Comment

Comment by Tim Garrett on June 4, 2010 at 6:11pm

Mike,

I forgot to tell you the SAME Goodyear blimp buzzed my house May 31 headed south down Highway 55 about 20 miles south of downtown St Louis. My wife snapped this picture out our sun room about 11 am.

He's very loud!

Comment by Mike Schlichtman on June 2, 2010 at 10:39pm

I got to thinking I should know how close two aircraft can get to each other laterally VFR. 95% of the time, I am on a IFR flight plan in my Cirrus, so I need to brush up on my VFR FARs for the 750. IFR seperation, ATC is required 5 mi below 29FL with when at same altitude. All I could find concerning VFR and in the case with me and how close I could leagally get to the blimp without prior discussion of formation flight is this...."No person may operate an aircraft so close to another aircraft as to create a collision hazard."
So, I guess I could have eased on up to him for a closer picture as long as I did not create a hazard. The blimp is less manuverable, so he would have had the right of way.

Comment by Mike Schlichtman on June 2, 2010 at 10:20pm

Yep, thats the direction they were going. I'm sure you know this, but KROG is where Wal Mart keeps there fleet. I wanted to get closer for a better picture, I could not remember if the FARs call for 1000' or 500' horizontal seperation, so I figured 1000'.

Comment by Richard Rost on June 2, 2010 at 9:53pm

It was moored at KROG for the Wal-mart shareholders meeting. I saw it over Springdale this morning going toward U of A where the meeting was held. At times going south they were tacking the wind to make headway. When they headed north at about 1300 they were probably back in Rogers in 15 minutes.

Comment by Mike Schlichtman on June 2, 2010 at 9:38pm

I was actually surprised at how fast it was going compared to me.....I did not just blow by it like in other plane...Ha

Comment by Tim Garrett on June 2, 2010 at 9:01pm

You two have about the same stall speed, don't you?