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Found a SECOND playmate for the Ambulance Bronco (see post 170, pg. 12)

blamejane

Bronco Guru
Joined
May 12, 2012
Messages
1,953
Love the balloon lineup! The new motorcycle and camper looks great. congrats on the collection. When will you be taking these to shows, or are you already? Curious to hear what comments people make.
 
OP
OP
Broncitis

Broncitis

MEB Founder
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
5,267
I love all the history and vintage pics! Although I must admit, its a little funny when you think about all the resources that went into following a baloon (I think "chasing" is a bit of a stretch). Its not like the darn thing does anything other than float in one general direction at the same speed as the wind....
That being said, its still a cool story and its great to see the "now and then" pics!

Back then setting records like that was quite popular still. It was a good way to get lots of widespread and relatively cheap (at least they probably thought so at first) national publicity to promote the 1977 mid year "Limited Edition Sail".

Chase or follow, whichever I suppose, but they are called "chase crews" still today for balloons, just as in the Baja / desert racing that Bill Stroppe came from (he was the project manager on the balloon chase).

There is a lot of wild related stories to this adventure, enough so that there is an entire chapter dedicated to it in "The Boss", The Bill Stroppe Story.
 
OP
OP
Broncitis

Broncitis

MEB Founder
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
5,267
Love the balloon lineup! The new motorcycle and camper looks great. congrats on the collection. When will you be taking these to shows, or are you already? Curious to hear what comments people make.


Not sure yet. The Ambulance of course has been shown pretty widely since we've had it, and it always gets lots of smiles and thumbs ups.

The F100 is 95% complete and nearly all original, but not in as nice of shape as the Ambulance. I think I am going to just get it driving (needs the C6 rebuilt) and just run it as is for a while, then maybe a good driver level resto at some point. I do not want to make it look like a show truck since they were not made that way. They were painted quick and dirty to look good in print ads and magazines.

I hope to get the KD175 fired up soon. I am going up to Bob's tomorrow to get it and bring it down to my shop to start tinkering with it.

I found a van that looks like a good candidate, but of course it is all the way out in CA. Not sure I want the added expense to get "generic" van out here to PA. If it were one of the original two mates to our others, then sure!
 

Jeff10

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Feb 20, 2011
Messages
2,137
Loc.
Indianapolis
Hey Guys,

a few clip shots for Drew ... and only bc its material he ask for it in the past !!!

pic# 1 ... just cool ..
pic # 2 note: 2 vans in the background
pics # 4 & 5 finally prove of that support vehicle
pics # 9/10/11 ... Bill working on one of the Broncos

(This was from post #145 on page 10 of this thread.)

I'm not sure why I didn't see pic 8 when this thread originally was started.

Pic 8 (I'm almost certain) is a picture of my Dad. He was on the chase crew. His responsibility was the propane equipment. Makes sense that he's looking at the burner. (It's kind of hard to see; but, I believe I can see his right hand, and the two fingers that were missing from the service.) According to Franko this was burner repair work being done in Missoula, Montana on February 7th after the balloon was crash landed into the the back of a pickup.

Pretty cool to run across something like that picture in this forum.

Thanks to Franko for posting those pics, and for suggesting I put a post on this thread. If anyone has additional pictures of the fueling-related work, or the F-350 with the propane tank in the bed, I would appreciate you posting them (or emailing them to me).

Jeff
 
Last edited:

FRANKO289

Contributor
Bronco enthusiast
Joined
Jul 7, 2008
Messages
6,807
Hey Guys,



(This was from post #145 on page 10 of this thread.)

I'm not sure why I didn't see pic 8 when this thread originally was started.

Pic 8 (I'm almost certain) is a picture of my Dad. He was on the chase crew. His responsibility was the propane equipment. Makes sense that he's looking at the burner. (It's kind of hard to see; but, I believe I can see his right hand, and the two fingers that were missing from the service.) According to Franko this was burner repair work being done in Missoula, Montana on February 7th after the balloon was crash landed into the the back of a pickup.

Pretty cool to run across something like that picture in this forum.

Thanks to Franko for posting those pics, and for suggesting I put a post on this thread. If anyone has additional pictures of the fueling-related work, or the F-350 with the propane tank in the bed, I would appreciate you posting them (or emailing them to me).

Jeff


super cool .... your dad Is the one in the chase jumpsuit !?

attachment.php


best pic I have of the f250 w. tank and logo
 

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tasker

Contributor
all knowing of nothing
Joined
Jun 2, 2006
Messages
20,730
Loc.
NH
cannot remember if i posted these or not, and to be honest, did not look back through....but here you go
 

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Jeff10

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Feb 20, 2011
Messages
2,137
Loc.
Indianapolis
Hi Franko,

super cool .... your dad Is the one in the chase jumpsuit !?

attachment.php


best pic I have of the f250 w. tank and logo

That's correct, Dad is the one in the gold jumpsuit. Don Peroni has that now to go along with the ambulance.

Thanks for the picture or the fuel truck, too.

Take Care,

Jeff
 

Mtgrizzlymn

Sr. Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2013
Messages
662
Hey Guys,



(This was from post #145 on page 10 of this thread.)

I'm not sure why I didn't see pic 8 when this thread originally was started.

Pic 8 (I'm almost certain) is a picture of my Dad. He was on the chase crew. His responsibility was the propane equipment. Makes sense that he's looking at the burner. (It's kind of hard to see; but, I believe I can see his right hand, and the two fingers that were missing from the service.) According to Franko this was burner repair work being done in Missoula, Montana on February 7th after the balloon was crash landed into the the back of a pickup.

Pretty cool to run across something like that picture in this forum.

Thanks to Franko for posting those pics, and for suggesting I put a post on this thread. If anyone has additional pictures of the fueling-related work, or the F-350 with the propane tank in the bed, I would appreciate you posting them (or emailing them to me).

Jeff


That's cool I live in Missoula!!
 
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