Riverfest

Memorial Day weekend brings a big arts festival to Little Rock each year. Many bands on several stages, lots of people, lots of sun, and lots of beer. And this year, hot air balloons!

The plan was for three of us to fly media representatives on Friday morning, then the rest of the balloons would arrive (14 in total) in time for an evening glow. Much of the media was busy with a special event involving Bill Clinton on Friday morning, so instead of flying, we set our balloons up in Riverfront Park. Friday evening's glow turned out to be windy, but good, and we all went to bed tired.

Saturday morning came early, but I was excited about the possibility of a flight. A judge declared goal was announced, and the pilots left to find a suitable launch site. We found one, set up and launched. I had a great crew in the Greens and my co-worker, Marcus. Once the balloon was inflated, Marcus got in and off we flew, north from Maumelle toward the target in Two Rivers Park. We made great progress over the river and toward the target.

Marcus held on to the basket pretty tight at the beginning of the flight. I asked if he was having fun and he said..."Ah, ah, ah, ah,...ah, I am!" after a few minutes, Marcus loosened up, and relaxed a bit. He was a great passenger!

Once we were over the park, I looked at my options. I could make a good play for the target, or I could make an earlier landing with a certain dry packup. I chose the latter, and set down for a nice landing.

Another glow was scheduled for Saturday evening, and the Lunkenheimers arrived to visit and to help. The wind was much calmer, and we had a really nice night. Still, Sunday morning came too soon, and Jill, the Lunkenheimers and I set off for the launch site.

The weather reports made a flight to Two Rivers Park seem plausible, so we launched from the Riverfront. A really cool place to fly from, because it's right downtown, and because it's in controlled airspace, we don't fly from there much. Winds looked a bit light, and mostly to the North, which wouldn't be a good flight plan, so I waited and watched other pilots fly out. Some of them found favorable winds in a middle layer, so I decided to give it a try, and follow them out. Steve Green and the Lunkenheimers helped Jill and me inflate Excellent Adventure. Gary climbed in with me, and we followed the other balloons out of the park.

I stayed low, and took a southern direction over the river, then climbed and went west, then north. I saw that Charlie had landed, just a short hop away from the launch field. As the winds aloft had died down to almost nothing, I though Charlie had a good idea. I couldn't work my way far enough north to make my way into Charlie's field, so I looked around and saw an area of good landing spaces on the south side of the river. The Dillard's HQ parking lot, and several spots on the Episcopal School campus were open, attractive landing sites.

I made a nice approach to the football field on the school campus. A textbook landing was only slightly sullied by the realization that we were behind locked gates. Steve got busy on the phone and got a security guard on his way to let our chase crew come in to pick us up. Allie and Noel got in the basket with me to lift the balloon over the football field fence to a parking lot in which we could pack up dry.

We had a nice packup and headed home to celebrate Gary's first flight.

It was a great weekend, and I'm exhausted!

It's About Time!

Nearly half a year has passed since my last flight! Time has gone too quickly. My schedule, crew availability, and weather conspired against me that whole time! Today, though, I got the best of all of the forces against my ballooning adventures!

I needed to fly solo and get some landings in, which is always a bit of a bummer, but I was able to round up some new crew. Mike and Cynthia recently moved into the house a few doors down. They're a very nice young couple. Both are Air Force Pilots! When I invited them to help me, they both seemed very excited. I didn't even need to drive to pick them up!

We left the neighborhood a little before 6:00, drove to Vilonia, AR, and began inflating. Since there were just three of us, and because Mike and Cynthia were new crew, we took our time and inflated slowly. I was in the air right at 7:00.

Wind at the surface was out of the East, and just a few hundred feet up, it was out of the South. Talk about steerability! I made my way West, then North, then West again. I made two touch and go landings. I was a little rusty, and it's unusual to fly with no passengers, so that made flying a little different, but it was a good flight.

As I was approaching my second landing, I heard the aircraft radio fire up. An airplane announced it was approaching Conway Airport. He was about 5 miles East, and inbound to land. I quickly announced that I was about 2 miles East, making sure he knew where I was. The plane's pilot chuckled and said he had already seen me. Then I heard his engines as he flew past me, a little higher and farther South than I was.

When the winds let you steer your balloon it's nice. When you accurately use those winds to set down in the middle of a beautiful, mowed grass landing field (clean, flat, dry) it's FANTASTIC! As I made my approach I was careful to use my quiet burner and talk to the horses I flew over. They were a bit wary, but not too spooked by my presence. Then I waved to the landowner who was out drinking his coffee, and gently set down in his yard. I bounced and dragged a bit as I didn't want to vent too aggressively, and because the balloon was lighter than usual without a passenger, but it was a very nice landing. The chase crew was right there to ask the landowner's permission to pack up there. Not only did he agree, but he helped packup while his wife took pictures!

We shared a post-flight toast (water and Gatorade...no champagne as I was flying solo, and didn't anticipate toasting with landowners) with everyone and headed for home. We did make a brief stop on the way. A nearby resident saw the balloon in the air and chased. She helped us pack up, then invited us over to see her goats and horses. We were thrilled to do that, so we visited her farm and enjoyed seeing her pets!

I was too busy training new crew (I did a great job training them, because they were terrific crew!) to turn on my GPS to track my flight or to take any pictures, so here are some pictures of the goats. As you can see, even though the boy goat (identifiable by his John Deere cap) had been fixed the day before, he was still pretty randy toward the female.

Flying season is definitely here. I hope to get some more flying in next week during RiverFest! I am especially looking forward to seeing some of my ballooning friends from up North who are making the trip down for the event!