Flying in a Zeppelin
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Farmers Airship (Airship Ventures) Zeppelin NT N07 Eureka
(registered N704LZ, c/n 04), based at Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, is
one of only two Zeppelin dirigibles operating in the world today (the other is
based in Germany in Friedrichshafen on the shores of Lake Constance, the home
of Zeppelin).
Filled with non-flammable helium, Eureka is a dirigible, not
a blimp. A dirigible has an internal
rigid frame covered with a shell and filled with lifting gas. It has engines mounted on the sides of the
hull, away from the gondola. A blimp
does not have an internal frame, maintains its shape solely from gas pressure,
and has its engines mounted on the gondola.
Having an actual Zeppelin (the same company that made the
infamous Hindenburg) operating near me is exciting. Of course I want to add that to my list of interesting
and rare aircraft flown. However, price is high. The tour I want to take is
a one-hour flight over San Francisco (flown out of Oakland) at $495 plus
tax. Nevertheless, I am on their email
list for last minute specials. Since
joining the mailing list in the past two years or so, nothing ever lined up for
me between available dates, available departure times, departing cities, and
good weather forecast. Everything finally
lined up when I received their special offer for the last weekend in
October. It was Eureka’s first weekend
back to the San Francisco Bay Area after making a six-month tour around the
country. After confirming a good weather
forecast, I quickly grabbed the last departure from Oakland at 2:25 pm on
Saturday at the special price of $380 (including tax).
My flight departed from Oakland’s North Field, paralleling
I-880 and the Bay Bridge to San Francisco.
We then turned north, following the piers along the Embarcadero, went
around Alcatraz towards the Golden Gate, and then turned north again towards
Sausalito. We then followed around Angel
Island before turning south back towards the Bay Bridge toll plaza, back along
side I-880 returning to North Field. Wheels
up to wheels down lasted almost exactly one hour (59 minutes to be exact).
Here is my flight track plot from Oakland’s noise
tracker. N704LZ is in yellow, so it’s a
bit hard to see.
My flight was full at 12 passengers (three couples, me,
another solo flier, and four Brazilian TV show personalities and
photographer). Captain Ben Travis was
the pilot and Anthony was the flight attendant.
Without further ado, here are the photos and video from my
flight. Being able to see the Zeppelin
arrive and depart before and after my flight really added to the
experience. How often do you get to go
on an aircraft and yet still see it move from the outside right next to it?
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