FAA clearances & other questions

[mathamagician]

A few questions I have for this great project (I apologize if these have been answered already).

We only get 100 Hours ~= 16 days of flying for 6 hours.

Is there anyone researching large sporting events this can fly over?

If so is anyone researching the FAA clearance required to fly over or near such an event?

Someone researching where the Blimp can be landed at the end of each 6 hour day when we're moving it?

If we move the Blimp up to New Hampshire or Iowa how many hours do we use up?
(I'd estimate it would take 18 hours going to get to Iowa and 12 to get to New Hampshire at 65 miles an hour)

Do we have to return the Blimp to North Carolina when we're done with it?

Is our goal to fly over early primary states or just fly over big population areas to generate national media buzz?

I'd like to see at least a rough draft of some options about how we are going to use this thing.


It seems extremely uneconomical to spend 18 hours flying this out to Iowa and then 18 hours flying it back (36% of air time used for traveling). Especially considering the lack of urban density we'd be flying over.

It seems like we should either focus on large gatherings in South Carolina or hit large gatherings and urban areas along the Eastern Seaboard on the way up to New Hampshire. I liked the idea of being in New York City for New Year's Eve but if we're going to do that we'd probably need some serious FAA clearances.

We should also decide if this project is purely trying to get just as much media and eyeball exposure as possible or if it's trying to get as much primary state exposure as possible.

Again sorry if these questions have been answered already.

[wisconsinite]

First off, the number of hours in the deal was increased to 160 by the blimp company, who have a 20 man ground crew, and since they fly blimps for a living they will know all about FAA regulations and local landing strips to use.

Hopefully we'll get the big lowdown on the project from Elijah that he indicated was coming yesterday, sooner rather than later to clear up a lot of the confusion that has been building with the project.

[Man from La Mancha]

First off, the number of hours in the deal was increased to 160 by the blimp company, who have a 20 man ground crew, and since they fly blimps for a living they will know all about FAA regulations and local landing strips to use.

Hopefully we'll get the big lowdown on the project from Elijah that he indicated was coming yesterday, sooner rather than later to clear up a lot of the confusion that has been building with the project.Nice answer, I like in these forums that most of us here don't get upset with a newbe questions but like to help out. Some other forums especially technical the oldheads have such a bad attitude and won't even answer newbe's questions.:)






http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/1539/blackwsmalldv3.gif (teaparty07.com)ronpaulblimp.com...donate both

[wisconsinite]

Is there anyone researching large sporting events this can fly over?


As I posted elsewhere, there are New England Patriots home games on Dec. 16 and 23.

Also there are New York Jets and New York Giants home games on Dec. 29 and 30.

A lot of people will be following the Patriots games, especially if they still have an undefeated season going. Also, they must have a lot of fans in New Hampshire, being so close.

The Giants' home game is against the Patriots, so again it will have a big national audience and a lot of New Hampshire residents watching.

[Primbs]

Luckily we have a professional blimp company that has experience getting clearances and working connections with the FAA and football stadiums.

We will hunt for targets of opportunity.

Lets make sure we secure the blimp first. We will then have a week or two to figure out where to send it where it will help the campaign the most.

But people can start thinking about where and how to use the blimp for maximum advantage.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

That no matter where you fly it, you'd be flying it directly over the interstate. If you do this, even if you have to take it through flyover country, that you get alot of exposure.

[RickNHouston]

Hey yall ... don't forget we're talking January in northeastern USA .... Not usually the best flying weather for airplanes much less Blimps! Would be terrible to rent this thing for a month and then it not be able to go up....

[mathamagician]

Thanks for all the responses guys! I figured some of this had come up before. We could probably be hatching out potential flightpaths soon. I didn't hear if the goal was more to focus on early states or just as much mass media as possible, any plans on moving it to New Hampshire? It would be really great if they were allowed to fly near (or over) the football stadiums.