Tag: Parachute

Malcolm taking a leap of faith

Flying balloon with Malcolm B

So this is a series of photos from a movie shoot with the Swedish rap artist Malcolm B. This is one part that is going to end up in a coming music video starring Malcolm B.

Today’s mission is to climb to 9000 feet and that altitude, Malcolm will be doing a parachute tandem jump from the balloon. Quite spectacular and not that many persons have made jumps from a hot air balloon, especially at 9000 feet. On top of that, this will be Malcolms first jump ever…

All photos are taken with Canon 5d II and EF 24-70 f/2.8L

First balloon takes to the sky. This one is filled with helium and is only used to see the wind direction and speed as the balloon takes to the sky. It is quite often great difference in both wind speed and direction depending on the altitude. It´s like the wind exists in different layers on top of each other and not as on big block of air above the ground.

Some of the film crew inside the balloon to take some photos before the air inside gets too hot.

And here comes the heat that will make everything fly. I think this balloon produces aprox 3.000.000 watt of heat and my stove at home 3000…

Maceo is al set for the ride of his life although he looked a little bit too calm to me. He will be dangling his feet strapped in this harness to take stills and video shoots from outside the balloon… at 9000 feet…

Here is a better picture of the world’s highest swing. The ropes is attached to the top of the balloon and then goes down on the side to the harness. Once we leave the ground there is nothing in the way between him and the basket. Everything for a clear shot and no way to get him to the basket until we are on the ground again.

Malcolm is trying to keep the demons away from the head… “look cool, I can do this!”. Aint no wifey doesn’t look that convinced… but he was cool!

This is the face of a man thinking, “Oh my god, this is it…”

Take off. We started first and the other team is following close behind. In just a minute or so everything get so small so fast!

Maceo is preparing. This around 2500 feet so we are quite close to the ground. I can imagine that he felt kind a small sitting there with nothing to hold on to.

We are now getting close to our jump altitude so now it is time for the jumpers to get the right mind set.

“Are you sure about this?” It was a little bit hard to make contact with Malcolm. He was so “concentrated” (not scared to death at all…)

We got clearance to make the jump so this is it!
Since I didn´t have a parachute, there is no pictures from the actual jump…

Landed safely on the ground. Everyone was releaved and happy after another great flight with a lot of great photo and video material for the film crew.
It was late and it was cold. We did however decided to move the balloon after landing to on with the heat again!

Malmcol B and Peter from the team Peak Experience.
This was a great day with a lot of great people doing what they love to do!

/Thomas Tanisawa

January 7, 2014
Another flight with skydivers!

Jumping from the hot air balloon

Today we arrange another balloon activity for Aros skydiving club in Västerås. We made a total of two lifts with the balloon so that a total of 12 skydivers could jump.

The first team takes to the sky for a super exiting trip!

The balloon ascends quite into the sky and it only takes around 5-10 minutes to reach an altitude of 1200 meters, that is the planned jump height.

The burners produce aprox. 10.000.000 watt of heat!

When gliding over the landscape you can´t help to compare it to Google maps…

First pair of skydivers waits for a go at the ledge of the balloon basket.

…and then the second pair climbs out to face 1200 meters of free air.

Can you see the small air strip in the upper left corner? The green field with the gray runway? That is our preferred landing place for this flight and in this case as an extra bonus, it´s just outside Aros skydiving center!

And of course we manage to get the balloon to the right place just outside of the club house!

/Thomas Tanisawa

August 12, 2012
Flying hot air ballon with parachute jumpers

Another day with Aros

This day was spent at Aros parachute club in Västerås for an exciting event. We were going to arrange parachute jumps from a hot air balloon. So off we went to Aros in Västerås with a big hot air balloon and meet up with some super exited skydivers. After some preparation and planning we went off to the starting point.

Canon 5D, 24-50 f/2.9L

This kitchen at the club looked like it was in need of some love and care, or at least a sign saying “Your mother doesn’t live here. Clean up by yourself!”

The balloon is starting to come in to shape. This is taken from inside of the balloon before we start filling it with hot air. To start with you only use two big fans, just to get the initial shape up…

…then comes the heat and there is a lot of it!

This is right after takeoff and the ground getting smaller quite fast!

The first brave make his final preparation before taking a leap of faith.

Then there was a wing suite jumper to dive outside of the balloon basket!

The sun started to set over the beautiful landscape as jumpers left the balloon.

This is what it looked like below the balloon. 1000 meters up in the air doesn’t give you much time to correct any errors on the way down…

Can you spot the two skydivers in the air?

Flying in over the city of Västerås. We had a really lovely flight and our three passengers that didn´t jump (they weren’t supposed to do that either) enjoyed it a lot!

This is the not so fun part of flying balloon… waiting outside for the transport to arrive surrounded by millions of mosquitoes…

But flying hot air balloon is worth it!

/Thomas Tanisawa

August 6, 2012