Picture: The Orbiter 3 world-record balloon.
Every kid wants to become a jet pilot. Jet-planes are exciting, fast and demanding to control. Hot-air balloons in contrast are slow and there is little to control except the altitude of the flight. This is at least what Dr. Bertrand Piccard, a Swiss adventurist, thought before his trip around-the-world in a hot-air balloon. I recently attended his very motivating presentation and this is what he had to say.
When he was asked to cross the Atlantic in a balloon he thought it an easy challenge; yet he crashed six hours after taking off. This made him realize how difficult ballooning could be. After some refurbishing of the Orbiter and several false starts, he went for a second attempt. He managed to cross the Atlantic finally eventhough his ambition was to go around the world.
Dr. Piccard, coming from two generations of Swiss scientists and adventurists, grew up among esteemed peers that he himself got bitten by the adventure bug.
He again attempted a trip around the world in a hot-air balloon, the Breitling Orbiter 3, in 1999.
One of the problem the team faced was to get the Chinese government’s permission to fly across Northern China but that looked like it could take months of effort. One day the meteorologists came up with a new route: a big loop over Northern Africa which would get them into a more agreeable trajectory and route. But of course, then this would mean an additional 10,000km or an extra week of being airborne. After much hand-wringing they finally decided to give it a try and it turned out to be an excellent decision. Not only did they land in Egypt after successfully flying around the world in 20 days, they also realized that the extra loop saved them from thunderstorms and bad weather. The problem became the solution. Read my next article for what this teaches us about life.
For more information on Dr. Bertrand Piccard visit his website: http://www.bertrandpiccard.com/eng/index.php
or read his excellent book: http://www.amazon.com/Around-World-20-Days-History-Making/dp/0471395374/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198591267&sr=8-1
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