The winds were very calm when we arrived at Nevada High School for the flight. A pibal floated straight up, only moving a little bit to the east northeast as it climbed. But, I knew there was wind up there somewhere, so we inflated and launched. The calm air led to an easy inflation, and soon Jerry and I were flying.It didn't take long to find a little wind, and we slowly worked our way east over the city. The flight path provided great views of the square and a youth baseball game as we flew near the fairgrounds. After about 30 or 40 minutes, we buzzed the future site of the jail Vernon County will build soon. As we dropped in to the field, we took a slight left turn which gave me a great idea: a little altitude should take us south, then we can drop back and head more to the east, right into several nice landing areas along Austin Street. We climbed, got south, then dropped down for that left turn. Just like I planned, except the left turn was gone! the surface winds had shifted and we got a right turn!
No bother, we were headed toward an open lot. As we dropped in to land in that lot, a gust of wind carried us quickly away from it. A look at our GPS track shows we actually flew in a circle. Then another, then another. Finally, we climbed out of the swirling winds, and made our way slowly over 71 highway. Then we stopped. A busy four lane highway is fun to fly over, but parking over can be disconcerting, particularly at the end of a flight, and near the end of your fuel!
We descended a bit, and the winds had stabilized. We flew south into a field next to Champion Diamonds. Our chase crew couldn't find a way into the field, so Jerry pulled the balloon to the parking lot at Champion where we packed up. Our initial crew of Dana, Marty and Tom had grown on the chase. Janie, Gracie and Kali were there to help deflate, and to join us in the post-flight toast!
The map of our flight is below. You can email me at teddmaxfield@gmail.com if you'd like the GoogleEarth 3D track.
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