Not A UFO

* I hope you identified that title quote without clicking on the secret asterisk link. Fond memories of childhood. But it wasn’t until just now, this morning, that I found out that Melody Patterson was actually only 15 when she played Wrangler Jane. Who knew? 

It Is Balloon!!*
Blimp? Dirigible? Whatever.



So we’re having a bit of Indian Summer here, mostly. Not a PC term I’m sure, but what it means this year is that it’s stopped raining and has been comfortably cool the past couple of days. Instead of feeling like late November near freezing duck hunting weather, like last week. So we’ve got the windows open. Last night we had a bit of overcast and there was not a breath of air moving. Not a breath.

We live in this condo park not very far from the highway. So we can hear a bit of the traffic noises when they’re loud, but otherwise it’s not a bother. So I’m sitting around last night while my wife was busy packing - she’s off this morning to an eyeball conference in San Fran for a few days - so I was staying out of her way. Never get between a woman in a hurry and her luggage!

Anyway, I heard this engine sound that didn’t seem right. It wasn’t a traffic kind of noise, it was more like a contractor’s generator or an air compressor engine sound. And odder still, there seemed to be several of them going on at the same time. So I took a look out the front window. Nothing to see. So I went to the back of the unit, out onto the back porch. The noise was much louder out there, and it seemed quite bright out. And then I looked up.

And the whole damn sky was filled with airship.

     


Granted, it wasn’t the Hindenburg. Whatever blimp it was, was probably no more than 175 feet long, and maybe 50 feet across. But when it’s night, and the thing is perhaps 400 feet up over your head, and all lit up and glowing, it’s bloody huge.

This was the DirecTV blimp. I looked it up. It’s a Lightship A-170, and is just a hair bigger than I guessed. At night it’s all lit up from the inside, so it glows. It’s got a giant video screen on one side, but they weren’t using it. It’s pale blue with the darker blue DirecTV logo. And it was just hanging in the air above me, close enough so that I could see people in the cabin. Gondola? Basket? Whatever the hangy thingy is called. And it then did an amazing thing: it turned around. On a dime. Within it’s own length. Like it was on a bearing. Impressive! It then proceeded to fly sideways back over our place, out towards the highway. I didn’t know blimps could do that.

I guess the idea was to use it like a floating billboard, and hang in the sky perpendicular to the highway. And that’s exactly what they did. As the thing motored over our place, I quickly walked to the front and grabbed my camera. By the time I got the slider open and was out on the front balcony the blimp was several hundred yards past us and quite a bit higher. So I took what pictures I could - digital cameras aren’t at their best at night, that’s for sure! - and watched it float up and down the road for a while. Pretty cool.

We get hot air balloons here all the time in the summer. Sometimes dozens at once. We even had one land in the backyard a few years ago. So I’m quite familiar with the size of those, and I know the ripping canvas sound of their burners from a mile away. But this blimp had them beat all to hell.

And that was the high point of my evening. Never a dull moment here in Clinton.

file photo of the DirecTV blimp on the ground

1. Not very far from where I live is the Goodyear Blimp Base at the Pompano Beach Airport.
   Lots of fun to go over and watch them launch and land…

   Posted by TimO       10/23/2009  at  08:09 AM  

2. I recognized the quote… sad to say, I can probably quote most of the theme song. And I thought giving the lines ahead of the actors during a Star Trek episode was pathetic.

   Back when I was a student at Michigan State the Goodyear Blimp buzzed the campus during the football game once or twice… and it buzzed my then-hometown of Flint while covering the Buick Open. It’s an impressive sight.... hard to believe anything that large can get off the ground.

   Posted by JimS       10/23/2009  at  08:38 AM  

3. Way back in the 80’s I bought 4 gator backs for my MR2.  With the purchase I also received a ticket for a free blimp ride on the Goodyear blimp. So cool but so LOUD. Besides Lake Erie this was the only real perk to living in NE Ohio.

   Posted by StephanA       10/23/2009  at  08:55 AM  

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