Holy blast valve! They are flying that thing themselves. I guess that isn't beyond the realm of imagination. Balloon Excelsior in Manteca, California, is just one of many licensed balloon pilot training programs. For $2,200, plus your own balloon, equipment, propane, insurance, chase vehicle and crew, you can get the FAA required 10 hours of ground training and 10 hours of flight to qualify for your Private Pilot Certificate under Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Part 61.
The past eight years have been a blank for Adam, and balloon pilot school is the first missing piece of that puzzle.
20 comments:
If Adam had had those balloon skills when they were fighting crime, things might have turned out differently.
Think of how much fun it would be to bust perps using a hot air balloon!
Toots - reminds of the blimp patrol during WWII. The problem wasn't sighting enemy subs, it was the two hours it took to get where they were 2 hours before. By that time they were back in France.
Wanders, your research skills are impeccable. I suppose Adam has the financial resources to finance balloon pilot training - taking a bullet for Congressman McDugal must have brought a large cash payment along with monthly disability payments. Speaking of disability, why isn't Adam's cane hanging over the edge of the gondola?
It's a relief that Terry is not playing hooky from her cybersecurity job. Since she gets only one day off a week, Adam's scheduling skills will really be tested.
I keep trying to imagine how it is that Adam knows Terry likes heights...Was it when they trapped a terrorist on the Eiffel Tower? Or how about that time they were investigating a home-rehab scam and had to keep a perp on a ladder until backup showed? If she likes heights so much, why didn't he REALLY impress her and schedule a parachuting trip? Guessing that's next week's Insightful Date Between Friends. . .
Yep. Taking it slowly. Adam is a model of patience. Glad he's not being at all pushy with the interpersonal thing.
Sheesh. I know enough about ballooning to know that this latest adventure is totally bogus. Balloons travel with the wind, not against it. If the wind is blowing hard enough to make your scarf whip straight out to the side, you have no business being up there. Typically balloonist fly at dawn or dusk, when the winds are light. The sensation is that there is no wind, because you're moving with it. I would love to see their landing.
I've been an avid comics reader for decades, and I don't know why I have been drawn into reading a comic about a busybody (a well-intentioned one, but a busybody nonetheless), although it usually turns out ok. But if these two end up together, there better be a follow-up in a few years (or months) where the unjustifiably jealous Adam calls up his NSA buddies to track Terry's phone, email accounts, Google searches and the GPS in her car. I have sympathy for him for whatever it is that happened to him, but he is NOT anywhere near ready for a meaningful relationship. He needs to get comfortable with himself instead of using Terry as a surrogate. ...and here I am psychoanalyzing a comic character.
Will KM ever write a story that readers aren't begging for it to end?
Once again, Moy and Giella do not get their knowledge of ballooning from a wee bit of research but straight from the 1956 version of Around the World in 80 Days or The Wizard of Oz. But, hey! We could still be sitting on the Blah Blah Bench talking about how we’re not ready to fully commit to a relationship while the moon waxes and wanes without cease and we all grow more and more stooped with old age. This is so much better! I can’t wait for them to hit these enormous craggy mountains. Santa Royale’s environs are indeed varied!
Groupie- I, personally, could have enjoyed many more strips about Dawn and Wilbur's trip to Italy and the calamitous aftermath. It's all been downhill from there.
Terry may find herself on a mountain top much sooner than she expected, though "living" may not be the operative word.
Hey, did anybody else encounter the weird not-a-robot test recently, whereby you were supposed to choose all the photos that depicted, for example, ice cream, and there was only one that looked anything like ice cream, but then you got a message saying you had failed to find all the matches, so you chose the same one again and it accepted your comment anyway?
Wanders, you have been on fire with this plot-line. I almost hope it lasts forever just for the entertainment, but I'm not a sadist. Thanks for all you do.
"Maybe" by Enrique Iglesias... or The Chantels. Or "Maybe" from Annie, just throw in an orphan.
Seriously loving the frightfully constructed balloon and Adam's mad ballooning skillz.
Is anyone else reminded of the dating montage between Leslie Nielsen and Priscilla Presley in The Naked Gun? Just waiting for Terry to call Adam "funny face."
Frank Drebin: It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girl dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.
Jane: Goodyear?
Frank Drebin: No, the worst.
(The Naked Gun: From the files of Police Squad)
Leslie Nielsen movies never get old.
Maybe the pilot of the balloon is hidden; connected to that errant arm emerging from a black sleeve at the left of the basket in panel two?
Meg, I just wonder if we'll ever get to the bottom of that hill.
All those in favor of having the balloon crash land,
please raise your disembodied black-sleeved errant hand.
Obviously the black sleeved hand is our balloonist. They've killed him to steal his balloon and are now waiting until they are over the most barren and remote part of the desert to push his rapidly stiffening body out of the basket.
No doubt about it - crash landing to convince Terry that, indeed, life can be short. I think Adam said that at some point but I'm not willing to spend any of what's left of my short life to go back and check. And, Sara Carroll, you are right on - Wanders has outdone himself lately! Yahoonski - me too, only I got to pick out bread photos. I got stumped on a photo that could have been a roll but might have been a muffin. Maybe I am a robot?
This guy is a "Peter Pan". And he wants to live in "Never-Never Land" with this "Wendy" !!!!!!!!!!
Post a Comment