A Trip in a Blimp

Things have been a bit slow lately, but I got a chance to do something really, really neat last week: I was given a ride on the Fujifilm blimp. Four of us and a PR person took a 45-minute trip starting from Floyd Bennett Field (the first airfield in the NYC area, now no longer used) and took a flight along the coast of Brooklyn, past Coney Island and Bay Ridge, up past the Verrazzano Bridge and close enough for a view of the Statue of Liberty and the southern tip of Manhattan (although it was too misty to see very clearly).

It was great. Unlike in a plane, we went slowly enough and steadily enough so we could take lots of pictures and locate buildings and places from the air -- and see them from a new perspective. (Never realized there were that many backyard swimming pools in Bay Ridge. And the local high school has a full-sized football field behind it -- who knew?) We got to sit with one of the pilots in front and ask questions about their really neat GPS system. (Both pilots were Australian -- they said it was just a coincidence; we decided there was a secret society of Austrialian Blimp Pilots.)

Anyway, I've put some pictures on line, just in case anyone would like to see what it looks like. ( Right here.... )

Anyway, it was lots of fun.