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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 1988)
State and Local Friday, March 11,1988/The Battalion/Page 3 MMWniaGESVIMMaHHHMiMiEBninRMWKBMWSXMaiIKdMJS ^Balloon owner takes staffers up, up and away By Tom Eikel Staff Writer Residents of Bryan-College Sta tion have the opportunity to gain a unique perspective of their commu nity— a view from above. Harold Cliver, Class of ’84 and owner of Rainbow Balloons in Bryan, is in business giving people the chance to , r . . experience the Vlewpoint thrill of riding mmmimmmmitmmmitiem in a hot air bal loon. Cliver phoned The Battalion about two weeks ago and offered to take a few staffers for a ride, and I was one of the lucky ones chosen to go. We met Cliver early one morning at his home in Bryan. Most balloon flights take place ei ther in the early morning or late evening because wind conditions are more favorable at these times. A small test balloon filled with helium was released and showed the winds to be light and variable for our flight. Once we arrived at our launch site, Tanglewood Park in Bryan, Cliver and his crew spread the bal loon on the ground. He began in flating it using a gas-powered fan. The whole balloon setup, Cliver said, cost about $30,000. After several minutes, the bal loon was full enough so that the burners could be used to finish the job. Cliver’s balloon is equipped with two burners, fueled by two 20-gal lon propane tanks. Each burner is capable of producing 12 million British thermal units of heat per hour — enough to heat 100 three- bedroom homes for an hour, he said. The balloon is made of a special nylon material with a polyurethane coating to keep it from being po rous. After about a minute of using the burners, the balloon was standing upright and ready for takeoff. Fully inflated, Cliver’s balloon Clockwise from upper left: • At upper left, Harold Cliv er’s hot air balloon tilts as it is in flated. The inflation process is al most complete and the balloon is slowly becoming upright. Cliver, Class of ’84, owns Rainbow Bal loons in Bryan. • The Flying Tomato balloon also went floating over Bryan. This picture was taken from Cliv er’s balloon. • This photograph shows an aerial view of Texas A&M from the north-northeast corner of campus. • Cliver’s balloon is inflated using a propane gas burner. Cliver, with his back to the cam era, operates the burner and ad justs the flame as the balloon fills with hot air. His phone number, 779-2523, is on the bottom of the balloon so that people who see the balloon can contact him to ar range for rides. All of the photographs were taken by Shelly Schluter. )h I her' Coupon INTERNATIONAL HOUSE RESTAURANT $2.99 Mon: Burgers St French Fries Tues: Buttermilk Pancakes Wed: Burgers St French Fries Thur: Hot Dogs St French Fries Fri: Catfish Nuggets St Fries Sat: French Toast Sun: Spaghetti & Meat Sauce ALL YOU CAN EAT $2" 6 a.m. Fio tzike outs • must present this ad mmmmmftmm Expires5/1/88 Rooty Tooty $2 49 2 eggs, 2 pancakes, 2 sausage, 2 bacon good Mon.-Fri. Anytime International Slonse of Pancakes Restaurant 105 S. College Skaggs Center Rgifaojl ^Wait ^hyour tax HEFlUMB WHEN YOU CAN GET YOUR MONEY FAST' Use H&R Blocks Rapid Refund Program It’S available whether H&R Block piepTJr your tax return or not, 1012 Texas Ave., Bryan 823-8241 Sears (Post Oak Mall) 764-0395 Open 7 Days A Week H&R BLOCK holds 105,400 cubic feet of air. Climbing into the basket, I sud denly became very concerned about the strength of wicker, but my con cerns were needless. Ballooning is relatively safe. The chances of being killed in a balloon accident are only 0.004 per cent, and roughly 90 percent of all accidents involve collisions with power lines. Most people have at least a mod erate fear of heights, and I am no exception. But less than a minute after leaving the ground, any anxie ties I may have had vanishea. The sights were incredible and it was unbelievably quiet at 7,000 feet — quiet, that is, except for the dogs. Every dog, in every backyard, in ev ery neighborhood we drifted over was barking at us. There was also a group of chil dren in an elementary school play ground who waved and called, “Come over here! Conle over he re!” much to the dismay of their teacher. When it was all over, we had trav eled about five miles in a little less than an hour. Cliver has been operating his company on a full-time basis since Dec. 1. He says people go up for many different reasons. “Birthdays, anniversaries — last December I had a guy propose in my balloon; she said yes,” Cliver said. “But most do it just because they want to ride in a balloon.” Cliver, who has flown more than 120 hours in this type of balloon, said he charges $75 per person for a one-hour ride, ana that he aver ages about 40 hours of flight time per month. “If you want to book a ride dur ing the week, you can pretty much pick your day,” Cliver said. But if you want to ride on a weekend, you had best make your reservations now, he said. Cur rently, Cliver is booking rides for weekends in April. Cliver says he plans to have two balloons operating by sometime in April. GUADALAJARA SUMMER SCHOOL University of Arizona offers more than 40 courses: anthropol ogy, art, bilingual edu cation, folk music and folk dance, history, phonetics, political sci ence, Spanish langu age and literature and intensive Spanish. Six- week session. July 4- August 12,1988. 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