EAA Sport Aviation - August 2009

in the spotlight

contained in the ballonet and the weight of the ship. Helium can also be dumped, but only if it is absolutely necessary, because it is expensive.

The other instructor for the class was Fritz Günther, on loan to Airship Ventures from the Zeppelin NT. He presented a five-hour ground school. Each participant was issued two three-ring binders with 114 pages of operating data we needed to understand before we flew.

Fritz explained how to keep the ship in trim using the ballonets, repositioning of fuel, and using water ballast. There is an elaborate custom Excel sheet to determine the ship’s weight and balance.

Flying the Zeppelin Pitch, yaw, and roll are all controlled by the side-stick. There are no rudder pedals. All of us over-controlled at first. You have to wait for the airship to catch up with your inputs.

“There is no such thing as quick, and you have to be able to multitask,” Kate advised. “Watch the altitude and watch your pitch.” Because the pilots are in the front of the ship, it’s hard to realize how steep the pitch is until you look back over your shoulder and see the dramatic angle of the deck. There is more than 200 feet of zeppelin behind you. The ship does roll, because it is a ship. That is also controlled by the stick. I crossed my legs to keep from stomping a hole in the floorboards with my phantom rudder inputs.

Each student got to do climbs, turns, descents, and takeoffs and landings. Fritz coached me through a landing. “Altitude, altitude,” he intoned. “Let it come down. Pitch, pitch, pitch.” Landing an airship is all about energy management. There is no flaring. Point it at the ground crew, manage your energy, and adjust the approach so that you come down just ahead of them. A wind gust will move you sideways. So it’s important to watch the chief ground handler, who is holding a windsock on a stick. If you start to move sideways, take off and try again.

The ground crew also has handheld radios for letting you know how close the gondola main wheel is to the ground. “Ten feet… eight…six…three…you’re down,” the handler chants. After the main wheel touches there are still a few moments of waiting for the tail wheel to make contact. The ground crew scurries forward to place bags of lead shot in the cabin to replace the weight lost from fuel burn. It takes 40 hours of experience to qualify for a zeppelin license, and that involves a trip to Germany.

Besides the pilot experience at $2,950, Airship Ventures also does charter operations and air tours for around $495 per passenger. It also conducts shorter, 30-minute flights for $199 per person. It’s a smooth ride, and every seat is a window seat.