>>1484240I got to ride the Goodyear blimp once. They even let me steer for a bit. This was back before they replaced the whole fleet with Zeppelin NTs.
A few of the more noteworthy quirks I recall:
>Normal departures and approaches involve pitch angles of 30 degrees or more. The departure therefore feel like the chain lift portion of a roller-coaster. And with no seatbelts on the passenger seats, it's a challenge just to stay in your seat during the approach.>Due to the near-neutral buoyancy of the ship, the blimp theoretically has sufficient thrust to climb straight-up. The pilots jokingly referred to this hypothetical stunt as a "bag-over.">The pilot's seat has no control column. Pitch control is achieved by a giant wheel bolted to the right side of the pilot's seat. Yaw control is achieved through conventional pedals. There is no roll control.>The rudder is too enormous to be moved directly by the pilot, so the pedals actually steer a servo tab - basically a smaller rudder on the bottom of the rudder. pilot steers little rudder, little rudder steers big rudder, big rudder steers ship.>The helium-filled envelope also contains two internal air-filled chambers, called "balloonets," which can be inflated (via scoops located behind the main propellers, and valves controlled from an overhead panel in the cockpit) or deflated to shift the center of buoyancy forward or aft as a means of pitch trim. i.e. inflating the aft chamber and deflating the rear effectively pushes helium forward, pitching the ship up. These bladders also accommodate expansion and contraction of the helium.>Given the proximity of the Carson, CA base to Compton, bullet holes in the envelope are a common occurrence. They can be spotted easily through a small inspection window in the rear compartment of the gondola, which allows one to see tiny specks of daylight inside the otherwise-dark interior of the envelope. 
