Anybody In Pa., Md. Or WV Seen A Large Pink Pig Flying By?

[AB3L]

I have always wondered how far a helium filled baloon might make it in it's travel. But since the normal helium baloon won't draw any attention, this one will.
The pig is about 20 feet long and about 10 feet high. It has some writing on it. Something about George Bush across the back. It started it's journey at about 10:30 pm last night from the Post Gazette Pavilion in Burgettstown, Pa. during the Roger Waters concert.

Any sightings would be interesting. I have a vision that it will end up as a tarp on a farm somewhere.

[WB3JOK]

Don't the prevailing winds travel from west to east, especially at high altitude, so it will end up in upstate NY or even Maine? I haven't seen it here in Presque Isle (ME) but I'll keep an eye out 
-Charles

[wb1aij]

I did a little research & experimentation with helium balloons years ago and here is what I found. A balloon will rise to a certain altitude until the difference between the air it displaces and the weight of the balloon are equal. You all knew that. During the day the sun will heat the balloon & cause it to rise higher and as the helium expands some of it will have to vent to keep the balloon from rupturing. Then at night the balloon will loose some of its buoyancy and decend until it lands. I used to send out 55 gallon trash bags full of helium with a plastic laminated card with my name & address and a request to notify me if it was found. The farthest I reached from East Hartford, Ct. was Montauk point long Island. Some guy found it floating in the surf. 2 days later. I let it go about 21:00 on a windy night figuring it would fly all night & all the next day & decend the 2nd night. I called flight service & got the wind direction & velocity at 3000,6000, & 9000 feet and calculated the track of the flight. If you want the balloon to fly more than 24 hours I think you have to release some ballast each night to compensate for the helium lost each day.

[AB3L]

OK, your right. Now that I looked at the Google Satellite map and got my bearings I changed the watch area. It was heading south east the last I saw it.

We had a pretty good wind yesterday as was evidenced by the Steeler game. Kickoffs required a ball holder.
I have heard that a balloon would probably explode at some time or as mentioned, lose Helium. The pig looked to be of a pretty heavy material as it was led around the site by a field team holding the teathers. Cold last night and the sun hot today, it probably came down after noon maybe today. I would have loved to see the face of whom ever found it!

[k3zrf]

Wow, so pigs do fly 

[N9NEO]

Our Kicker needed a kicker.

73
Pats_Fan

[w1guh]

Makes me wonder if it's a hazard to aviation?  Guess not, nobody seems concerned about that.

But this reminds me of a footnote to the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade I witnessed in '93.  I was over on the west side watching them blow up the balloons the night before (Can't do that now...it's all barricaded off.     But then it was wide open).

Two of the ballons that had alreay been blown up were Bart Simpson and Betty Boop.

Well! (Sure wish I had a camera...this would be priceless) The two of them were together in a position that can't exactly be described on a family BBS! 

I guess I could say that Bart was wearing ear muffs?

The other thing I noticed...something obvious when you think about it, is the tanks used to fill those balloons were huge semi-truck trailers.  Not your garden variety dime store cylinders.

[wa2zdy]

I just KNEW Pink Floyd would be part of this thread in some way just from the title.  Cool.

[AB3L]

I was just told by our local DJ that this is part of all of the outside shows.

If you've maybe had too much to drink or whatever and you've seen one, it doesn't mean you have to finally admit yourself to rehab. It's OK, you still got it together