Full video

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imagine as a child you thought if you

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could just get enough healing balloons

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could you float away

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and we're normally told no that's not

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possible you're not going to be able to

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fly with healing balloons but i

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revisited that idea as an adult and i

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argued if one balloon provides some unit

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of lift why wouldn't we be able to scale

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that

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and that's what we're doing

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[Music]

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i'm flying my chair

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[Music]

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my name is trapp and i am a technical

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projects manager at a large it

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consulting forum as a day job but i have

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a unusual passion hobby

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which is to take helium balloons toy

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helium balloons and assemble them in

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massive clusters for manned flight

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these are balloons that were never

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intended to support manned flight but

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that's what we've caused them to do 17

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100 still climbing

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that passion has carried me aloft on

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more than a dozen flights across as many

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years

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sometimes it's just me just my body in a

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tiny little harness sometimes we're

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flying bigger things i've flown houses

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what a thing to say i've flown houses

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two of them

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we were flying these toy helium balloons

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before the disney pixar film up but i

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will say this that the film up also

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inspired us now the idea of flying a

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house under toy helium balloons

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absolutely came from the disney pixar

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film

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one of the things i love about flying

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these helium balloons is they have the

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capability for real expedition level

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flights what i'm talking about is

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flights of 23 000 feet in an open

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gondola carried only by helium balloons

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13 000 feet as we cross the alps it

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varies from a small cluster couple dozen

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balloons to extraordinarily large

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towering clusters 365 of these massive

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balloons we've flown clusters for 10

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hours 12 hours uh you know 14 hours the

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longest we've ever flown in a single

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flight

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466 miles

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when i take off i don't know where i'm

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going to put down i'll select a safe

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place to land in flight but i'm flying

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hundreds of miles without knowing

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exactly where i'll land

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[Music]

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we're good

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we're down

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so it's a mix of art and science the art

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is the colorful cluster of healing

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balloons but the science is it is quite

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serious and i treat it seriously there's

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human life at stake my life and the

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lives of those i share the sky with and

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the lives of those under me hello

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how are you

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we work with the federal aviation

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administration in terms of getting the

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aircraft certified london this is gas

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balloon calling to activate my flight

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plan it took me about a year to go to

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flight school get a pilot's license and

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after about a year of tests and training

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and certifications

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we made our first flight using my

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standard office chair as my gondola for

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that flight

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when you're up there it's not just

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leisure and relaxation you're floating

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away you have moments of that but

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there's a lot more time spent thinking

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okay am i heading the right direction do

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i have any airspace or obstacles in

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front of me okay we're climbing 120

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right at 18 000 feet so it's trying to

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get this guy to a zero pressure

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configuration you have to fly the

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aircraft if i'm climbing and i need to

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initiate a descent i need to vent helium

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the balloons are biodegradable so we can

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also cut the balloons away cut away

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individual balloons

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so there's a whole calculation and it

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changes every flight depending on what

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i'm flying

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[Music]

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the feeling of launching is unparalleled

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it's not like anything else to fly an

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aircraft that's completely silent makes

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no sound we're approaching sunset it's

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really beautiful out there

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there's no rotor there's no prop there's

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no jet there's no burner like a hot air

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balloon there's no roar of wind like you

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get in a glider it's completely silent

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like listen

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there's no sound

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so what's the whole point of this why do

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it it's to lead an interesting life that

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is the most beautiful moon rise i've

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seen in my entire life

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it enriches my life to look back and

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reflect on what we've accomplished

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[Applause]

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i have all of those moments as prized

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memories

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to keep me warm in my old age

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[Music]

4:53

hey everybody my name is drew bibi and

4:55

i'm here in my terrible home studio that

4:57

i've made during quarantine and i wanted

5:00

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