Airport second home for blimps

Source: The Telegraph, Alton, Ill.迷你倉Oct. 17--BETHALTO -- Viewers watching TV broadcasts of St. Louis Cardinals playoff baseball games from Busch Stadium can enjoy aerial camera angles provided by a blimp that spends its down time at St. Louis Regional Airport.In fact, the airport in Bethalto has become a major hangout for a number of blimps used in TV sports coverage and even promotional campaigns."We seem to be a mecca for blimps," Airport Manager David Miller said. "They enjoy coming here."There are a couple of good aeronautical reasons for that," he said. "We're not in a high-density traffic area, but we're close by to all the things they want to cover. They like the services here. They can get everything they need, whether it's helium or other stuff. We're pleased to accommodate their needs."This week, the DIRECTV blimp is moored at Regional. It was used for the TBS network's coverage of Games 1 and 2 of the National League Championship Series at Busch, and it will be back in action for Friday night's Game 6, unless the Cardinals can close out the series by beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in Wednesday's Game 5 at Dodger Stadium."When (the series) comes back (to St. Louis), the blimp is here, pre-positioned," Miller said.If the Cardinals make it to the World Series, Games 3 and 4 and, if necessary, Game 5, will be played at Busch, starting on Saturday, Oct. 26. Because the World Series will be broadcast on the Fox TV network and because of the gap of more than a week, Miller said he didn't know whether the DIRECTV blimp would stay in Bethalto until then.But if the DIRECTV blimp stays for the week, it wouldn't be unusual.Miller recalled when a blimp had been used in California and stopped over in Bethalto on its way to its next "gig" in New Hampshire."They had like three weeks between the two events, so it just came here and hung out for like a week-and-a-half," he said.Miller said that, so far, the airport only has hosted one blimp at a time."But we have a plan where we could have three at a time without having to shut down any other facilities, such as the utility runway," he said. "They take up a lot of parking space, and they have to be able to pivot 360 degrees around their mooring mast."Miller said the airport itself doesn't provide helium for the blimps, but the crews can get what they need from the local market."We do not provide any of their requirements other than the space," he said. "We also do not charge any kind of 儲存anding fee or mooring fee out here for anybody."However, Miller said the airport makes some revenue off the fuel flowage fee when the blimps refuel there."A lot of the vendors around here, the hotels and restaurants, it's extra business for them," he said.Each blimp usually carries a crew of three: a pilot, co-pilot and camera operator."This way of travel is very economical once they're in the air, but it's very labor-intensive on the ground," Miller said. "Before they come in, there's a caravan of three or four oversize pickup trucks, each one pulling a trailer. One pulls a mobile command post, and one brings a mooring mast, disassembled."Each blimp requires a crew of 12 to 15 people, he said."It's really something to watch the thing launch and also watch the recovery," Miller said. "It's like a well-orchestrated drill team out there; everybody has to know which rope they're supposed to grab."Typically, they come in a couple of days before the event, and they usually depart the day after, as soon as the crew can get adequate rest, and go on to the next place."The airport manager pointed out Regional has hosted three different airships in the last 30 days. He said it was interesting recently to see the DIRECTV blimp doing touch-and-go landings on one of the runways, probably as training for crew members."I never saw one doing that before," Miller said.Not all the blimps come to the area to cover sporting events. Recently, the airport hosted a balloon in the shape of a character from the hit movie, "Despicable Me 2.""It was here specifically to fly around the community and promote those cartoon characters and the movie," Miller said. "Likewise, the Budweiser blimp was here specifically to promote the designated driver concept, and it flew around town for several days."Miller said anyone interested in watching the blimp's operations at Regional can get a good view from the parking lot north of the Airport Restaurant, which is the first building north of the control tower. He said Civic Memorial Drive comes off Illinois Route 111, and the parking lot is about halfway to two-thirds around the circle drive at the end of Civic Memorial.The blimps usually take off about two hours before the sporting event begins and return about 30 minutes after it finishes.swhitworth@civitasmedia.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 The Telegraph (Alton, Ill.) Visit The Telegraph (Alton, Ill.) at .thetelegraph.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesmini storage