Goodyear Blimp Columbia

In 1968, my husband and I had the fun privilege of receiving an offer to ride on the Columbia Goodyear blimp . I say privilege because Goodyear did not offer rides to the public. People who road on the blimp were either special invited guests, company employees and/or family members or it was used for commercial purposes. It was by accident that we even were invited.

We were driving around one afternoon and decided to stop by and visit the site. We didn't expect to get in or anything, but just drive up to its holding dock and get a glimpse. What is crazy is that my husband ended up knowing the pilot, who was at the site that day. They had been in the Air Force Reserves together years back. He invited us to come back at a scheduled date to ride on the blimp. Since this was a one shot deal, we said yes. To make this happen, I had to play hooky from a relatively new job I started. I really did not want to tell them I was sick, but did. I was not going to miss that flight.

When we arrived for the flight, we met the other two people who were scheduled; a women and her son, a boy about 10. So, it was just the six of us in the blimp (co-pilot included). The lady did have a camera, took our picture and mailed it to us. Unfortunately, she did not take a pic of the pilot or the outside of the blimp, just us setting inside. Darn, you can't even tell where we are. It looks like we are in a closet!

But that's ok because we have our memories. The airship left the field from Carson, California, where they still station it today (also one is stationed in Akron, Ohio). The third one is stationed in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Getting to the trip, it was wonderful. You take off very slow. You do feel an up drift and for the most part it is so quiet. All you hear is a slight humming sound of the motor. We got to fly over a good portion of Los Angeles, including the Los Angeles Harbor area, Disneyland and more. You are only up approximately 1,500 feet. The most scary for me was when we came back down to land. Coming in and going over wires, it just seems, you are so close that you will hit them. The scenery was so beautiful from the blimp.


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