Driving the Goodyear Blimp

Huh? Where is this coming from? Where is the recap of the year?
I have all summer for that.

Not that many people can say that they got to drive the Goodyear Blimp. I can say that. Fewer people can say that they drove the Goodyear Blimp before they drove a car. I can say that. I always forget that I drove the Goodyear Blimp. Like it randomly pops into my head every once in a while. I did this in 1998. As a matter of fact it was the same vacation I met Derek Jeter and got his autograph. I hate the Yankees. Derek Jeter is one of the few Yankees that I respect. He is a winner. I just wish he lost when he played my teams.

Anyway back to driving the Goodyear Blimp. For years this was supposed to happen. We would go down to Florida in March but for years it would be too windy for Goodyear to take us up. My Grandpa owns a tire retreading business in Immokalee, Florida (The Hometown of Edgerrin James, and as a matter of fact his father stopped by the shop one day) and at the time his business was affiliated with Goodyear. That's how we were able to go up in the blimp. It's not available just for you know, people like you. I'm sure Meghan Cunningham could get up there with no problem though. (What you thought that she wouldn't make it into this?)

Anyway we went to Pompano Beach, Florida to ride in the Blimp. The Blimp stays in this huge hanger. Literally it's one of the biggest buildings that I have ever seen. The Blimp has tons of ropes that hang off the side of it for the ground crew to hold on to. They help keep the blimp stable for people to get on and off. The cab that you sit it is pretty small. You don't really get up and move around unless you have too. There was room for 5 or 6 passengers and 1 or 2 pilots, or a pilot, one camera and one cameraman for when the Blimp filmed sporting events. The Cab was also really really loud as it was right by the engines. It was hard to hear much. I think we had radios on to allow us to communicate. The funny part that I remember was my dad being afraid of the door. He sat next to it and basically the door was well not like an Airplane door. It was not even as thick as a car door. It was safe, but your not really used to something that thin...with so few locks...to prevent you from falling thousands of feet. It looked more like the door on a fair or carnival ride...Maybe like the thickness of the door on a Model T...It was safe...just might not have appeared as sturdy as you would have imagined. IT WAS SAFE I will reiterate that part. It was also a lot of fun. I think that the blimp went 35 mph...no faster than like 55. Not 100% sure on those numbers...it was over 10 years ago that I was on it. We went around the Pompano Beach area and out to the ocean a little bit.

I thought that the pilot was handicapped for a long time. Then he showed us how he steered the blimp. The wheel that we thought was a wheelchair was actually what controlled the pitch of the blimp. The pilot invited me, into the co-pilot seat to get to control that wheel for a little bit. He had me pull the wheel forward and back. Then he showed us the advantage of having a blimp...you can descend at a very slow rate at a very steep angle...so basically he had us looking DOWN at the ocean at a pretty steep angle and when your not used to it it's a little uncomfortable at first. We didn't lose much altitude...having a big balloon full of air helps you out...it's not possible to free-fall unless the balloon pops. He also had us go up really steeply. Steeper than what a plane goes up when it takes off.

We had so much fun being in the Blimp. When I came back from Spring Break, and people would ask me what I did, I would respond "I got Derek Jeter's autograph and drove the Goodyear Blimp"...Pretty Cool for a 9 year old.

The Goodyear Blimp has also become a fixture in sports. When you see the blimp or any other blimp I automatically assume that it is traveling to be at a sporting event. Blimps have become a part of sports and their shots of venues can be stunning.