One Weekend, Two Days, Two Flights!

On Saturday, I got to fly with David Hoover, joining him on a passenger flight he was conducting over the west side of Little Rock. It was a nice flight, with only a minor incident on launch. I was at the burner, and the winds were stronger than I realized, so my ascent was a bit too slow, and we hit some trees. Sorry, David :-(

On Sunday, the weather was forecast to be really good and it was! Light winds from the south southwest. The plan was for me to fly my balloon, and David was taking his. We set up on the west side of town, and planned a flight to the river. The winds were perfect, light, with a slight right high up and a slight left down low.

We played leapfrog as we traveled north. David would climb above me, move from my left to my right, then descend. Then I would climb, and move back to his right. It was pretty fun!

The scenery was FANTASTIC! To our north, fog moved in on the river and some of the valleys with several ridges and Pinnacle Mountain rising above it. To our East, the city's skyline could be seen in the distance. It was a very pretty flight.

After about an hour in the air, we were ready to land, but we were short of our intended landing area. Fortunately, several fields and parking lots were available to us. David landed in a parking lot, and I tried to get into a field at a church, but the winds wouldn't allow it. Fortunately, the winds down low had shifted and were directing me back to the south, and straight into a parking lot at a shopping center. After clearing some power lines and some trees, I dropped in for a gentle parking lot landing.

Thanks to Philip and Dan (and Abby!), my crew this morning. Philip was a great passenger, and seemed to have a really nice time. I'll update this posting when I get some pictures. While I didn't have a camera, David had one in his balloon, so he got some good shots of my balloon!