Though he was told the blimp would arrive between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m., it all depended on wind conditions. As it happened, the blimp finally showed itself in the southwestern sky around 4:55. A crew of ten meanwhile had already arrived about 45 minutes before in several trucks hauling trailers. After the blimp made several passes around the airport, it finally descended toward the northern side of the runway and was tethered to a 20-foot pole.
Alicia Cruz, one of the crew members for the blimp-operating company Skyship Services arrived before the blimp’s landing. She explained that the blimp, outfitted with displays for two recent NFL games, the Baltimore Ravens at the Houston Texans and the Kansas City Chiefs at the Pittsburgh Steelers had spent Christmas Eve and Day in Houston. Both games were played on Christmas Day and shown on ESPN and ABC.
Cruz said the A60R blimp has a capacity of 69,000 cubic feet. The A60R, Cruz said, “is the smaller of our blimps. The A170 is 170,000 cubic feet.”
Cruz said the A60R will be spending the night at Hope Municipal Airport while the flight crew of two takes its mandatory hours of rest. On Tuesday morning it will take off from Hope to its home base in a hangar near Smyrna, Tennessee.
Cruz said although a background in aviation isn’t necessary to work at Skyship Services but she is a student pilot trying for her Lighter Than Air certification, “which is hot air balloons.” Flying a blimp is different from flying other vehicles, requiring a combination of skills.
“You kind of have to mix hot air balloons, which are lighter than air classification with fixed wing, because it does have the control panel of a fixed wing aircraft, but then you have that lighter than air configuration with the helium and the pressure. The gondola is similar to a boat. So we do use boat terms. It's a mixture of and a collaboration of many different things,” Cruz said.
Cruz, who lives near Nashville, Tennessee, said she had been in Hope to see to another blimp landing back in April and had been able to attend the Third Annual James Black Bowie Heritage Festival.
“We went to the Bowie festival and we toured the historic Washington area. It was a rainy day, but it was really nice still. Everybody was so wonderful and welcoming.”
About 20 people came out to see the blimp landing with several standing in the airport parking lot to take in the sight and take photos. Allen said viewers who wish to see the blimp take off are welcome to come out Tuesday morning, too.
