From Gentle Breezes to Moving Right Along

Last week's flight was so gentle, I was happy for a chance to practice a windier flight. Well, happy isn't exactly accurate, but it turned out to be a nice flight despite the fact that it was a fast one!

Last night, I asked Alex if she wanted to fly with me. The forecast was for light winds, and a comfortable temperature, so she agreed, even though it meant waking up at 6:00. Jill came along with the camera, we picked Marty and Dana up on the way, and the Terry family met us at the launch site.

Driving to the site, it seemed very calm. the flags were hanging on the poles indicating a still morning. That continued until the balloon was inflated and I heated the air. Just then it got windy. The wind caught me by surprise, so I deflated the balloon and tried again. This time, We got the balloon standing, Alex got in, and we launched. Our takeoff was a little bouncy as the wind gave us a little false lift.

We were barely above the trees when I glanced at the GPS and saw we were traveling at about 24 miles per hour! It isn't hard to fly a balloon really fast. It can be tricky landing one that fast, though. Also, it makes chasing the balloon a little harder. But, Marty's a great chase driver, and Dana and Jill are great spotters. Every time I crossed a road, the van was right under me.

After about 20 minutes I could see Rinehart Church in the distance. I knew there were some open fields to the east of the church, so I tried to steer that direction. I was able to get us over the field, but not on a good approach. If I had been low enough to land, I would have flown south of the field. So, I crossed the road, dropped as low as I could (I still had some power lines to clear) and we took a nice left turn that carried us along the north side of the road, right toward a hay field. There was a big pond in the field, but there was plenty of land beyond the pond, so Alex took her landing position, we flew over the pond (barely, Alex thought we were in for a splash-down...no way!) and set down on the far bank. We dragged for about 20 yards before coming to a full and complete stop.

The crew was right there to ask the landowners if it was ok to drive out to pack us up. They were happy to let us drive out and pack up, but they wanted to come out to watch! They asked several questions, and I left them with a card with a picture of the balloon on it. We drove back to town, and out to breakfast at Cowboys!

Maybe I can fly again next week!