST, final update
Safe Landing in Crete, Nebraska!
Just heard from Andy, and he is enroute back to Oklahoma City, with Mark and Johanna Caviezel with the balloon. From OKC, he'll be going back home to Savannah with the ballon. He said they swooped in low over town, at 40 mph, just as school was starting and made a rough landing and were actually bounced out of the basket, but managed to keep hold of the drag line and keep the balloon from hitting the treeline. The chase crew was on scene very soon after, and the balloon suffered no damage. There is a short news story from the Lincoln Journal Star at:
http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2007/01/31/news/local/doc45c0cac013fc3374309199.txt
Thanks to all who helped and supported the attempt!

From Danni Suskin, 9:18 p.m. EST, 30 January:
I have spoken with Andy. He is at 12000 ft, 3 bags ballast left. He will land first light - he is estimating near Enid, OK - that's about 50 miles north of Oklahoma City. Retrieval is arranged - I have spoken with Mark in Oklahoma City - his trailer is ready, they have food and dry clothing for them and are ready and eager to go. He will retrieve them and the equipment no matter where they are. The equipment with stay in OK, they will fly home. They sound a little bummed, but ok.

From Don Day, 30 January, 9:00 p.m. EST:
Just got a call from Danni, who just spoke with Andy. They are down to 3 bags of ballast and cannot keep the balloon at the altitude needed for the record tonight, so Andy has decided to land in the morning, I am working a trajectory for Danni so he can find someone and get them in place tomorrow A.M. Will send that traj on soon. Too bad, but it has been a heck of a ride!

Projected track for Wednesday morning 31 January

From Don Day, 1705 mst, 30 January
Just talked to Andy. Flying at 14,800ft., heading 95, 44 mph. All is well. 6 bags of ballast left, but little else to throw out ballast wise (they will be a little hungry the rest of the way). Andy and Sam crossed the CO high country in spectacular fashion! Flying just below 18K, Andy and Sam endured -10 to -15F temperatures as well as snow flurries as they flew above some of Colorado's tallest peaks (some over 14K). They reached speeds of nearly 60 mph. They did encounter some bad rotor action on the east side of the Sangre De Cristo mountains (last major mountain range) but where able to ballast out (ie, dinner and breakfast) of it. Troy Bradley was able to observe Andy and Sam passing just east of I-25 between Walsenburg and Colorado City, CO. New trajectories continue to show promise. If they can maintain high altitude through tonight and on Wednesday, they have a decent chance at the record! Speeds tonight will be between 35 and 45 mph. At the moment, I am not expecting any significant weather problems overnight or tomorrow and there are no mountains to fly over for until the Smokeys. Thanks to Tim, Danni, John, Bert and Troy in getting everyone ready for Andy/Sam's flight over the mountains.

30 January 3:30 p.m. MST, From Tim Baggett:
Just heard from Danni, and he just spoke with Andy. Between Andy's chattering teeth, he sounded great. He reported they are flying at 18K and have clearance from ATC to 19K if they need. They have 6 bags remaining and have been flying through snow. I've been noticing more regular updates from the tracker - finally. I feel better about that.

30 January;
From Don Day:
Just heard from Andy at 9 a.m. MTN time. Flying at 13,800 heading 71, speed 34 mph. They still have 7 bags of ballast and Andy and Sam report all is well. They are going forward out of UT and into CO within the next two hours and are preparing for their flight over the Colorado Rockies. Their forward speed will continue to increase throughout the day. They may encounter a few snow showers over the higher Colorado mountains today. They should reach near the OK/TX panhandle region sometime this evening....

2330z 29 January, Update from Don Day, Jr.:

Tracking working better now as Andy and Sam head towards SW UT, continue to expect periods of slow tracking updates until a more dense network of HAM repeaters are found.....They will start to turn ESE this evening and they will start to slowly speed up after midnight local balloon time, then things get more exciting tomorrow.....going to be a wild ride from about noon tomorrow to noon Wed if their ballast can hold and we get no icing and some luck as they will rapidly accelerate east during that time frame...

Launch approximately 2345z!

Pictures from Bert Padelt

Balloon is about 1/3 inflated now, shooting for a 4:00 p.m. PST / 0000z launch!

Still too windy to inflate at launch point, the new goal is a 6:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time launch 0200z 29 January.

Andy says it's a GO for launch about 4:00 p.m. Pacific time, 0000z 29 January.

Inflation is scheduled to begin around Noon Pacific time, 2000z 28 January.

Initially the flight will attempt to make 12,000 ft, going over Las Vegas, then New Mexico, and then up to as high as 18,000 feet in the jetstream to make the remainder of the 60 hour flight.

Andy and crew are in California, awaiting the arrival of the balloon.

The Green Light is on for a launch Sunday, 28 January between Noon and Sundown Pacific Time (Zulu -8).

Andy says he anticipates a landing somewhere in North or South Carolina (Y'all).

Hi Folks, long time no-see. Sorry to be so long up-dating the site. A lot has happen since March 2005. Almost all of it flying in GAS balloons. I never thought I would become any more involved with gas ballooning than just having the restriction on my license removed by making one flight and two landings.

After the last up-date, my next adventure was representing the US in the 2005 Gordon Bennett gas balloon race. It was held that year at Albuquerque, NM during the Balloon Fiesta in October. This was only my third time flying gas and I was very honored to be flying as part of the US Team. Danni Suskin was my co-pilot and together we came in 5th place overall. Though not winning, we did place as the best of the three American teams, and made the best distance (1,962 km or 1,219 miles) of any US team of any Gordon Bennett race in its 100-year history. The Belgium team of Bob Berben and Benoit Simeons won the race and also set a new world record with a distance of 3,400 km or 2,113 miles. Richard Abruzzo of the USA previously held the AA-6 distance record in category of free balloons.

The year 2006 brought many highs and lows, no pun intended. Once again Danni and I were part of the US Team completing in the Gordon Bennett. The race marked the 100-year anniversary of the event. The event is typically hosted by the winning country of the previous year, in this case, Belgium. The host has the their choice of lifting gas. While in the US we offer both helium and hydrogen, in Europe, it is just one or the other. In this event hydrogen was the only gas offered. My balloon is not rated for hydrogen and meant we could not fly our equipment. In Germany we found a hydrogen style netted balloon system. I traveled to Germany and trained with the Augsburg Balloon Club flying this older netted version. The balloon was sound but not a very competitive system for a Gordon Bennett race of today's technology. In the end it made no matter. Due to a malfunction, the valve of the balloon was leaking just after the inflation to the point that we were never able to launch. Having to sit and watch the entire field of balloons empty was much more than heartbreaking.

Fortunately, three weeks later the American's Challenge gas race started in Albuquerque. As in every year, the three pilots posting the best distance go on to represent the US in the next Gordon Bennett. In October 2006 I flew with Kevin Knapp and together we won the race by flying 1,478 miles (2,379 km) and landed near Gainesville, FL. Lets hope that the third time will be the charm for me in the 2007 Gordon Bennett in Belgium. Yes, the Belgians won again. The team of Philippe De Cock and Ronny Van Havere making a flight of 2,450 km (1,522 miles) for the longest distance of any Gordon Bennett race ever flown in Europe to date.

Now to January 2007. Shortly after returning back home after the America's Challenge race I was contacted by Samuel Canders. Sam is a fixed and rotor wing pilot who has had an interest in ballooning for some time. He has had a desire to fly across the US from coast to coast by balloon for almost 10 years. He asked me if he sponsored a flight would I take him on a trans-continental adventure. It took a whole two seconds to think it over and say yes. My only stipulation was that we make a serious attempt to break the AA-6 distance record as well.

The first problem is the time restraint to complete the flight by March 2007. This due to Sam's work schedule and that the NAA sanction time frame for any record attempt is only a 90-day period. Secondly, we need a flight minimum of 2,134 miles or 3,435 km to break the standing record. I decided to start in Southern California to have enough land mass. This requires a landing on the East Coast either north of Charleston, SC or south of Daytona Beach, Florida. I think the biggest problem of this flight will be icing. Flight altitudes will between 10,000 and 18,000 feet. During the entire flight the balloon (and us) will be in temperatures below freezing. While uncomfortable for Sam and I, if we encounter any kind of moisture the added weight of ice on the balloon could mean an early landing.

As in the past, the flight can be tracked real-time on this web site. Wish us luck and look for more up-dates. We hope to be at Lake Elsinore, CA on 28 January to stage the equipment. My old friend and instructor who transitioned me to flying balloons, Jim Bilbrey of Adventure Flights Inc., will be hosting us at his FAA part 141 Balloon school (www.advflights.com). Weather permitting we will fly within the following week.

Article from Ballooning Magazine:
Part 1,  Part 2,  Part 3,  Part 4

Andy Cayton
Pilot, Savannah Six World Record Flights