Getting the materials together....

Wonder if we should start begging.... I mean start asking around, maybe we can get some free materials?

Engines, motors, envelopes, hangar usage?  Who knows what we might be able to find out there for building an airship.  Think there is an Goodyear envelope sitting over at Lakehurst...

Speaking of Goodyear, an airship is a huge billboard.  You might be able to sell ad or logo space on the envelope to potential sponsors.

Much better to raise money that way for quality materials, rather than begging and scrounging for whatever is laying around.

I believe GoodYear throws away their envelopes every seven years and gets a new one.   The old one must have some uv damage or begin leaking more than is acceptable.   However, it might be worth getting it and testing it.

Those are not what I would consider a "small blimp".  You would have to spend a lot of money to test it, and I don't think you can re-utilize an old envelope as material for a new one.

[[ Speaking of Goodyear, an airship is a huge billboard.  You might be able to sell ad or logo space on the envelope to potential sponsors. ]]

This is what got our airship hero Marvin Polzien, into big trouble with the FAA. He violated the terms of the FAA  UltraLight Type "non-certificate" by painting the name of his motel on the side of his UL airship. Advertising is a commercial use and UL priviliges are allowed only for recreational, amateur use.

    Well its probably more due to that his unsound airship snarled interstate traffic and became a nuisance (because the FAA bureaucrats had to actually do something). If it hadn't been that, they would have found something else to penalize him with. They are vindictive when they want to discourage something.

Cant advertize  for money or in trade .  Anything other than  your own  product or biz  is  off limits in 103 . However  you  CAN fly for hire  in LSA class and  fly paying " students"  in a LSA  with  instructor rating.

I sure see plenty of ads on every ship out there. Maybe we need this 103 to get aloft, but once I'm flying good I'm going to be advertising my a** off. If these rules are just an American thing, there are a lot of other places to fly. A high speed personal airship is going to get a lot of attention, and I'm not going to let some bureaucrat hold me back. Once I clear American airspace, they can kiss my butt.

You can get a commercial pilot's license and you can put adds on it, regardless of classification. 

But your ship would probably then have to conform to the FAA's LTA regulations which are a tight as a drum sum' bitch, thanks to Congress' over-reaction to the Hindenburg crash.

The only way around it would be to make it a hybrid and call it a LSA.

@Mikek  Unfortunately no. The USG can hold you accountable to US laws and regulations where ever you go. Big Brother thinks of you as a little piece of its America where ever you go.  Will they bother? Probably not. But don't assume that you are free to do as you will just because you are out of the country.

FAA cant  control  air space or enforce their rules  out of  the country ,  It,s   the  Govt  who has land  under  the air your flying  in  who  makes  the rules about  the  air space above them  . Almost   All  the flight  regulating  agency's  will  deal  with commercial  heavy  flights   and restricted airspace  about  the  same way . However   when  dealing  with  recreational  flying   for  a lot of areas ,  as long  as you  dont  stray into  restricted air space, anything goes. Even what we consider 103   being  hired for pay  as crop dusters .   
 And  then  you have  some places where the   103 type  regs  that are even tighter   than  the US   regs .    

Sometimes external to the continental US near a US military airbase or target range some stringent rules may apply.

I wrote an email to Jonathan Trappe (clusterballooner extraordinaire) about the 283 balloons he used on the clustered house flight and here is his very informative (and quick response!) reply:
 

Back to the topic at hand:

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