 As
you read this, veteran North Carolina balloonist Jonathan Trappe is
floating over the Atlantic Ocean somewhere right now in a small wicker
gondola lifted aloft by a cluster of colorful party balloons. It departed
from Maine on Thursday, September 12, 2013. A story on the ARRL website
reports that
amateur radio is onboard. Mr. Trappe is no newcomer to flying in
such contraptions. In 2012 he and a specially designed small house
used a similar buoyancy arrangement to float above Mexico. A "toy balloon"
flight over the
Alps met with success in September of 2011. Trappe became the only
person to have crossed the
English Channel by cluster balloon in May 2010. Uh-oh, being Friday
the 13th must have bode ill fortune for the intrepid aviator. I just
checked for an
UPdate and see that the flight ended in Newfoundland after just
12 hours due to technical difficulties. Bummer. No doubt he'll try again.
  
Posted September 13, 2013
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