Special Assignments And Investigations

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― It's a view that hasn't been seen over American skies for more than seventy years.

"We like to say we're in the "joy" business because you can't see this thing in the sky and be grumpy," says Alex Hall.

That "thing" is an airship, a 246 foot long zeppelin. Yes, a real zeppelin flying over the skies of San Francisco.

It's the dream project of Hall, the CEO, and her husband, to fly this authentic dirigible.

"Who in their right mind would want to get a zeppelin," asks Dave Bender.
Alex says "you know, clearly, I'm not in my right mind, Dave. We took a look at the wonderful scenery here on the west coast, particularly here in the San Francisco bay area and said "wow, wouldn't it be incredible if we could fly over all these sites with a zeppelin."

So eighteen months and 15 million dollars later, you have the Airship Eureka flying sightseeing routes over San Francisco, even flying up to Monterey for the newly formed company airship ventures.

Dave's curiosity gets the best of him and asks a question that seems obvious: "Ok, so you have a zep -- where do you park it? How 'bout a zeppelin hangar like this one. Get this, this thing is 1,000 feet long and can hold up to nine zeppelins!

So what makes a zeppelin a zeppelin, (and) not a blimp? Put simply, a zeppelin has a frame inside, not just inflated like a balloon, or a blimp.
And though this zeppelin's famous cousin may have historically gone up in flames, the Eureka is a Zeppelin NT, or "new technology", meaning it uses non-flammable helium, not hydrogen.
But this airship isn't the only first housed here at Moffat field.

"It's like a big wind vane," notices Dave. "(Or) wind sock, like a big wind sock. I've actually been called a wind sock by an air traffic controller" answers Katharine Board, pilot of the Airship Eureka.

She has a very unique distinction.

"So you're the only lady pilot!"

Kat says "yeah, apparently the first one, they never let women fly the old zeppelins, so yeah I discovered after I started with the zeppelin that I was the first and only one."

This is what makes the zeppelins the coolest air ship in the world. This is it! It's this, this aft engine.

What's cool is that its motors can rotate 120 degrees, making maneuvering this ship less like a jet and more like a helicopter.

Dave says "this is so, so cool, because normally an airship, any airship requires a huge crew to hold onto the nose lines, bow lines."

"We need them for landing. But this one doesn't. We have a much smaller crew than a normal airship."

Two things that are coming to mind right off the bat: size of the windows. I mean the view is incredible. The speed in which we've gotten up here, the speed has to be one of the single coolest things I've ever done.

Dave says "I've been up in this thing for maybe 20 minutes or so, I love it! How do I become a zeppelin pilot?"

Kat says "you have to go to Friedrichshafen in Germany where the Zeppelin comes from and you either have a job with one of the companies or an awful lot of money."

Again, we talk about views; it doesn't get better than that!

Dave asks "how does weather affect your flying? Well, for the most part, it's the same as it affects any other flying. Storms and stuff no aircraft wants to fly around these things. The differences are mainly we're more affected by winds simply because we're slower. Where a 747 wouldn't take any notice of 20-31 knot winds, this is not something we can do."

Very cool, in fact, every place in this zeppelin has a phenomenal view, and we mean everywhere.

And if you think the view ever gets old, as the zeppelin Eureka comes into Oakland, the smiles from the crew say it all.

"You guys love doing this, it's exciting for you, huh? "It's not a job, it is not a job, if you wanted to do this just for the paycheck, you're in the wrong place."

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