alloon and Barge

aron Von Lodge was the head of a small country known as Lilliland near Switzerland. The time was the early 1900s.

The Baron’s castle was next to the large Castle Lake as was his fiancée, Lady Angela’s Alpine Castle. They both enjoyed sailing and other water activities. Lady Angela also enjoyed hot air ballooning.

One summer day a balloonist approached Lady Angela about launching a balloon in front of her castle. The balloon would be launched from a small floating barge attached to a fast motorboat. After the balloon was airborne, the motorboat would pull the barge to keep directly below the balloon.

Lady Angela wanted to give it a try. First, she would watch the balloon on a test flight. After a few successful test flights she would to up in the balloon herself. Lady Angela was an experienced balloonist; in fact she even had her own balloon in storage in the castle.

The Baron was invited to go up in the balloon. He went up with Lady Angela and the flight was very enjoyable. A few days later they did it again and it was quite successful.

The balloon owner wanted to have permission to take up tourists. The balloon would be launched from the barge near the dock by the Grand Lilliland Hotel. The hotel manager thought it would be a good idea.

When the weather was clear everything went well but when the northern Alpine Mountain winds became strong, problems began to happen. Basically, the speedboat cruising under the balloon was not fast enough for the winds and the balloon would come down in the water.

After several of the tourists ended up in Castle Lake a few too many times, the Baron decided to have a talk with Lady Angela. She agreed that perhaps the balloon flying over a moving barge was not a good idea unless the winds were very calm.

The Baron gave the balloonist permission to use the small Lilliland Airport for future flights.

The hot air balloon flying from the Lilliland Airport had a much better safety record and worked out very well for everyone.