Working on the Blimps banners is tricky business. It is possible to do this outdoors but requires ZERO wind. Try to picture a 200ft long floating airship attached at one point on the nose.

With even the slightest breeze the Blimp will shift position and even a one degree shift could result in a position change of several feet with a 200ft long airship. Such a shirt could cause it to come toward the cherry picker and the resulting collision could cause damage to the airship… it could move away from the cherry picker and the worker attaching the banner could plunge to the tarmac causing serious injury or worse… the banner is 30′x90′… a bungee cords of that length (90+ feet) is not readily available in a local hardware store.

 Extra Bungees are not carried because of the special conditions (wind) and equipment (cherry picker) needed to allow a refit would not be available except at the home base in Elizabeth City. There are only two hangars capable of handling the Blimp on the east coast… the one at home base and another in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Lakehurst is owned by the US Government and we only have permission to land there if we encounter an in-flight emergency. Bungee, or other non-emergency, repairs are not possible at Lakehurst.

In addition, the weather system that passed into the area was headed north in the direction of Lakehurst (and New York) and would have required filing an IFR flight plan. With other FAA restrictions in the area the Blimp would not have been able to reach the assigned altitude to comply with the flight plan so further travel toward the north was ruled out by the flight crew. For these reasons the flight crew elected to return to Elizabeth City for repairs and to avoid the weather problems.

Today the owner of the blimp graciously extended our deadline for getting the remainder of the money for the month to him. Look for more updates and press releases over the weekend.