Multiple Airships?

I've been in San Antonio for the last 2 weeks or so with my job and yesterday I was hanging out at the airport when the Zeppelin came into town. Managed to get some decent pictures of multiple airships at the same place.

What's turbulence like in that thing?

Their ship looks so much cooler than yours. Just saying. How did you get into doing this type of flying again?

I would imagine its much smoother than a blimp, due to both sheer size and the fact that they have some structure to the ship.

I agree, the thing is simply amazing. Also comes with a price tag. I got lucky, was in the right place at the right time. There is a posting from a few months ago in the career section on jobs with the same company.

Had one of your ships flying over my house the other day (Lake Lanier/KGVL area in Georgia). Didn't know if you were up in it or not.

Nope, that's Snoopy 1. They're out on the East Coast right now (somewhere)

Where's the Yoke? .... I keed I keed.

Not to sound stupid but having never flown in a airship. How do you control that damn thing?

strong, verbal commands and static electricity.

They've got this fancy fly-by-wire system, sort of like an Airbus, you know. :insane:

We've got rudders and elevators that function just like an airplane. Rudders are the same, with rudder pedals and whatnot. Elevators work by using a wheel on both sides of the seat, like rolling a wheel chair. After a few hours of flight, you'll feel it in your arms and legs. Nothing like pushing and pulling cables on something the length of a 737. On top of that, we've got some valves and stuff to play with if we need to.

Are you all signed off and rated yet?

Haha, no, not even close. Training is measured in months due to a variety of factors. Heck, I've flown maybe 5 times total (for something around 20 hours). I've got a long way to go

That's cool. Good luck and enjoy.

Which leads me to my next question...

...what is turbulence like in a blimp?

You ever been on a boat/ship in 40 ft seas? Yeah, like that when there is tons of thermal activity.

Ratings I'd like to collect some day: airship.

While I was driving from the hangar back to the FBO, I once saw an airship landing at CMA in a breeze. It was an interesting evolution to watch, especially when they descended below the plane of the buildings—guess there was a big change in wind. All the little ants...erm, ground handlers...dashed around to catch her. And made it look easy. Cool stuff

I ran into some of the Farmers ground crew as they were leaving on 121 flights at SFO last week. Chatted with them for a bit - seemed like they really enjoyed it.