| General Balloon Information Stuff Every Good Crew Member Should Know. |
| Nah, don't worry, no quiz at the end of the page, for now! :) Ballooning is a fun sport but if not done properly, just as any other sport, it has its dangers. The people involved with helping a balloon inflate and pack up are known as Crew. Each ballon has a crew, a Crew Cheif that tells them what to do, and a Pilot. The crew members are concerned at all times with the safety of themselves, other crew members, the audience, and the balloon. It can be a very consuming job! Before explaining the crew positions and functions, I will explain the different portions of the balloon. |
| The Balloon. |
 |
| The Envelope |
| The Top or Crown |
| The Mouth |
| The Skirt |
| The Burner(s) |
| The Gondola or Basket |
| The Inflation. |
| Most people don't realize that a balloon begins out flat on the ground. The inflation has many steps, but I am going to group them in two steps with sub steps :) The first step is the Cold inflation. The cold inflation is the step where the balloon is 'packed' with outside air, blown into the mouth of the balloon by a simple shop fan. During the cold inflation, the four crew members are working their hardest! There is one crew member in control of the shop fan, to vary the speed as the pilot sees fit, two crew members on the mouth, holding the mouth open and the lines out of the way, and one crew member on what is known as the Crown Line. That is a long rope attached to the Crown that allows that crew member to keep the balloon from moving too much. In my opinion, that is the hardest job. As the conditions grow more windy, more crew is needed to help at each position. |
 |
| Here is an example of the mouth. As you can see, the balloon is layed out on the ground and the basket is tipped on its side (just at the right of the picture) There are two crew members holding the mouth open and this balloon is almost packed with air. |
 |
| Here's another example with people I know! Here you can see the basket, the fan, all of the lines, the mouth and the skirt. Multiple balloons are setting up in this picture. What you can't see on these pictures are the crown lines. Those lines are to the far left off the picture, because those are the lines pulling the balloon taunt against the basket. |