RubberBuzz || Akron Unleashed: Race for a Ride

7.24.2005

Race for a Ride

I got a chuckle out of this. A Goodyear Blimp pilot was in a soapbox derby race over the weekend. The prize: A ride in the Goodyear Blimp.

So there they were, the three finalists -- the blimp pilot [Jerry Hissem], the bank president [Tim Fitzwater] and the maintenance manager [Jim McCann] -- ready to roll. Each man was wearing a blue plastic helmet, each leaning forward with his chin down close to the steering wheel.

Someone said ``Go!'' and the starting gates dropped. The cars began to pick up speed, their collective rumble louder as the cars gained velocity.

Perhaps half a minute passed, and they reached the finish line. McCann was first. Hissem was second. Fitzwater was third.

This created a problem. If McCann chose the cash prize, then Hissem, the blimp pilot, would find himself the proud winner of a ride on the Goodyear blimp. He would, in essence, be rewarded with his day job.

In the end McMann took the ride on the blimp. But this brings me to my next point: the blimp is freakin' loud to ride in. I'm one of the lucky Akronite who can say they've flown in the Goodyear blimp. My mom works for Goodyear and was rewarded with some passes to go on the blimp what I was in fourth grade. So I'm going to describe the experience for you.

You get out to the dock at Wing Foot Lake and there's the blimp looking huge and foreboding. There were like six or so guys holding the blimp with a series of lines to keep it from drifting too much on the ground. Then, one-by-one, you had to run to the blimp and jump on. The one-at-a-time thing was to ensure safety just in case the blimp shifts and you have to run from the giant propellers. And those propellers are super loud. Once inside the cabin which depending on the model can hold 8 to 12 people, you cannot carry on a conversation; the roar of the motors is too loud.

But once you're in the air it's an incredible experience. It's awesome to see Akron from above. As you drift along, you can see the shadow that the blimp casts cover entire houses; it was really awesome. My flight didn't have a co-pilot, so we were aloud to take turns going up to the co-pilots seat and see what the pilot sees. We were also aloud to put on head gear so the hum of the engines was drowned out. The pilot answered all the questions we had about the blimp and it was pretty cool. Then it was time to land.

I was the youngest one on the flight so the pilot wanted to make sure I remembered the flight, so he was going to let me stay in the co-pilot seat while he landed the blimp. Then I started hunting for a seat belt frantically. Blimps are, or at least were, seat belt free. I felt like I was going to fall through the glass of the cockpit and land on the earth below. I held on the seat for dear life. We landed safely and didn't fall out of the blimp. All in all it was a great experience, but my ears rang for a good hour afterwards.

The BJ :: Blimp? Soap box? Tossup

(joe :: Race for a Ride)

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