In a balloon

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, 5 was invited to join a balloon ride above the landscape of second life, by Taka Teatime. 5 and some other friends were gathered by Swann Jie and we took of from the very futuristic looking landing platform in the sky. The balloon itself too was very modern, white, grey, steal and glass. The bottom of the balloon, well the part in which you have to sit was so transparent that 5 had the impression that standing up might become immediately sky-diving.

Here you see how to “ride” a balloon:

[4:09] Taka Teatime: help
[4:09] Terra Balloon 3.1 whispers: Help:
[4:09] Terra Balloon 3.1 whispers: Say START to startup the balloon.
[4:09] Terra Balloon 3.1 whispers: Say PARK to shutdown the balloon.
[4:09] Terra Balloon 3.1 whispers: Say SPEED <1> to set the balloon's speed.
[4:09] Terra Balloon 3.1 whispers: Say ALT to move to the target altitude. Example: SET ALT 300.
[4:09] Terra Balloon 3.1 whispers: Say UP or DOWN to move up or down by the specified number of meters.
[4:09] Terra Balloon 3.1 whispers: Say GO to move in a particular direction. Directions are: N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW.
[4:09] Terra Balloon 3.1 whispers: Say STOP in to stop all motion (with physics).
[4:09] Terra Balloon 3.1 whispers: Say NEW PILOT to let another avatar pilot the balloon.
[4:09] Terra Balloon 3.1 whispers: .
[4:09] Terra Balloon 3.1 whispers: Horizontal movement: Up/Down arrows = north/south, Left/Right arrows = west/east.
[4:09] Terra Balloon 3.1 whispers: Vertical movement = PgUp/PgDown (or E and C)
[4:09] Terra Balloon 3.1 whispers: .
[4:09] Terra Balloon 3.1 whispers: For the instructions notecard say INSTRUCTIONS.

The ballons steers quite gently over the land and the sea. It is amazing how many building there is in the sky, and you have to steer away from it. When 5 pointed the camera on something, the problem was to get the camera back, because there was nothing left in the sky to point at. Great were the snapshots with the fisheye angle, just hit a few times CTRL 8. Well my friends did this, but all after an hour or so moving around in the fisheye mode, the sent 5 a urgent message: how do I get out of this great angle of vision? Well quite simple: CTRL 9! LOL….
Then 5 tried to steer the balloon. This was going alright, you can say a direction and a height and the balloon is changing its gently path of floating through the world. Just a few buildings, but it wasn’t to clear if the balloon just flies right through them, or that it was a near collision. Than came the sudden end of the ride, we were above land from which we were ejected with force, landing in the see.

[4:19] Taka Teatime: we are on the ocean.
[4:19] You: busy steering....
[4:19] Jaco Schaffner: mind the lighthouse
[4:19] Cannot region cross into banned parcel. Try another way.
[4:19] Jaco Schaffner: mind the SEA
[4:19] You: ooooh boy!!!!!!
[4:19] Taka Teatime: we crashed...
[4:20] Swann Jie: hahahahaha
[4:20] You: under the see
[4:20] Swann Jie: what happened
[4:20] Taka Teatime: we have to go back teleporting.
[4:20] Swann Jie: where is everybody...
[4:20] Jaco Schaffner: I seem banned
[4:20] You: hahaha, sorry!
[4:20] Try moving closer. Can't sit on object because
it is not in the same region as you.
[4:20] Cannot region cross into banned parcel. Try another way.
[4:20] Taka Teatime: I'll collect the balloon.
[4:21] Try moving closer. Can't sit on object because
it is not in the same region as you.
[4:21] You: the ballon can enter that parcel we cannot!!!!!
[4:21] You: what an adventure

The balloon was in the land where we weren’t allowed. Trying to salvage the balloon was impossible! And we stayed in the sit animation. Teleporting back to the landing spot and everything was ok again, but is was quite an amazing ending of this floating adventure.