Good Year Blimp Flies Over East Lansing - WLNS TV 6 Lansing - Jackson | Your Local News Leader

The Good-Year Blimp will be on MSU's campus this weekend for the primetime football matchup between the Spartans and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The 192 foot long, 50 foot wide Goodyear Blimp requires more than a pilot and pedal to fly.

"It's quite an operation. We have 22 people, four pilots, 16 ground crew, a few other people and myself," said Ed Ogden.

Ogden from Goodyear says they are here in East Lansing because of the fans.

"Michigan State voted this game as blimp-worthy beating out two other games in the nation," said Ogden.

Winning that ESPN poll means more air time for seven year veteran pilot, Rob Delagrange. He used to fly helicopters, but says it's no contest which one is harder.

"This is a lot harder, because you have to remember the ship doesn't weigh anything, so anytime you have a wind shift, it just wants to vector into that wind like that," said Senior Pilot Delagrange. "It is a lot of fun. You get to see a lot of fun places. I'm not moving that fast either, 20 miles an hour, 30, 40 sometimes, so you have a lot of time to look and see different things, where as if your in a helicopter or plane, you're going over a hundred."

It's the combination of time and speed that Delagrange says makes the blimp a very special aircraft to fly and see take flight.