As predicted June has been busy with sales, almost certainly driven by the devalued pound and the run up to Metz …. Although only one complete balloon left the List, many small items have been sold, with more to be boxed up this week….
We are pleased to welcome a whole host of new ads for July – a vintage but low houred V-56, a well looked after all red Colt 90A, an almost new all pink, all Ultralast Ultramagic 105 envelope and a pair of good condition all Hyperlast rides envelopes. Add to that an LBL 105 basket/burner and a large collection of other bits including some LBL built gas ballooning accessories for an action packed issue!
Koen in Belgium continues to find good condition baskets & burners to offer for sale, whilst at Zebedee we have added a number of fans which we have in stock, although the glut of older 5hp versions continues whilst 8hp examples fly out of the door!
Last month we mixed the details of two Cameron baskets in our listing. These are corrected in this issue. See B216 & B218.
Camerons issued a bombshell for LBL Titanium tank (T30) owners on 8th June by issuing a ‘highly recommended’ SB25, which, if followed by owners, would render such tanks obsolete. This was amended slightly on 15th June, by listing the old LBL mandated pressure test requirements which could have the effect of delaying the withdrawal of the few T30s that had been pressure tested at LBL in their last years of operation. It also listed serials of 9 such tanks that had defects when x-rayed at LBL, 6 of which were ‘out there’ and had not been located at that time.
Since then members of the BBAC Technical Committee, Colin Wolstenholme and Chris Dunkley of Easy Balloons have met with Camerons to explore the possibility of a testing regime which could keep these popular lightweight tanks in service. As the matter is a ‘highly recommended’ SB, not an AD then the message at the moment is for owners or their CAMOs to decide whether to withdraw the tanks from service and, if so, to empty them of propane and purge them – but don’t drill holes in them yet!