Oceanic Mothers

Oceanic.

A mish mosh of things this weekend...but no ballooning at all due to back pains. Two events were scheduled. One at the Balloon Museum for all individuals, differently-abled, special needs and you....and a bunch of nuts on the Westside tempting the winds.

From what I hear or saw the Museum group were able to stand up but at an angle due to the winds and put down quickly thereafter but did have a good time doing it. I believe a breakfast visit happened right after.

The West-side group had better winds and seemed to be a more enjoyable time flying about followed by an all around flipping off of those not present... sporting!

Since there was no rhyme nor reason to the week I give you shots that I took with my phone that laid there... and some information about each...

In no specific order....

The Rio Grande! It appears out of nowhere in Colorado! I call the Pecos river the Pickles river.. why.. because I can. I've crossed both so many times now...

Trying to get a close up shot of my sensor inside of In Czech. No go. Silly digital zoom on the phone just cant cut it.

I was hoping, if I get chosen to fly in the upcoming AIBF, that I could enter this as my photo for the book and cards. Maybe. Maybe not.

IKEA install plans. Well, leg plans. I added another cabinet to my set of three for more space, less heating effects of the equipment in them and more shelf space all around. I had to prop up the three I had to install the foot between the far left and the new cabinet I was attaching. It worked out nicely as you will see below. IKEA. Made for dummies to build.

The RRS dish. What does RRS stand for.. well.. Radiosonde Replacement System... Very amazing that name.. yeah... It is the replacement for the ART system.. which has a nice ring.. Automatic Radio Theodolite system. This tracks the weather balloons launched twice a day around the United States and other countries. Mainly for looking at the winds and humidity and such as it goes up through the atmosphere. The new system is GPS based instead of Sound.

Last Saturdays stand and kick dirt then go have breakfast group.

Winds were fickle. Fast for a time then a window of nothing followed by more fast winds.. Sucker Holes we call em.

Inside Patturns Highperactive as she is cold inflated and spread out on the nice grass of Belens Eagle Park.

Lift offs around us. I was dragging feet so I could take off with a group only to be over run.. No biggie.

Said IKEA cabinet of four. Nice slow close doors and smoked glass fronts so I can see the lights of the equipment inside but also hide it all when its off.

Tracking down a router that needed to be transferred to our account at work. So much tucked in that it was hard to find. Then it was hard to see all the tags.... This is where a phone cam helps out. Take a pic and then blow it up so you can see the little numbers.

Oh how I love high voltage. A check out of a unresponsive K2 relay in a huge UPS. Three people needed to touch test points. Not a lot of fun. Hopefully fully operational next week.

Cards and a unimpressed doglet. Every card I got was a sucker. Three hands of Spite and Malice and not a win. Close but no cigar. Good time though.

Funny picture from the internets.... Pasta of discontent.

  And as a balloon Pilot this was just necessary to share...

And friends.. what would you do without them......

Lastly.....

I would add... Is It Funny... in there too. Three gates and one barn door.

Now as this is a tight day time wise I am off to create more content for next weekends blog by putting together a educational toy for my granddaughter... or ... well probably something first then that... but that for sure.

Happy Oceanic Mothers Day to all you Mothers in England... You know who you are. Us on this side of said ocean have to wait a bit longer.

Two for Two Reflective

It was a novel week.

It was all around ballooning.... wow.. hard guess there.

It also had a lot to do with photography.

Three cameras today... but first let me get it all in order.....

TUESDAY... Took a bit of time off in the morning to go see a Lindstrand basket...which should not cause me undue excitement as I have a Lindstrand basket myself.. only this one has an acrylic bottom.

Yep. Bloomin clear all the way through.  So in the air it would seem you were standing on nothing at all... and it looks that way too. Does that bother me as I am slightly afraid of heights? Naaaaaaa.

Standard excellent Lindstrand build basket... just the flat solid marine plywood is replaced with clear acrylic. There is a framing around the border to staple the kick leather to ( leather at the bottom of the basket to save the wicker from scrapes and bangs or where people kick it ) securely. Nicely. Not very thick either .. which worried me but even with the four 15 gallon tanks resting on little foam pads there was no flex on the floor.

Since John was taking Sam for another training flight I had to get some quick pictures, quiz John as he followed Sam around making sure he did what he was supposed to do while not getting in the way.

Tops.... Not too much more expensive than a normal wood floor. It can be replaced as easily as mine could, It will take some damage but it's probably best not to land on rocks as much as we do in New Mexico. A larger basket would probably be more interesting as with four tanks and two people it made it hard to look down through the floor. I expect if you ran to two tanks and two people it would be better. I thought it was awesome.

Here are some shots and comments as we went.

Flat topped Lindstrand awesome Ascot basket.

Refer to this site:

http://lindstrand.com/products/accessories/baskets/

Hard to keep that clear floor clean. If not dusty from the desert it's got grass on it. I could never let it leave my living room.

Sam's dad is helping crew and driving chase as John and Sam wander the sky. Nice view of the floor with the edge wood where the ( Scuff ) leather, kick leather is stapled to. The two vertical segments are the acrylic covering the support cables from the uprights. Yeah... That's what is holding the basket together in a way. It's a very tight link locked system.

Inside with three of four tanks. Soft dense foam floor which is really cut out around the tank bottoms. I think they should make booties for the tank bottoms so the pads don't drift away from the rings.

This basket has an added metal step hole support on each side. I like it but I don't think I will see any problem with my steps for another 20 plus years.

My finger in the weep hole. There are two holes in the bottom to let water and stuff out. Its thin!!! You can also see the wood framing on the edge where the leather folds over. You can also see part of the tank ring that is not resting on the pad. You can also see me as with the 10.5 fisheye lens I am using you cannot get out of the picture unless you use a tripod I didnt have and time I didnt have.

From the top down it looks so cool. Not a lot of space to look down though. Pad for active mapping on the side. Me again in picture. Sigh.

So... how do you take a picture of a reflective surface and not get yourself in it...... again.. no tripod not time... so.... You edit yourself out. Way fun. Not. But this is a wonderful look. from the bottom.

Up and off with a bit of editing.

Along with the speed of which I had to shoot and very limited time it was a demanding run to keep myself as much out of the shots as I could. I did have the 18 to 200 mm but it was basic shots and meh.

So that was a lot of fun and I would love to own one but would hate to clean it every time I flew it and I would have to clean it every time I flew it.... really.

Zipped to work after, an hour earlier than I thought. Well worth the time and thank you John and Sam and Sams dad.

Next off... wow.... it was super busy.... Saturday flying romp at Unser and Westside. Yeah.... so didnt happen. We stood there kicking the dirt and hoping but the pibal went so fast South that it didnt climb much at all. So we bagged that and got breakfast at Wecks. Okay but slow service that time.

We made plans to come out Sunday and try it again......

That didnt happen.... as we got some major peer pressure to crash a local St Pats rally going on. Day 2 really... I made a few connections to the meister and we got up an hour earlier to drive the 45 mins down. Made it for the brief easily and we set up next to the Smokey bear balloon and next to the troublemaker who forced us to sneak under the wire and fly.

We delayed our inflation a bit because I wanted to launch with the group but that turned out to be very hard due to the amount of balloons launching over us. Since we were told to play nice.. we did as we always do and let them get going before we lifted off. As we started up we went towards Black Magic Woman so I kicked it up a bit and added a good 360 degree spin to the envelope. We cleared her nicely and then vented to level us out about 40 feet above and right in the wind stream heading south and that let us clear the field.

Some great maneuvers to move about. One try at an irrigation ditch ( micro splash and dash ) but a bit of power line avoidance there and a soft landing in the middle of a field. Lifting off again and floating over the nearby highway we landed over a little lamp post and onto the roadway of a little housing area.

A great day all in all....

Some shots from the video cameras and the main cameras....


Pre launch picture taking. Ted points at things.

Up and over Black Magic Woman. Looking at the traffic.

Over the highway after playing with some free range rabbits in the field. I am sure we were not one of the things the rabbits wanted in their field. We left before the enforcer rabbits caught us.

Right past the lamp post and down on the road. Tight place to land but the crew were right there and took us out of the sky.

Camera 1 of 2 GOPros. Looking back towards the launch field. Robert in Phobic cruises down the highway. No such North available today but some North East, heavy on the East.

Up over Black Magic Woman. Smooth.. very smooth!

All those lines. Got my camera cover caught up twice and myself once. Seriously need to move my GTA radio and blue radio to the other upright.

And a bit of tailgating after a 40 minute flight which was also a lot of fun and wonderful to be hanging with all the friends.... Juice, chips and some tasty cheese and racing back up to Albuquerque before I run out of fuel.

Something like 170 shots. Three video cameras dumped and verified.

Some very tough shooting but almost all of it off eye camera shooting. We did get becalmed and I got to take some time but I had Ted there to keep an eye out also. It was fun to have him with me. I got to fly with him in his balloon in Taos and that was also a lot of fun. He has a lot more experience than I do and is a complete laugh to have in the basket.

Now off to another weekend and some fun. Don't know if I will fly this next weekend but I do really want to get in Highperactive and get more time feeling how she moves in the air. Strangely my 6040 GPS did not work and I don't know why. Frustrating.. But I did have my little Fiesta GPS running and Ted had his running as well.

See ya next weekend!

Safety, Knowledge, Good friends.

The registration for the largest hot air ballooning event has just started. March 6th at 8 am the web site  doors opened to the onrush of applicants. No body damage in the crush and no feet trampled.It was still was a rush to watch the count down fall to  0 0 0. I didn't register at that time due to work but I still enjoyed the spectacle.

Boom boom..boom boom!

Opened and the shrieking mass explodes!

As far as I know there have already been over 400 requests come in. That is just scary for being only a few days after the door opened. 550 is the usual cut off! Yes there is a process of choosing Pilots. Yes AIBF will check all requests until the cut off date. Yes I really hope I get in this year.!!!!

Fingers crossed.

The highlight of the week was the Aerco Safety Seminar on Saturday. Aerco put it on and it was a full examination of an aircraft accident evaluation. Since the Texas accident its was a very good insight into what exactly happens to determine why it happened.

Some pictures during the day....


In line to sign in. One of the perks of taking safety courses is that most insurance company's will give you a slight discount on your insurance. Don't jump the line or Carol will point at you forcefully.. hahaha

Many many tables with far too many chairs. Hard chairs.. 8 hours.. hard chairs!

Seat pads.... not enough to pad seats but.. well went without. Paying for it.. sure ..but it was worth it. Certain people brought their own pillows.. I should have thought of that.

A seat with a view! Not the front where you might get called on but not too far that I couldn't hear.... No.. other than some very loud noises the sound system worked fine.

 Krispy Kreme doughnut happiness. Now.... when should I eat it... when...

Toys on the table... this is very dangerous to give us toys... they were small and I was thrilled at the restraint after such wonderful things to deal damage to the people around you.

 It was still there teasing...

Burner love. Being projected up on the wall.. the new Lindstrand burner sets. Expensive. More than I can afford and unless I could be shown a 40% increase in economy and power over the awesome set I have, not worth the expenditure.but they are very pretty.

 Damnit!! Ate it while I wasn't looking.

Flight reviews and the standards. Got a picture of them even though I had the hand out.

BREAK TIME!!!  An abundance of snacks, drinks and conversation on what we are talking about.

No win.... No hat.. no crown line handle... sigh.... any Krispy Kremes left?

Onward and lunch.... Rudy's BBQ. Very nice and how will I make it through the next four hours with this in my stomach???????   Matthew and his wonderful acting as a refueling station owner. Most excellent.

Back to the training and information and more interesting thoughts on how all the points come into making a bad decisions or a good decision to fly.

It ended with a conversation with Scott of Rainbow Ryders who gave us a complete and sobering review of the investigation of the accident in Texas. I believe my decision system is working just fine.

 Review of the weather through the week prior to flying, constant updates and decision points, then watching the weather at the launch site ( if worth even going out ). Always choosing on the safe side. ( yeah... not great for flying all the time but safer on passengers and equipment ).

Not as exciting as just going for it but hot air balloon flying is seat of the pants flying all the time... why tempt fate by flying in marginal or poor weather when there is another possibly beautiful weekend right around the corner.

Now... there are many times when you have a great forecast and wonderful indications at the launch site.  You lift off and the weather changes for the worse... faster winds mixing down early or just appearing, which has happened a few times or even a lack of winds when you are over congested areas.... What the heck do you do. You fly the damned balloon..look for a place on the ground to get down as safe as possible or fly on until you can find a spot.

One great indication of a good day to stay on the ground is when everyone else is.

Oh... ballooning is very safe when done properly and with all the safety checks in place. Would I fly outside of the US in a balloon.. Only in specific places who have good safety procedures and rules.

Below I have loaded a "Equator Check" shot from a friend. Not a bad one but a good hit on the ground. One of the hardest things to do and one of the main things checked when you are doing your practical flight for your licence is if you can land the balloon. Equator checks are when you hit the ground hard enough to have the envelope fall down about your head. I have seen worse than this but its a good shot of an oopsy. No pain just a hard hit. You can do this if you get target fixation too.

Two major things I took out of this seminar. 1. Don't worry about what others think if you have to deal with an oopsie if it is going to save you or your passengers lives. 2. What is proficient and what does that mean in ballooning where some of use have limited flying time in a year.

I have two envelopes and they are night and day the way they handle in the air. I consider one a maverick ( fast and always needing full control on the reigns ) and the other a Clydesdale ( Beautiful, stately, smooth and grand ). Both will nip you in the ass if you arn't paying attention.

I need to fly more. Proficient in both. Now is the time to get the Racer out and get used to her as well.
Can I fly them both.. you bet. Can I fly other balloons..yep. Am I proficient.....

 I will paraphrase a very knowledgeable Pilot ( Buzz )...."If you stop learning from every flight, its time to stop flying". Ill keep learning thank you.. and watching the game tapes.

Oh yes.... One last thing.... The comment was made during the seminar about taking pictures while flying. Hit right at the heart of me there.

My golden and never break rule.... FLY THE BALLOON FIRST FIRST FIRST!

I will take pictures while flying. Never ever when I am processing an evolution ( maneuvering in a specific way ). I will shoot constantly by swinging the camera around and shooting in full automatic mode never putting the camera up to my eye until I am clear and sure of my clearance will the camera come up to my eye. So.. many many pictures and only the best kept. Thousands of out of focus, non centered and crappy shots but safe flying. Just don't do it unless it can be done safely.

PS. Video cameras as set and forget.

Heck I have passed up on a ton of shots and never taken the camera out just because.

Fly safe my friend.