Not much room, but pretty views from the short flight I made!
Mountain Home is home to a satellite campus of Arkansas State University, and a rapidly growing campus at that. All new facilities, many under construction, and more planned for construction, make this a lovely spot! The University was wrapping up a fundraising campaign and wanted a special event to celebrate their success. A balloon festival was the way to go.
They put invitations out, and 7 pilots responded favorably (not bad for a first year), so an event was born! Mark, the balloonmeister, got to Mountain Home on Thursday and hoped to fly a couple times before everyone else arrived. It was not to be, though, as the winds prevented his flights.
Friday evening was to be a crew instruction clinic, and a fun flight from the field. High winds prevented this, too, so the pilots did what pilots do when we aren't flying; we ate! After a lousy night's sleep (too excited about flying Saturday) I headed to campus, and met my sponsor and crew. The sponsor was Carter's Jewell Chest. T.C. Carter, his son, Chris, and his fixed-wing flight instructor Caura (sp?) were to crew. Since this was a fly-in task, we checked winds, and headed out to find a launch site. T.C. knew just the place, and was able to sweet talk the landowner into allowing us to launch from his pasture (the cows were way on the other side, "We won't scare them" we promised!)
Caura drew the short straw and had to fly with me. We launched, and right away found a wind to take us right toward the target. I was headed a little right of the "X" and I knew if I descended at just the right time, I could get a left turn and fly right over the target. I also knew that I would be too anxious to find that left turn, and I'd miss the target to the left. That's exactly what happened, and I dropped my marker about 135 yards from the mark.
We then flew on to find a landing site. The winds were quick, and there's not much space once you leave Mountain Home, so we landed pretty soon after the target field. On approach, I got a little behind on my burns and was headed right for a fence. I stayed high enough so that we only clipped the fence, but in doing so, I got the balloon lighter than I wanted, so I was in a sharp ascent, over the field I wanted to land in. I vented hard, and had an ugly landing, with three big bounces. Caura, an aviator, knew that any landing you walk away from is a good one, and if you can reuse the equipment, it's a great one! It wasn't my greatest landing, but no injuries to person or balloon, so I can't complain. It was a short flight (only 20 minutes) and it covered 6 miles! It was pretty quick!
We landed in a nice spot, sharing it with Gary Odom, a really nice pilot from Louisiana. Gary had a large crew, some of whom helped me pack up. We then shared the traditional Balloonists' Prayer with his group, and headed back for refueling.
I spent Saturday resting and geocaching before returning to the college for dinner and the glow. Lots of folks turned out to see the balloons, and enjoy a very nice evening. Everyone was very friendly. Lots of folks took lots of pictures. I found some good ones on my sponsor's FaceBook page, at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=115217&id=135763908570&ref=mf.
Sunday morning was too windy to fly, so we packed up and headed for home. Before leaving, I dropped in at Mel's Diner (didn't see Alice, Vera, or Flo) to visit with Gary and his crew, then I headed to the airport to see T.C.'s new airplane. Pretty sweet!
Thanks to all the folks in Mountain Home for putting on a really fun event!
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