Post #516568 by Tiki Lee's on Thu, Mar 11, 2010 12:33 PM

Aloha Folks!

I just wanted to share my "Harrowing Brush With Death" Adventure that happened last Saturday nite...

As some of you may or may not know, I am one of the Pilots for the Cloud 9 balloon in Las Vegas. We take passengers up to a height of about 500 above the Strip for a totally awesome viewing experience. Here's the website if you wanna take a look- http://cloud9vegas.com

So, last Saturday nite was just like any other; lite breeze and clear visibility. I was at 500 feet with 6 passengers when the wind started to pick up a bit. As I started our decent, the wind, which usually decreases, started to increase. No big deal, really. It happens sometimes. But then the wind started to get a little too strong, and it started to rain. What happened next was, well shall I say, interesting...

please view the clip-

http://www.mynews3.com/story.php?id=12516&n=5400

What you see in the video is when things were getting CALMER. We stop flying when the wind reaches 20 mph and above. On the way down, between hanging on for dear life and actually Piloting the balloon so it would not descend too quickly and erratically, I noted a wind speed reading of 25.7 meters per second. That's about 57.5 miles per hour. Yes, we were virtually horizontal at times! I did manage to land the balloon safely and keep it from being smashed into the ground on either end of the wind-driven pendulum swing, and everyone got off safely.

As for me, well I guess Tangaroa Ru and Hina, the Goddesses of Wind and Rain, just wanted to pay me a visit that nite. They just came on a little too strong, I guess! Next time they come for a visit, I hope I'm on the ground and not in a 21-story tall balloon 500 feet in the air!

[ Edited by: Tiki Lee's 2010-09-26 21:53 ]