There have been some fun times.. Like this last Saturdays AAAA meet in Rio Rancho... Damn fast winds. Gusty too.. You could have a nice and calm inflation and take off only to be grabbed and flung South West. It looked great from the ground......
Chasing after Enchanted Diamonds was a good time. No way was I going to be able to catch up to them. The did a good wild landing on the other side of a hill and arroyo way way South. It was in high scrub and if I had no been direct line driving on a road that crested that hill I would never have seen anything but their heads.
I took somewhere around 400 pictures... most duplicated for best shot. I did even process a lot of them and put them on my web site. Not all nor many good people shots... yet.... But a lot... The links below.
What I did finish over the last week after work was the processing of all the Kodak 360 degree camera footage into 360 degree two segment clips. For ever minute of footage its two minutes to process.... for 9 days of flying and in those nine days many over 90 minute flights... It was long and tedious. You have to line up ever clip and flip the take when the cameras in set looking down or out depending on the time if flight.
For the inflation it is pointing up ( the lends is upward ) catching the inflation all around but when I stand up the balloon it is now facing backwards... then in flight or before I take off I would flip it lens down which is what you will see in the following clips from the first five flights... so here you go...
Kurt flying Highperactive for the first time on Albuquerque Aloft day or Friday before Fiesta.. It was a nice smooth flight and you would never know he had never flown a racer before... My nudges as to what to do were completely unnecessary and goofy. Lovely landing and I had a great time not taking pictures as I forgot my camera.. go figure.
Ballooning family flight and not the same track.. this time we went South and then up and then straight down the center of the field at about 600 feet above.. then curled down to land about 150 feet from where we landed the last day... Hilarious. So much traffic.. so many balloons coming up at us and our bobbing along to stay out of their way and clear the field.
Kelley's short ride...... It was all south with a nice pause over the South end of the field in between. It gave the crew time to get packed up and off the field to meet us as we zoomed over power lines and tank far.. the cereal factory and a trailer to get caught... Very nice... The video at the end after we had put down of all the other balloons coming in to that spot in the quick winds is cool.
Andy's flight was one of my fussy flights. About two hours of trying to stay in a very thin wind stream heading West only to have to drop out of it due to low fuel levels and had to pretty much find a road to get low enough on to land... We were booking but there were power lines right to our right and only this nice bunch of dirt and a parking lot to drop it in. Gotta say.. when you dump a bunch of air and there happens to be a nice soft dirt pile and sage bush.. you just go for it... The local folks thought we were needing medical assistance but it was one of the best solid drop ins I have done. Poor Andy was my padding.. I kinda stomped him when we stopped so suddenly.
There are ( tried to type are and typed were twice.. whats up with that???) four more days of flying and another.... why am I having to think and stay on time streams of air all the time.. sheesh! Good times and I hope to be happy to go fly again soon. Maybe after Thanksgiving and before the Red Rock Rally in Gallup NM. Better be ready for that.... cause that is interesting flying.... Links below to a few years backs flight.
The pictures from Saturday..
http://InvisibleBlack.zenfolio.com/p606433990/e6eaf519d
Video from Red Rocks...
Down view of the rock jumping...
http://InvisibleBlack.zenfolio.com/p715442282/e382bc3a1
Day 2 and over the mountain!
http://InvisibleBlack.zenfolio.com/p715442282/e3e375b4f
It was a lot of fun.. Hoping this year is as much fun.
