[Balloon-makers] Racer Shape

[Don Piccard]

Hi Shanon,

The Semco balloons in the National Geographic article on the Nationals at
Reno by Bill Berry sure look like "Racers" to me.

The story that I heard was that Mark Semmich had used all his in-stock
fabric to cut the gores for three or four balloons when an order came in for
another one that had to be ready for Reno.    So, as I was told, he took a
few gores from each balloon to make the extra balloon with the resulting
shape.  (The balloon with the pointy top was made by Lloyd Muma to his own
design.  He claimed it was flat on top because that was the view he had from
the seat!)

Don Piccard

-----Original Message-----
From: balloon-makers-bounces at taleos.com
[mailto:balloon-makers-bounces at taleos.com] On Behalf Of Donnelly, Shanon
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 2:02 PM
To: Dave Steven
Cc: balloon-makers at taleos.com
Subject: Re: [Balloon-makers] Racer Shape

Dave,

Just the kind of experience I was hoping to hear about.  I would 
certainly agree that there are some questions about safety and going 
too far.  People seem to be getting close to the limits with this 
generation of racers and rates of climb and decent in the 2000 fpm ball 
park.  Any balloon can be pushed too far and it is our job to not do 
that.  I would love to hear Phil's talk on the history of racers.

I guess my general answer is that I hope to minimize the unkowns by 
following in the footsteps of tested products.  Even if I don't 
reproduce them exactly.  Part of the fun of homebuilding, to me, is the 
freedom to screw up and the responsibility to not screw up too badly. 
But in no way am I advocating people to build one thing or another.

Given the choice, I bet most folks would choose a racer over a Semco 
and lots of folks survived those :)

Thanks and good to see some action on the list,

Shanon

Kent, OH



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