Well, we're a quarter of the way through the not-so-new year, and I still hadn't had a chance to fly. Because it had been so long, I wasn't current, and knew I'd have to fly solo. Flying by myself is kind of boring, and the balloon responds differently, so it isn't my favorite thing to do, but I had a nice flight none the less.David was going to fly this morning, so we decided to fly together, which is always fun. He asked me to take some pictures of his balloon in flight, which gave me something to distract me from flying (I worked hard to fly safely, but it wasn't the best flying...chalk it up to being "rusty.) Two other area pilots, Wayne Woods and Mike Dickey decided to fly with us, too. It took them a little longer to inflate, so I didn't see much of them in flight.
Winds were kind of tricky. They were mostly from the south, but at about 800 feet above the ground, they came out of the north! Just above the surface, they took an uncharacteristic right turn. I missed several good approaches because I misjudged that right turn. I did get some good "touch and goes" and a nice final landing on a road (with my crew there to catch me) for a dry packup.I hope to get several flights through the spring and early summer, so watch this space for more posts!
