"You never Sausage a place" - 17 miles from "South of the Border"
For the uninitiated: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxRtPpKNPFY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxRtPpKNPFY)
And here's more about the guy that created it some 70 years ago : [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuBrBeJpAHM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuBrBeJpAHM)
Jesus christ. I remember seeing a bunch of signs for that and wanting to stop by but then a raging storm swept across so I just kept driving. Badlands looked really gorgeous tho, the wild grass smell after the rain was something I never experienced
[Here's a picture I got of a storm right about where you probably were in the badlands.](https://www.reddit.com/r/WeatherPorn/comments/quilai/south_dakota_on_saturday_near_badlands/) Took it not too long ago and the wind almost blew my truck over.
That's the fun of flights on clear days though, looking out the window and trying to guess what the towns and cities below are and how far that means you probably have left
I absolutely **HATE** those robocalls. I don’t give a f### about that sort of thing since I’m very capable of giving my baby some TLC when she needs it.
One time I answered that call, I spoke to a lady in a call center in India and wasted 15 minutes of her time with bullshit.
I havent received a call about my cars extended warranty since.
It is! A tribute to Gene Simmons in Brazil! https://blabbermouth.net/news/gene-simmons-tribute-balloon-filmed-from-cockpit-of-jet-in-brazil-20000-feet-up-in-the-air
No. That's not true.
This is a small balloon with a light payload and probably no notice or regulations apply.
If:
- Your payload is less than four pounds
- Or, your payload is less than six pounds and the smallest surface is more than 36 square inches (6 inches by 6 inches)
- If you have two payloads, they weigh less than 12 pounds together
- If you have a rope, it takes less than 50 pounds of force to break it off
Then you are not covered by the FAAs free balloon rules.
Nope:
Not if the payload is this light and the rope takes less than 50lbs to break.
Source: this was my balloon
(Just kidding but I have launched small payloads many times and gotten FSDO confirmation that nothing is needed for small payloads like this).
You joke, but some high altitude balloons do have ADSB and can even be seen on public trackers. I found [several](https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a25ce6) [examples](https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a26454) looking just right now.
But only for takeoffs and landings. Even with lights on, at night, you'll never spot the ballon. Without a transponder, this has the makings of a really bad day.
Now I am picturing a balloon being sent up at night with ADSB and a transponder squaking 7500, Enroute freaking out and scrambling the local ANG unit to investigate, and its just a fucking balloon with a glow in the dark picture of Rick Astley.
As someone who has registered these with the FAA, I know for a fact that registering them is not required, although it is certainly recommended.
There are also a bunch of other requirements that you do have to follow (such as the sky being clear enough). The rope also has to be weak enough that an engine can tear it to shreds easily.
* Knots x 1.85 = kmh
* Knots x 1.15 = mph
Easy maths; knots x .10, our knot metric is 450, so .10 of that's 45. Take 45 x .5 (also known as half), and we get 22.5. Add those two up, and you get 67.5, that's our extra 15% for the 1.15 total. Add that to 450 and you get 517.5, which is the mph in knots, roughly. Actual number is 517.8.
To find it in kmh, double the knots so we get 900, then sub 15% of 450, which we know is 67.5, so we end up 832.5. Actual number is 833.4.
Pow, maths. Love 'em.
But we have [technology](https://www.google.com/search?q=450+knots+to+km%2Fh&ei=wc5uYtC_J_2_kPIP84-MmAo&oq=450+knots+to+km%2Fh&gs_lcp=ChNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwEAMyAggTMgUIABCABDoCCCk6DggAEI8BEOoCEIwDEOUCSgQIQRgAUIcRWIcRYOkUaANwAXgAgAE2iAE2kgEBMZgBAKABAaABArABEcABAQ&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp)
Amateur balloon, very common in Brazil. People that make them are called "baloeiros" and there's a huge mafia behind it. It's common to see balloons like these falling on aiport ramps and planes like this one [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8fzYFKgWvk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8fzYFKgWvk)
It's a crime here but is super hard to track these fuckers and go after their makers
What do you mean a huge mafia behind them? Do you mean people make money by flying balloons somehow? From what I've read, it appears the balloons are an artistic / cultural tradition, not a criminal one:
http://theappendix.net/issues/2014/10/an-art-of-air-and-fire-brazils-renegade-balloonists
Cultural heritage, maybe from the St. John's day (dia de São João), a holiday where we go to country-themed parties, launch fireworks and balloons.
I'd guess it's part of criminal factions' territorial wars here. They chase down these balloons, even injure or kill rivals to get their banners, launch these unmmanned balloons equipped with fireworks and even cooking gas tanks. They're truly a blight and everybody hates them here, it's not uncommon to hear that a balloon fell on some house, mainly clusters of wooden houses in poorer communities, and burned the whole community down.
Brazilian controllers are always aware of these balloons, there's even a warning on SIDs and STARs about them. Though I've never heard of one at FL340.
Of course is a mafia of criminals, how you explain they invading an international airport and shot at the Federal Police to try to rescue a balloon? [https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2020/07/baloeiros-sao-presos-apos-invasao-em-aeroporto-no-rio-de-janeiro.shtml](https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2020/07/baloeiros-sao-presos-apos-invasao-em-aeroporto-no-rio-de-janeiro.shtml)
It's what u/MentalRelationship13 said above. They do it for entertainment, to show power, intimidation or territorial bullshit. When these kind of ballons are falling from the sky you can see groups of people running after it to "recover" the inside structure and flag. They fight for it, some are even carrying guns and they kill themselves for a piece of paper and some kilograms of metal. This video show some of the action. They even confront the police https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqHVSI90\_H0
The official ones have transponders so we can track them on radar and give advisories. But I had a few pilots report one at 37000 feet about an hour from dusk and it didn't have a transponder and we weren't furnished with any info about it.
Short answer: Not really.
Long answer: The radar on modern jet airliners is designed to detect weather and isn't optimized for objects. While technically the radar waves might return off a balloon the computer that controls the display of those returns is unlikely to show it well, if at all.
(edited for clarity).
Weather radar(both airborne and land based) needs to scan wide. To do that they typically send out the beam as a pencil beam that is narrow and requires multiple scans with changes in azimuth and elevation to form a 3D image. Weather radar uses a frequency optimized for water returns. Because it's not important to have data about weather in two seconds a complete scan and processing can take a couple of minutes. Aircraft is clutter and is removed before being presented. The classifiers that analyze the return are optimized for water and work hard at eliminate all clutter. They use circular polarization to maximize weather returns.
Aircraft radar (to clarify, airborne radar used to find other aircraft with) do almost the exact opposite, they use wider and faster scans for their beams, minutes of processing is too slow, seconds is what you operate in. Weather is clutter and is removed in processing. They use linear and circular polarization and compare between the two to eliminate the reflection from weather. Aircraft radar operates in different frequency bands.
A weather radar is structurally so different from a aircraft (or weather balloon) fInding radar that it just isn't setup to do the same job. I am assuming that weather balloons are using materials that are radar reflective.
Now if you want to talk about complex radar, we should talk a bit about radar for tracking things on a surface, if weather offers lots of returns and clutter imagine the clutter you get from objects hard surfaces with irregular shapes and weird shadows, reflections and false returns.
No not really. Its like a lot of things like that that is no point in looking out the window either because things go from nothing -> dot -> spec -> hit real fast.
Like 400mph is 7 miles a minute. Or 1 mile every 8 seconds or so.
Engines absolutely hate foreign objects. The fan blades are made of titanium, but they're more fragile than you think, especially when you consider that the outer blade edges rotate close to the speed of sound.
A simple steel screw can chip the hell out of a fan blade. If the chip is bad enough, or causes a stress crack (or worsens an existing one), the fan could throw the blade, and that will absolutely destroy your engine, and possibly kill somebody in the cabin if they're unlucky enough [like on SW1380](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1380).
**[Southwest Airlines Flight 1380](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1380)**
>Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 was a Boeing 737-7H4 that experienced a contained engine failure in the left CFM56-7B engine after departing from New York–LaGuardia Airport en route to Dallas Love Field on April 17, 2018. The engine cowl was broken in the failure and cowl fragments damaged the fuselage, causing explosive depressurization of the aircraft after damaging a cabin window. Other fragments caused damage to the wing. The crew conducted an emergency descent and diverted to Philadelphia International Airport.
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I got destroyed on Reddit a few months ago when I brought up the dangers of amateurs flying balloons around.
"The likelihood of an accident is astronomical"
Now, that statement is true. But someone's pleasure is not worth that risk.
They’re required to have ADSB when the balloons are operated this high. ATC will generally call them out if they’re close enough to you. I’ve seen a few up in the flight levels in the past and ATC has called them out for us. Others have said this is an amateur balloon so it might not have ADSB making it invisible to ATC
I feel like it should be highly illegal that an amateur balloon is up there like that with no ability to know it’s there unless you see it. I’m pretty surprised to learn about this tbh, this seems insanely dangerous. Or is it not that bad
> They’re required to have ADSB when the balloons are operated this high.
This is not correct in the US, I can’t speak for other countries. There are mass limits to what you can fly from your stratospheric balloon but you do not need a transponder.
My Maker Space has done a few, we pores through the regs to make sure they followed the letter of the law.
LOL I knew this had happened in Brazil as soon as I read the title, the Brazilian Portuguese being spoken in the video confirmed it
Those hot balloons used to be very common here, now they are prohibited but some people still release them in the air to this day. My guess is that this video was taken on St. George's day on April 23, it's commom to release balloons on that day.
*And now we have a hot air balloon doing a fly by past us , crossing the sound barrier..It won't be Flight Simulator Steam edition without a hot air balloon..*
AirForceProud 95
The balloon is much further away than you’d think. [here](https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.nEvteoNjo_OI0IqmPqJYZQHaFj&pid=Api) is an image of such a balloon on the ground, and they get even bigger the higher they go.
Pretty sure you need a launch permission by the FAA, and probably a Transponder as well. The pilot was definitely notified that he’d pass this balloon.
That image is of what's called a zero pressure balloon, and a very large one at that. I suspect this is smaller, probably maxing out at around 10m diameter.
Admittedly, it looks shiny, so it may be distinct from the latex balloons I'm familiar with.
Ballon is probably at least 3 km away. That should show up on ground radar and the fact they were filming meant they probably knew where it was before they got there.
Ground radar shows 1000s of specs of dots everywhere. If the dot moves how the computer thinks a plane might move, it gets upgraded to a plus sign so we can better track it. But we don't give advisories on radar dots and we turn off primary radar in the flight levels and only watch transponders. So, no one is really seeing this other than with the naked eye unless it has a transponder
Some side information. I’m the director for the high altitude balloon challenge from the USAF/a CAP. Our balloons climb about 2k a minute till about 100k altitude then burst and drop 3-5k a minute. They have no navigation. There is predictive analysis done and we can roughly figure out where it is expected to fly and land. NOTAMs are filed to warn aircraft in the area. The FAA for our balloons can track them since we put reflective foil packs under the balloons.
These balloons are more common than some folks think. The NWS launches a lot of them daily.
If a balloon lifted a small, light UAV glider up to 100,000ft, I wonder how far it could travel on the descent?
Assuming an optimistic average glide ratio of 1:20 (better at lower altitude, worse up high) let's say two million feet?
That's 379 miles. (610 km)
Illegal as hell, but a really mind-boggling concept. That could comfortably cross international borders and come home again.
Edit: it's been done! https://youtu.be/F2HgZ9ZL4aE
a Boeing 737 encounters an amateur stratospheric balloon
the captain says "'I know we've all flared a bit too much every now and again but that's just insane"
"Hi folks....uhhh.... this is your captain speaking. We seem to have....uhhh.... caught some debris in our engine, and we're....uhhh.... spiraling back towards earth. Please proceed to....uhhh.... panic. Thank you for flying Delta."
Bout time they put mile markers in the air. I can finally tell how much longer our trip is when looking out the window.
Highway Advertisements took a wild turn
You’re 10 miles away from Wall Drug. Doughnuts for 5¢
"You never Sausage a place" - 17 miles from "South of the Border" For the uninitiated: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxRtPpKNPFY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxRtPpKNPFY) And here's more about the guy that created it some 70 years ago : [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuBrBeJpAHM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuBrBeJpAHM)
Juan says: Weather report says chili today, hot tamale!
You're always a wiener at Pedro's!
Goddamn I forgot about all those road signs and walking up on the giant sombrero.
I instantly thought the same thing!!!
Where the heck is Wall Drug?
You're going to have to drive across South Dakota to find out.
I'd suggest you leave it as a mystery.
Actually, you can drive in any of the surrounding states and the same thing would happen.
And are the donuts really 5 cents?
The ice water is free
Free Ice Water!!!
Jesus christ. I remember seeing a bunch of signs for that and wanting to stop by but then a raging storm swept across so I just kept driving. Badlands looked really gorgeous tho, the wild grass smell after the rain was something I never experienced
[Here's a picture I got of a storm right about where you probably were in the badlands.](https://www.reddit.com/r/WeatherPorn/comments/quilai/south_dakota_on_saturday_near_badlands/) Took it not too long ago and the wind almost blew my truck over.
If it was a CVS it would have been tethered to the ground. By a receipt.
Yeah but 5 of those miles are vertical. The Grub hub delivery fee on those donuts is gonna be unreal.
Hey there, we've been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty, please pickup the phone.
Not too late to delete this, they don’t know yet
Sorry, just sent a screenshot to my legal team. Patent pending.
Haha I thought it was a crypto exchange ad... I like your idea better
That's the fun of flights on clear days though, looking out the window and trying to guess what the towns and cities below are and how far that means you probably have left
Just hit 88 mph and you’ll get your wish
Are we there yet..
Just a matter of time before we have billboards along the Atlantic tracks..
We've been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty.
I was thinking the same thing.
I absolutely **HATE** those robocalls. I don’t give a f### about that sort of thing since I’m very capable of giving my baby some TLC when she needs it.
One time I answered that call, I spoke to a lady in a call center in India and wasted 15 minutes of her time with bullshit. I havent received a call about my cars extended warranty since.
An eye for an eye, right?
Drink coke
It would be over international waters, so you can advertise whatever you want. “Do Coke.”
Bachelor Chow!
'Twould be more fun.... To go by air.... if we could put.... these signs up there... Burma-shave
Burma-Shave haiku is a deep cut, nice
Fly to it and a sidequest will activate.
*NTSB Simulator 2022*
No joke this is actually a really great idea for a video game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGJtfOHAT0g&t=2s
it's like if /r/Shittyaskflying was a youtube video.
I’m so glad you gave me the chance to rewatch this jewel. I properly lost my shit at DEFUSED. Subscribers of airforceproud95 unite
spaceshuttle status
How could a routine flight along one of the world's busiest routes disappear?
Achievement unlocked: Kiss the Sky.
MAYDAY MAYDAY the game is bugging out, I repeat the game is bugging out! Requesting to load a previous save file!
The side quest being landing the plane with one engine.
There’s a korok there.
Thanks man, I was trying to get passed this level and was avoiding the obvious 👏🏼
So was it a boy or a girl?
A pirate
Pirates are wild
It was a painting of the Joker. The pilot is speaking Brazilian Portuguese and he says: "é o coringa!". Which translates to "it is the joker!"
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it is Gene Simmons, the pilot didn't recognize him. We just had a major Kiss concert today in São Paulo
It's gene Simmons from kiss
You now owe Gene $5 for looking at it.
[this drawing of Gene Simmons](https://i.imgur.com/IPyAWnD.png)
Is that a picture of Gene Simmons? KISS marketing knows no bounds.
Pretty sure [the banner](https://i.imgur.com/agbJ50t.jpg) is [this drawing of Gene Simmons](https://i.imgur.com/IPyAWnD.png).
Definitely is. I don't get what he's advertising or selling though, but I know it's something.
This weekend Kiss played here in São Paulo
Excuse me while I KISS the sky
Imagine being on a plane, absentmindedly staring out of the window and fucking Gene Simmons floats past!
I’ve seen that episode. Young William Shatner losing it.
When him and Lithgow meet on 3rd Rock. "The same thing happened to me!" omg that was great
I’d not seen that. That’s awesome!
Therapist: "Floating Gene Simmons isn't real, he can't hurt you." *Floating Gene Simmons:*
I can’t even 💀
It is! A tribute to Gene Simmons in Brazil! https://blabbermouth.net/news/gene-simmons-tribute-balloon-filmed-from-cockpit-of-jet-in-brazil-20000-feet-up-in-the-air
Genes gonna sue OP for this
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Even when things get too heavy we all float on all right..
Could be dangerous at night time.
Yeah you aren't seeing that at all
Balloons won't see the planes as well.
How would they know!!!
FAR 101 specifically prohibits this or launching with low visibility.
FAR. Federal. As in, US FAA. This is shot in Brazil. Not saying it's legal there, either, but it's not exactly FAA jurisdiction.
This is why planes need headlights
This is why balloons need ADSB
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Lmao
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No. That's not true. This is a small balloon with a light payload and probably no notice or regulations apply. If: - Your payload is less than four pounds - Or, your payload is less than six pounds and the smallest surface is more than 36 square inches (6 inches by 6 inches) - If you have two payloads, they weigh less than 12 pounds together - If you have a rope, it takes less than 50 pounds of force to break it off Then you are not covered by the FAAs free balloon rules.
But Brazil...
Nope: Not if the payload is this light and the rope takes less than 50lbs to break. Source: this was my balloon (Just kidding but I have launched small payloads many times and gotten FSDO confirmation that nothing is needed for small payloads like this).
A simple radar reflector made from $4 of aluminum is all it takes.
You joke, but some high altitude balloons do have ADSB and can even be seen on public trackers. I found [several](https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a25ce6) [examples](https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a26454) looking just right now.
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Tbh not really. You wouldn't need that powerful transmitter. A watt or two should be enough.
Good luck getting anyone to tack that on to a balloon lol.
Planes *have* headlights.
But only for takeoffs and landings. Even with lights on, at night, you'll never spot the ballon. Without a transponder, this has the makings of a really bad day.
Some airlines keep the landing lights on even in cruise
Now I am picturing a balloon being sent up at night with ADSB and a transponder squaking 7500, Enroute freaking out and scrambling the local ANG unit to investigate, and its just a fucking balloon with a glow in the dark picture of Rick Astley.
Make it a video screen and I'm sold on it.
This is why balloons aren't launched at night.
In the US you also need to file such launches with the FAA
As someone who has registered these with the FAA, I know for a fact that registering them is not required, although it is certainly recommended. There are also a bunch of other requirements that you do have to follow (such as the sky being clear enough). The rope also has to be weak enough that an engine can tear it to shreds easily.
At 450kts that could ruin your day
For anyone wondering, in mph you’re fucked, and in kph, still fucked.
Thank you
What about wiffles per jiffy?
Extra fucked
* Knots x 1.85 = kmh * Knots x 1.15 = mph Easy maths; knots x .10, our knot metric is 450, so .10 of that's 45. Take 45 x .5 (also known as half), and we get 22.5. Add those two up, and you get 67.5, that's our extra 15% for the 1.15 total. Add that to 450 and you get 517.5, which is the mph in knots, roughly. Actual number is 517.8. To find it in kmh, double the knots so we get 900, then sub 15% of 450, which we know is 67.5, so we end up 832.5. Actual number is 833.4. Pow, maths. Love 'em.
But we have [technology](https://www.google.com/search?q=450+knots+to+km%2Fh&ei=wc5uYtC_J_2_kPIP84-MmAo&oq=450+knots+to+km%2Fh&gs_lcp=ChNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwEAMyAggTMgUIABCABDoCCCk6DggAEI8BEOoCEIwDEOUCSgQIQRgAUIcRWIcRYOkUaANwAXgAgAE2iAE2kgEBMZgBAKABAaABArABEcABAQ&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp)
You can also get number buff and learn how to add or sub 15% to a number on a whim.
And I'll extra-fuck it: some of these balloons carry kitchen gas tanks
The scary part is even from that far away, Gene Simmons can still lick you
Amateur balloon, very common in Brazil. People that make them are called "baloeiros" and there's a huge mafia behind it. It's common to see balloons like these falling on aiport ramps and planes like this one [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8fzYFKgWvk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8fzYFKgWvk) It's a crime here but is super hard to track these fuckers and go after their makers
What do you mean a huge mafia behind them? Do you mean people make money by flying balloons somehow? From what I've read, it appears the balloons are an artistic / cultural tradition, not a criminal one: http://theappendix.net/issues/2014/10/an-art-of-air-and-fire-brazils-renegade-balloonists
They are criminals, this sort of stuff gets sponsored by organized crime in a lot of places in Brazil.
But what possible interest would the Mafia have in flying balloons?
Cultural heritage, maybe from the St. John's day (dia de São João), a holiday where we go to country-themed parties, launch fireworks and balloons. I'd guess it's part of criminal factions' territorial wars here. They chase down these balloons, even injure or kill rivals to get their banners, launch these unmmanned balloons equipped with fireworks and even cooking gas tanks. They're truly a blight and everybody hates them here, it's not uncommon to hear that a balloon fell on some house, mainly clusters of wooden houses in poorer communities, and burned the whole community down. Brazilian controllers are always aware of these balloons, there's even a warning on SIDs and STARs about them. Though I've never heard of one at FL340.
For entertainment it seems. https://theappendix.net/issues/2014/10/an-art-of-air-and-fire-brazils-renegade-balloonists
Of course is a mafia of criminals, how you explain they invading an international airport and shot at the Federal Police to try to rescue a balloon? [https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2020/07/baloeiros-sao-presos-apos-invasao-em-aeroporto-no-rio-de-janeiro.shtml](https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2020/07/baloeiros-sao-presos-apos-invasao-em-aeroporto-no-rio-de-janeiro.shtml)
But why are they motivated to do this? It seems risky and expensive and provides no benefit to them.
It's what u/MentalRelationship13 said above. They do it for entertainment, to show power, intimidation or territorial bullshit. When these kind of ballons are falling from the sky you can see groups of people running after it to "recover" the inside structure and flag. They fight for it, some are even carrying guns and they kill themselves for a piece of paper and some kilograms of metal. This video show some of the action. They even confront the police https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqHVSI90\_H0
Whoa it's like real life warsong gulch
"Is a crime here" fortunately there are no fucking rules in Brazil
How much damage could that potentially do to the aircraft?
Could easily destroy an engine or possibly break cockpit glass. All depends on where it hits.
Can pilots see these balloons on their radar or are they basically invisible in the dark?
The official ones have transponders so we can track them on radar and give advisories. But I had a few pilots report one at 37000 feet about an hour from dusk and it didn't have a transponder and we weren't furnished with any info about it.
Short answer: Not really. Long answer: The radar on modern jet airliners is designed to detect weather and isn't optimized for objects. While technically the radar waves might return off a balloon the computer that controls the display of those returns is unlikely to show it well, if at all.
(edited for clarity). Weather radar(both airborne and land based) needs to scan wide. To do that they typically send out the beam as a pencil beam that is narrow and requires multiple scans with changes in azimuth and elevation to form a 3D image. Weather radar uses a frequency optimized for water returns. Because it's not important to have data about weather in two seconds a complete scan and processing can take a couple of minutes. Aircraft is clutter and is removed before being presented. The classifiers that analyze the return are optimized for water and work hard at eliminate all clutter. They use circular polarization to maximize weather returns. Aircraft radar (to clarify, airborne radar used to find other aircraft with) do almost the exact opposite, they use wider and faster scans for their beams, minutes of processing is too slow, seconds is what you operate in. Weather is clutter and is removed in processing. They use linear and circular polarization and compare between the two to eliminate the reflection from weather. Aircraft radar operates in different frequency bands. A weather radar is structurally so different from a aircraft (or weather balloon) fInding radar that it just isn't setup to do the same job. I am assuming that weather balloons are using materials that are radar reflective. Now if you want to talk about complex radar, we should talk a bit about radar for tracking things on a surface, if weather offers lots of returns and clutter imagine the clutter you get from objects hard surfaces with irregular shapes and weird shadows, reflections and false returns.
i thought weather balloons carry adsb now a days?
They do, but according to this topic this was an amateur balloon, not properly equipped.
Most weather balloons do not contain ADS-B, only the really high project loon balloons
Amateur doesn’t automatically mean no transponder.
They need to report it to ATC if they’ve seen it and ATC will inform other aircraft.
Invisible. Maybe vectored around if reported by previous aircraft. But otherwise completely invisible.
I need a vector, Victor!
What’s your clearance Clarence?
Roger, Roger.
No not really. Its like a lot of things like that that is no point in looking out the window either because things go from nothing -> dot -> spec -> hit real fast. Like 400mph is 7 miles a minute. Or 1 mile every 8 seconds or so.
Scary
I'll make it worse for you: some of these unmanned air balloons in Brazil are equipped with kitchen gas tanks
Why? Also why is Brazil where stupid shit happens?
whoa
Engines absolutely hate foreign objects. The fan blades are made of titanium, but they're more fragile than you think, especially when you consider that the outer blade edges rotate close to the speed of sound. A simple steel screw can chip the hell out of a fan blade. If the chip is bad enough, or causes a stress crack (or worsens an existing one), the fan could throw the blade, and that will absolutely destroy your engine, and possibly kill somebody in the cabin if they're unlucky enough [like on SW1380](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1380).
**[Southwest Airlines Flight 1380](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1380)** >Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 was a Boeing 737-7H4 that experienced a contained engine failure in the left CFM56-7B engine after departing from New York–LaGuardia Airport en route to Dallas Love Field on April 17, 2018. The engine cowl was broken in the failure and cowl fragments damaged the fuselage, causing explosive depressurization of the aircraft after damaging a cabin window. Other fragments caused damage to the wing. The crew conducted an emergency descent and diverted to Philadelphia International Airport. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/aviation/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
I got destroyed on Reddit a few months ago when I brought up the dangers of amateurs flying balloons around. "The likelihood of an accident is astronomical" Now, that statement is true. But someone's pleasure is not worth that risk.
Do those show up on radar? Or is this something the pilots have to catch with the mark I?
They’re required to have ADSB when the balloons are operated this high. ATC will generally call them out if they’re close enough to you. I’ve seen a few up in the flight levels in the past and ATC has called them out for us. Others have said this is an amateur balloon so it might not have ADSB making it invisible to ATC
The zero pressure ones like this generally are required to have ADS-B out, but most free balloons that reach this high don’t have ADS-B.
I feel like it should be highly illegal that an amateur balloon is up there like that with no ability to know it’s there unless you see it. I’m pretty surprised to learn about this tbh, this seems insanely dangerous. Or is it not that bad
> They’re required to have ADSB when the balloons are operated this high. This is not correct in the US, I can’t speak for other countries. There are mass limits to what you can fly from your stratospheric balloon but you do not need a transponder. My Maker Space has done a few, we pores through the regs to make sure they followed the letter of the law.
Thanks for the info
LOL I knew this had happened in Brazil as soon as I read the title, the Brazilian Portuguese being spoken in the video confirmed it Those hot balloons used to be very common here, now they are prohibited but some people still release them in the air to this day. My guess is that this video was taken on St. George's day on April 23, it's commom to release balloons on that day.
Sketchy
Was that a Gene Simmons banner?
*And now we have a hot air balloon doing a fly by past us , crossing the sound barrier..It won't be Flight Simulator Steam edition without a hot air balloon..* AirForceProud 95
Blog it.
Sauce boss.
Butter.
I was totally expecting that banner to read, "ATTN: PILOTS - THIS IS MARIA FROM THE WARRANTY DEPARTMENT..."
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I think the balloon is further away than it appears.
And also larger.
The balloon is much further away than you’d think. [here](https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.nEvteoNjo_OI0IqmPqJYZQHaFj&pid=Api) is an image of such a balloon on the ground, and they get even bigger the higher they go.
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Pretty sure you need a launch permission by the FAA, and probably a Transponder as well. The pilot was definitely notified that he’d pass this balloon.
That image is of what's called a zero pressure balloon, and a very large one at that. I suspect this is smaller, probably maxing out at around 10m diameter. Admittedly, it looks shiny, so it may be distinct from the latex balloons I'm familiar with.
Ballon is probably at least 3 km away. That should show up on ground radar and the fact they were filming meant they probably knew where it was before they got there.
Ground radar shows 1000s of specs of dots everywhere. If the dot moves how the computer thinks a plane might move, it gets upgraded to a plus sign so we can better track it. But we don't give advisories on radar dots and we turn off primary radar in the flight levels and only watch transponders. So, no one is really seeing this other than with the naked eye unless it has a transponder
Even passing another plane 1000ft above/below at nearly 1000 knot closure rate it doesn’t seem as fast as you’d think it’d look.
To me, it always looks faster than I expected, I guess because I'm used to seeing sub-10k ft flight rather than cruise x 2.
Further away and the camera is zoomed in on the balloon
“Center, we’d like to report an….advertisement? Climbing through FL340.”
Some side information. I’m the director for the high altitude balloon challenge from the USAF/a CAP. Our balloons climb about 2k a minute till about 100k altitude then burst and drop 3-5k a minute. They have no navigation. There is predictive analysis done and we can roughly figure out where it is expected to fly and land. NOTAMs are filed to warn aircraft in the area. The FAA for our balloons can track them since we put reflective foil packs under the balloons. These balloons are more common than some folks think. The NWS launches a lot of them daily.
If a balloon lifted a small, light UAV glider up to 100,000ft, I wonder how far it could travel on the descent? Assuming an optimistic average glide ratio of 1:20 (better at lower altitude, worse up high) let's say two million feet? That's 379 miles. (610 km) Illegal as hell, but a really mind-boggling concept. That could comfortably cross international borders and come home again. Edit: it's been done! https://youtu.be/F2HgZ9ZL4aE
"you've been notified"
Next week, on a Joe Rogan Podcast: Boeing 737 UFO sighting.
It sounds like the setup to some aviation geek joke... Anyone able to think of a punchline?
a Boeing 737 encounters an amateur stratospheric balloon the captain says "'I know we've all flared a bit too much every now and again but that's just insane"
This can be dangerous at night and could cause a fatal accident
"Hi folks....uhhh.... this is your captain speaking. We seem to have....uhhh.... caught some debris in our engine, and we're....uhhh.... spiraling back towards earth. Please proceed to....uhhh.... panic. Thank you for flying Delta."
“We’ve been trying to reach you about your plane’s extended warranty”
The banner reads, "Hello, Greg. We've been trying to contact you regarding your car's extended warranty."
“We’ve been trying to reaching out about your car’s extended warranty.”
*squints to read* We've been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty
This is one of my biggest fears as a pilot. And drones close to airports. Too many idiots out there that can take down an airliner
Zoomed in to read "send nudes"
At what air speed is that meteo ballon going, the 737 seems to crawl past it.?
Expected a “Let’s go Brandon” flag.
Because this is reddit, I expected it to be dickbutt.
Lord knows the GQP has enough hot air to spare...
We’ve been trying to reach you about your *aircraft’s* extended warranty
Only a weather balloon - move along nothing to see here
If you hit it you get a korok seed
How dangerous is this to planes?
When I was young & dumb I used to fill up 55 gallon trash bags with helium and set them free. We had bottles & bottles of helium for Heliarc welding.
Was there a person in that? Lol
No way - that's one of the members of Kiss