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Parents in Balloon Case to Surrender
nytimes.com ^ | 10/19/09 | DAN FROSCH

Posted on 10/19/2009 12:57:05 PM PDT by Kartographer

The Colorado parents accused of concocting a publicity stunt by pretending that their young son had climbed aboard a homemade helium balloon and was hurtling through the skies above Fort Collins, Colo., will voluntarily surrender to authorities as soon as charges are filed, which is expected to happen on Wednesday, the lawyer for the father said Monday morning.

David Lane, a Colorado civil rights lawyer who is representing Richard Heene, said both Mr. Heene and his wife, Mayumi, would plead not guilty and would turn themselves in to avoid further public spectacle.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: Colorado
KEYWORDS: balloonatic; falconheene
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The plot thickens.
1 posted on 10/19/2009 12:57:05 PM PDT by Kartographer
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To: Kartographer

Public floggings!


2 posted on 10/19/2009 12:57:46 PM PDT by Constitution Day
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To: Kartographer

And the rest of us should pay closer attention to Mythbusters.


3 posted on 10/19/2009 12:58:38 PM PDT by armymarinemom (My sons freed Iraqi and Afghan Honor Roll students.)
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To: Constitution Day

Geez, what morons! Life in 21st century America.


4 posted on 10/19/2009 12:58:41 PM PDT by Right Wing Puppy
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To: Kartographer

They should pay costs ...


5 posted on 10/19/2009 12:58:51 PM PDT by Tarpon (To destroy the people's liberties, you poison their morals ...)
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To: Kartographer
Balloons and a child on Mythbusters.
6 posted on 10/19/2009 1:00:46 PM PDT by armymarinemom (My sons freed Iraqi and Afghan Honor Roll students.)
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To: armymarinemom

I thought from the start that the balloon didn’t seem large enough to lift the mass of a six-year-old child.


7 posted on 10/19/2009 1:01:31 PM PDT by Constitution Day
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To: Tarpon
They should pay costs ...

Yes, the should. Did they make enough on Wife Swap?

8 posted on 10/19/2009 1:02:11 PM PDT by luvbach1 (Worse than we could have imagined.)
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To: Tarpon
They should pay costs ...

Yes, the should. Did they make enough on Wife Swap?

9 posted on 10/19/2009 1:02:29 PM PDT by luvbach1 (Worse than we could have imagined.)
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To: Kartographer
I read this morning that the dad got his own reality show.

Survivor
Colorado State Pentitentry.

10 posted on 10/19/2009 1:02:31 PM PDT by trumandogz (The Democrats are driving us to Socialism at 100 MPH -The GOP is driving us to Socialism at 97.5 MPH)
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To: Kartographer

would turn themselves in to avoid further public spectacle.
_______________________________________________

Its possible to be worse ???


11 posted on 10/19/2009 1:02:32 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: armymarinemom

Agreed. Thing is, I couldn’t tell how large the balloon was (or how much helium it could contain) as it was sailing over Colorado. If it was large enough, I suppose it could support the weight of a 6-year-old boy. It sure did look awesome, though, flying through the sky.


12 posted on 10/19/2009 1:03:05 PM PDT by kittykat77
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To: Kartographer

Their premeditated circus will begin with liberal scum defending them and the lib media eating it all up. Then the BOOK “How we duped them all”. This is “how the libs world turns”.


13 posted on 10/19/2009 1:03:51 PM PDT by Uncle George
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To: trumandogz


Shown here, the family's escape craft which at the end, the decided not to use ...
14 posted on 10/19/2009 1:06:27 PM PDT by Scythian
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To: Constitution Day

I didn’t get to see the thing until it was long over. Good catch on your part.


15 posted on 10/19/2009 1:07:47 PM PDT by armymarinemom (My sons freed Iraqi and Afghan Honor Roll students.)
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To: kittykat77

I think most people would take people on their word. It takes a special kind of sick to do a hoax like this.


16 posted on 10/19/2009 1:08:50 PM PDT by armymarinemom (My sons freed Iraqi and Afghan Honor Roll students.)
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To: Constitution Day
I thought from the start that the balloon didn’t seem large enough to lift the mass of a six-year-old child.

I was also wondering the same thing. And you were right.

There's a good analysis here:

Balloon Boy — Some Math Behind The Story

Was it ever even possible that a 20' x 5' helium balloon could lift the weight of a six-year-old to 8,000 feet MSL? Let's take a look at some numbers. Taking Falcon Heene's father at his reported word, the balloon that news helicopters followed for two hours Thursday (because they thought Falcon was aboard) was 20 feet by five feet. We don't know if that included the compartment at the bottom — so let's be conservative and assume it did not. The volume of such a shape is 1,047.2 cubic feet. The lifting capacity of helium, at standard atmosphere, is 28.2 grams per cubic foot. So, at best, the balloon had a lifting capacity of about 65 pounds with which to lift itself (we'll assume mylar), the gondola-esque structure beneath it (cardboard and wires?), some tethers (not serving as such) and a six-year-old boy (not inside). Speaking of the six-year-old, an average one of those should weigh in at about 45 to 50 pounds (PDF). (The higher end assumes he didn't turn six yesterday.) Ideally, that leaves 15 to 20 pounds of lifting force. But this situation in Colorado was hardly "ideal."

Standard lapse rates in pressure suggest by our math that at 5,000 feet MSL (roughly the altitude of the Heene balloon's launch site), the balloon would already be suffering from a loss of about 10 pounds of lifting force. That would bring its ideal, fully inflated, 65-pound-lifting force down closer to 55 pounds — to carry a child (plus its own structure), all of which might together ideally weigh in at about 50 pounds. That, of course, assumes that less than five pounds of structure could hold the boy without itself noticeably deforming. At 8,000 feet (widely reported as an altitude the balloon achieved) the loss is about 17 pounds, which suggests that at that altitude the helium balloon would be capable of lifting about 48 pounds.

17 posted on 10/19/2009 1:09:02 PM PDT by justlurking (The only remedy for a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.)
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To: Kartographer

They will flee. For heaven’s sake take them into custody now and prevent that eventuality.

If you have the goods on them, then get those kids to safety and arrest the parents now.


18 posted on 10/19/2009 1:11:46 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Deficit spending, trade deficits, unsecure mortages, worthless paper... ... not a problem. Oh yeah?)
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To: trumandogz
I read this morning that the dad got his own reality show.

It's called, "COPS".

19 posted on 10/19/2009 1:13:32 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: DoughtyOne
That's them they are trying to make a get away NOW!

20 posted on 10/19/2009 1:14:07 PM PDT by Kartographer (".. we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.")
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