Nice Morning Over the Arkansas

The forecast for yesterday morning called for light winds and blue

skies, so I gathered some of my favorite local crew members (Billy, Mike, and Paul) and planned a flight. David Hoover was flying, too, so we all met at the commuter lot, checked the winds, and headed north to a launch site.

A Catholic Church on Highway 365 has a large lot and some nice lawn space, so we assembled the balloons and off we went. The winds on the surface were very light, but not very far off the surface, they picked up nicely. When we dropped down low, they stalled out and turned a bit to

the right.

David stayed low longer than I did, changing out passengers at one point, but I hoped to land near Two Rivers Park, so I stayed high. That meant that David's flight was a bit longer than mine, but Paul (my passenger) and I had a great landing in a beautiful spot; clean grass with no fence.

Paul is a terrific photographer, and he's posted some of his pictures HERE. I'm sure he'll add to the album soon.

Finally! Some Ballooning!

Last weekend, Hot Springs hosted their annual Legends Balloon Festival. While Hot Springs is a
tough place to fly because it's surrounded by forest, they put on a really great event, with thousands of spectators. I'm not sure how many of those spectators come out to see the balloons, and how many come to watch the bands perform. This year, Charlie Daniels played Friday night, while Three Dog Night played on Saturday.

I glowed my balloon on Friday and flew it across the airport grounds on Saturday. I also enjoyed spending time with

Chris and Sharon, my Hot Springs crew, and Patty, a new crew member who lives in Jacksonville.

Thanks to Hot Springs Tourism and Convention Bureau, and all the people who make it such a terrific event!

This morning, My family (Jill, Alex, and Alex's friend, Chris) rolled out of bed early to help Mike

and I fly our balloo

n. We met up with David Hoover at Burns Park and flew from there. As we were preparing to launch, we could see fog building on the Arkansas River, and we knew we were in for a beautiful flight.

Both balloons launched together and stayed close for the first half of the flight. We tried to stay low, to remain in slow winds, while maintaining enough altitude over the fog. We flew mostly to the west, but when we were low we headed to the south. After while, I started looking for a landing spot. I missed my first choice of spots (I'm always too anx

ious to get to the ground, and I get pushed to the left), but used the winds to work my way into the parking lot at Chuck E Cheese. We deflated the balloon and called our crew to let them know

where we were.

It was a great start to a terrific Sunday (culminating in a Packer's victory!).

Next weekend Jill and I will make our annual trip to Columbus, Kansas to see lots of friends, fly the balloon, and eat lasagna!