On Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at 11:00:14 AM UTC-4, -MIKE- wrote:
On 5/23/17 9:07 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Friday, May 19, 2017 at 11:50:07 AM UTC-4, -MIKE- wrote:
On 5/18/17 11:34 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 7:57:52 PM UTC-4,
wrote:
On Wed, 17 May 2017 15:39:35 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 11:37:53 AM UTC-4, Scott
Lurndal wrote:
John McCoy writes:
Steve wrote in
:



Well yes I am, but seriously, this came over my LinkedIn
feed today, and is pretty cool. Newly-developed, major
commercial in Minneapolis. 7 stories, 238,000 Sq. Ft.
Thought I'd share.

"The foundation, core, and ground floor are concrete,
but the rest of the seven-story structure is timber,
making it the largest timber building in North
America."

Good marketting PR speak, but factually untrue. The
largest timber building in NA would be one of the blimp
hangers the Navy built in WW2, of which half a dozen
still exist. They are about 10 times as large as this
new building.

The hanger for the USS Macon (1933 Moffett Field) has a
steel structure, which is currently quite obvious when one
drives by, since the outer skin has been removed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangar..._California%29





The Goodyear Airdock (1929) is also steel structure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodyear_Airdock


My family and I had the pleasure of taking off from and
landing in the field next to the Goodyear Airlock. Guess what
we were flying in?

The Goodyear Blimp!

It was one of the coolest things I've ever done.

We lived in the Akron area for a year. Goodyear Blimps flew
around the area all the time.

Didja every get a free ride? :-)

One cool part is to feel them power up to land. Obviously, they
have to force them to go down.

(As a kid I used to see them over NYC all the time. Never
imagined that I'd ever get to go up in one)


Your worlds are colliding, now, DerbyDad. The Soap Box Derby in
Akron is held just across the field from the Goodyear Blimp hangar.
You can go on google maps and see how close they are.

Actually, it wasn't a collision, it was a direct connection.

Back in the late 90's, early 2000's, Goodyear was a corporate sponsor
of the Soap Box Derby. The blimp always made an appearance at the
World Championships at Derby Downs in Akron. One of the perks of
winning the World Championship in one of the 3 divisions was a ride
in the blimp. The race is always held on a Saturday in July and the
blimp ride is usually taken the next day while the champion, their
family and of course, the blimp, is in town.

In 2003 my son won the World Championship in the Masters (top)
division and we were planning on taking our ride the next day. Early
on Sunday morning we got a phone call that it was too windy for the
blimp to fly. We were told to expect a letter from Goodyear which
basically amounted to a lifetime pass worth 1 free blimp ride for my
son and (maybe) some guests. In essence, the letter said that at
anytime that my son and the blimp were in the same area, and there
was room and there was time and etc. etc., my son would be able to
take his free ride. It was essentially a lifetime hit or miss, maybe
it'll happen someday kind of thing.

Fast forward to 2004. My daughter wins the local race in our city,
which qualifies her for the World Championship race in Akron. We go
to Akron where she is unfortunately eliminated early in the day.
That's when I notice a Goodyear table in the vendor section near the
track. I round up the family and with the letter from Goodyear in my
hand, I go over to speak to them. An hour later we are all in a van
heading out onto the field near the old blimp hanger watching the
blimp land to pick up us!

Now, keep in mind that the blimp ride is usually given on the Sunday
after the race, when the crowds have gone home and the only activity
at Derby Downs is a bunch of families loading their kid's cars into
trailers for the trip home. In our case, we're getting our ride
*during* the World Championships when the place is packed with
hundreds or racers, thousands of family members, etc. In addition,
since this was a spur of the moment thing, it ended up being a
private flight with my entire family of 6 being able to go. Sweet!

I can just about guarantee that we are the only Champion's family
that got to watch the World Championship race from the blimp. It was
an unforgettable opportunity. Truly a once in a lifetime experience
for most families.


Wow, what a great story! I bet you'll never forget that view of the
races.
I'm sure the hill looks quite a bit different from up there than on the
ground.


The funniest part of the ride involved SWMBO. She is seriously afraid of heights and
therefore of flying. She has to be medicated before she can get on a plane. It took a while
to convince her to go on the blimp ride with us, but eventually her motherly instincts took over
and she knew that she needed to be part of this great family experience.

The gondola of the blimp we were in was set up almost like a mini-van, with 2 rows of single
seats and a bench seat in the back. The pilot sat in the front seat, just like a US mini-van driver
would. SWMBO was sitting in the middle row, passenger side. At one point, as this huge
beast was slowly floating through the air, the pilot casually turned around, hooked an arm
over the back of his seat and started chatting with us. SWMBO got visibly (and audibly)
upset. "What are you doing?" she nervously asked the pilot. "Why aren't you looking where
we are going? Shouldn't you be flying this thing?"

We all cracked up. The pilot pointed out of the front window at the wide open sky in front
of us, shrugged his shoulders and asked SWMBO "What do you think I'm going to hit?"
It was classic.

He got serious after that and explained that wherever the blimp is flying, it has the right of way
over all other aircraft. There isn't too much evasive action a blimp can take, so it's up to all
other pilots in the area to take action if needed.