Betty Finally Flies!

At the YMCA auction last November, Bill Wynn bought a balloon ride for his wife, Betty. The joke was that (because they're my next door neighbors) Betty probably could have flown with me sometime anyway. But it was a nice donation to help the Y provide programs to kids that need help!

Betty and I left the neighborhood at 6:30, picked up Dana (Marty had to work) and met Jonathan and his roommate at Wood's Supermarket. Scott met us at the High School, and we unpacked and inflated.

For some reason (probably the lack of wind) inflation took a long time. The top wouldn't seat, so I heated the air in the envelope, pulled the top out, and cold inflated a second time. This time, we got enough of a cold-pack that I was able to hot inflate it, but I bet I used nearly a gallon of gas in the fan getting the balloon up today!

Once the balloon was standing, Betty climbed in, and off we flew. wind on the surface was calm, but just a few hundred feet up, it was moving along at 11 mph or so. We traveled mostly northeast, but a few hundred feet off the ground there was a bit of a right turn that went away as we went higher.

After we flew out of town, we descended a bit, the right turn was still there, and there was still a little left underneath (if you look at the flight track you can see where I climbed or descended through the "right turn" - the wind took us a little more easterly). We stayed pretty low over some corn fields, and a very neatly planted field of what I'm pretty sure were soybeans. Then, a hay field that I had been watching for quite a while continued to be right in our flight path.

I climbed a little to steer toward the middle of the field, and made a nice approach. We dragged just a bit on the landing, and soon the crew was there to drag us to the road for a dry packup. Despite the heat and lack of rain, the ground looked soggy, so we were glad to use the dry road to put the balloon back in the trailer.

Betty had flown in a balloon before, but as soon as we were off the ground, she said this was better because it was over her turf, and she could pick out local landmarks. She was a great passenger, and I hope to get some of her pictures to post here soon.