Beautiful Little Rock Flight

I've flown from Sherwood a few times over the summer, but I haven't had a West Little Rock flight since June. Flying there is a bit challenging, but it sure is pretty!

I've been planning to take Jan flying since she returned to LR from her summer vacation, but I've been out of town for so many weekends, we haven't had a chance. Yesterday, the weather was perfect, and both of us were available, so we decided to go!

Sandy and Alex were happy to get up early to help, and we met Jan and her husband Paul at the commuter lot on the west side. I planned on flying with David, but he canceled his flight. He was nice enough to come out at a moment's notice and bring helium balloons for me to test the winds. The helium balloon revealed that the forecast was correct, and we were in for a very pretty (but a little short) flight.

We drove to Maumelle, and launched from the field by Starbucks. I knew we needed to get a little altitude fairly quickly in order to get to Two Rivers Park, so we climbed, and found the wind direction we needed. That wind was a little fast, and I wanted to make the flight last a little longer, but better to get to a good landing spot than to have a long flight!

As soon as we could, we descended into slower winds. These winds put us on a great path to the park. They also put us fairly low over the Arkansas River. It was beautiful. The sun was rising right next to our great view of the Little Rock skyline. As we flew over an island in the river, I heard a noise and looked down to see a blue heron flying along the river bank. A little mist on top of the water added a fantastic accent to a beautiful sight!

After following the river for a few minutes, we had to climb a bit to put ourselves back on course for the landing field I knew would be perfect. It was the same field I landed in the last time I flew from Maumelle, and it was right next to a parking lot. For balloonists, parking lots mean dry pack-ups!

We navigated into the field, just as planned, and had a nice, standup landing. The crew didn't know exactly where Two Rivers Park was, so Jan and I had a chance to visit with each other, and with a nice family that walked over to us to see the balloon. We also watched many runners (human and deer) enjoying a lovely morning in the park.

Next week, Columbus, Kansas! I can't wait to get the balloon in the air again.