Riding high in the clear blue sky

An beautiful end to a full on week. Busy busy at the office rearranging walls and data..AAAA rally was cancelled on Saturday due to the ugly wind... and then Sunday a large sucker hole opened up.

Really it was something like that.

Decided I could not decide on which to use as today's banner shot so you get both!

Top shot is after everyone got back to the field from flying today. It was such and awesome day that looked to be a breakfast day.. but more about that in a moment.... then the flag shot as I was about to leave the tailgate and go home .. the winds picked up but the flag looked great against the mountains.

So we got out to the field at Unser and Westside in Rio Rancho New Mexico and there was a brisk wind going East. That was not in the forecast at all.. South at 5 was the forecast.

It was me and Mezz and one other then right before sunrise the place packed in with balloonists.. Lots.. So many that some were going up the hill to the motocross area and some were over at the school on the hill and even some in Cabazon park... Everywhere.. but the winds were not happy.

Three or four Pibals went up.. All went up to about 100 feet.. zigged and zagged in a five foot area then went up another 50 or so and did it again then at about 200 every one of them looked like the added jets and zipped Southeast!!! Not good.. not good at all...

But some thought they might be able to squeak a flight in and started setting up. I watched. I wanted to see what was going to happen to them when they tried to go... Since most everyone was setting up I decided we would get the basket up and prep it so that if it was good we would jsut have to pop the envelope  out and go...

By the time we were set up and the envelope attached one balloon went up and promptly headed Southwest!! Wow.. fantastic.. so we started our inflation and were standing in less than ten minutes. There looked to be a higher layer going Southeast and a medium layer going South and a low layer going Southwest so some movement area... that's real good.

So up and off we went.... catching a couple of those layers and wiggling about at 200 feet. We were heading more West than South so I boosted us up and got more of that Southwest... Drove over the houses and started a descent into the local large arroyo and came to an abrupt stop at about 200 over the wall... had to lift back up about 50 to get moved over and then dropped into the arroyo.

Winds in the arroyo were flowing East which brought us over the only scrub tree in there... could have hit dead center.  Flew over that.. ground tracked and landed in the sand. Nice and easy. Popped up from there and grabbed that Southwest and looked to see where everyone ahead of my had landed and figured that I could get there also and did. Crossing Paradise and dropping down faster than I expected I had to do a heavy burn to stop us about 3 feet up and then vent like crazy so we didn't go right back up as I had put a lot of heat into the envelope.

That was a perfect thing to do and we stayed around 3/4 feet off the ground and tracked right towards Mezzes crew and balloon laid out by Unser. We looked to be passing him on the right but ended up having him stop us before we ran right into the bottom of his basket. Fickle winds. Laid it down to the side and back to the field for some bagels and talk. Excellent day.. Excellent!

The video came out nice on both cameras but this time the Kodak 360 stopped short which was odd but the gopro went the whole way.. which was really odd. Clips below.

So wonderful wonderful and now looking at pictures and editing and laughing. I love taking pictures while flying. Flying over rode some really great shots but that's the rules. Fly first shoot second.

Here are the clips from the video and then some select shots from the Sony RX10V4.

In some crazy order here....

From my cell cam... Alan attaches the velcro that keeps the crown in place while we inflate.

Shelly and Nick hold the throat open to get that fan air in and envelope packed with cold air.

Way out of order.. an initiation for a first time flyer and newly engaged young lady.

Pano of the huge tailgate. There were layers in the back and please do not look at Mark.

Koday 360 4k cam. Forgot to set it to down shoot so the whole flight is in the round. Interesting viewpoint.

Making sure the crew on the throat are ready to go.

Going hot and standing up Nice work on the crown Alan and no roll back towards the trailer.

Up we go with Elisa beside up and Debi out past her.

Cruising along and taking pics and watching what other people are doing as we go over or under...

The one tree in the Arroyo... and we go right to it. Magnetic.. Woodnetic?

Coming into a landing and being chased by our shadow.

Back up out and over Fred. Nice close flyby..

Down into the nice field on the corner of Unser and Paradise.  Watching the speed of the descent it really looks like we are going to bang into the ground.

 Laying down on the job again. But its a nice place to relax. Red ( white/blue ) line in hand venting the top out still. 45 minute flight. 35 on one tank and not off the peg by any means on the other and max temp of 146.. Nice.. Love this envelope!

So that was the side cameras.. here are a few from the Sony. With its 600mm reach I could get into other baskets... Sorry.. no privacy in the air.

All the way across the field and a nice close up. They have no clue. Brian.. get to work!

Over Babs laying out. A shot to show how your hand and baggie should be placed during a gravity drop during competition.

A few out at the motocross area where its a bit less crowded.

Looking back at the field and noticing that the little hills are getting closer to covering the area.

Hi Debi!!! Lookin good!!! She is about 200 feet or so up.

Eric cruses below like a flaming shark looking for a kill... They did too.. They threw a baggie on a storm drain top and hit it too. Saw it I did!

Eric prepares to do something... Im not sure but it was like.. "What... Im flying here!" A Kubi basket with a door... a DOOR!!!

A nicely lined up shot. Great when I can get this without looking.

Me and my shadow....

Fred! Fred!! Yeah.. he knows Im there.. we know each other so well that we know what we are going to do so very close. If you have ever flown in the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.. you get to learn how to fly touching other balloons and how to manage that... We do it all the time.

A wonderful day as I said. Hoping we have more wonderful days in the future. Since we just found out we have been accepted into the 2018 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta I am hoping all the days of Fiesta are like today.

Oh..was playing with this.. maybe for a base ball cap patch...

Opting out of everything.

After a month of busy weekends its pretty nice to stop on one and sit. Winds were too high to fly, Truck lube stations were closed, still too damaged to clean the garage, shed, outside, pond.................

A nice banner for the Kennedy envelope. Soft yellow and white. Very classy. It was there & Because.

This week was like a pack of rabbits on some very wild lettuce. Too much hopping and too little thinkin before munching. Or something like that.

Top thing in my mind right now is Holly sending me the link to Ken Rockwell's blog on photography and cameras. He was at last reviewing the Sony RX10V4 I bought a bunch of months ago.

Yep, he loves it too. For all the same reasons. He also has the same set of misses or Cons as I did. No second chip slot, no memory banks for settings, and a few minor other things. Do they matter to the freakin stunning shots you can get from miles away... nope. This camera is the cat's a$$.

Link: https://www.kenrockwell.com/sony/rx10-iii.htm

I really need to get it out of its case and use it more. I've been remiss in my want to go shoot things.

A nice thing happened this week was I got a plaque from the AAAA for all the work I did on the Cloudbouncer I edited for 7 years. That was very nice. I almost didn't hear them talking me up until Alan nudged me and said that they were talking about me.. then I got all embarrassed. I'm bad at things like this.  It was very nice and the thanks I got from the group was wonderful.

I have to remember to upload some shots for the new editor. Hmmmm,,,,,

Well so since I didn't do anything specific I will throw a bunch of things I wanted to stick here now and comment on them...

A training evolution on the hill. Drop Line!

How to tailgate properly. Butts in, Space for latecomers to fill in gaps. No one cut off.

Meow Wolf ( silly name ) drink list. Wweeiirrdd!

A flat Stanley moment. Well... because I was asked to....

The nice thing about hot air ballooning... Landing almost anywhere... Parking lots are good and bad.

Scanning old family photos and editing all the holes, cracks, rubs, wrinkles and spots from them. I can get one done and then I am exhausted.

Looking for a air filter for my truck on a Sunday. Not the most fun. The K&N was 60 bucks! I went with the STP version as its only going to be in there till I can wash and oil the reusable I have in now.

 And I am fine with just hanging in my house.. so yeah.. not alone...

A picture of the insanity of last Saturdays launches and flights! It was busy.

One of my favorite pictures for my Galaxy Note 8.

And a 360 version of the standing about bit of last Saturday. It was a good day to deal with things.

The 360 video came out nicely and the edit was excellent. I cant get it to upload so I think its just too large for the system. I will reedit it ( once I am in the mood ) for a faster speed and a smaller size and try again.

I really have to be in the mood for all this stuff... not in the mood means it will come out like garbage so I dont do it.

Ignore this.

On the Fallout 4 side. I found a nice mod that has trees. Since almost every tree in the vanilla game is dead its nice to have some color.. so I am adding trees into each settlement.. Its very nice. I like trees!

Longfellow's cabin area.

Oberlon Station.

I am working on a one page flyer for ballooning facts and things... like safety and ideas and such..not quite done there yet.

Now off to get ready for another week of random hopping about....

Flight rich environment and CDO at Meow Wolf.

Many things happened this week.. or towards the end of the week. Mainly my granddaughter was in town and this changes the whole dynamic of the fabric of space time. No really. Einsteins theory of relatives show its true. For each 2 year old in motion causes 4 adults to encircle the active 2 in a dance of strategic control. I'm positive it was a theory.

We flew two days this weekend. Saturday I got to fly Patturns Highperactive.. and had a good time at it and then Sunday Mo got to fly his balloon for his birthday. Both days were very nice for flying. Saturday was a good day to float over everyone who had not taken off yets, heads. There was movement but it was slow and changing. Totally awesome day though. Sunday the wind was quick to the east at about 500 feet but walking speed from 20 to 100 feet up.

After Saturdays flight we drive up to Santa Fe to go walk Meow Wolfs bizarre spaces.

So lets start with a few shots and some more shots and then a couple extra shots.

Down view. Its nice to be close and it was a day for closeness.

Coming up on the side.  Bottom balloon has the right of way as they cant see up.

Ted hot inflates as I cruise across the top of him. I said it was close that day. HAH!

Rolling around in the air is a fun thing.

Watching the track as the Ipad gets coated with fine grains of sand.

Robert Has some fun in Mo's balloon.

Burning Desire was up close and personal for a while then dropped out to go play near the streets.

We landed in a nice dirt graded field. Soon to have houses in it. More houses.

There are a bunch more shots but that's what you get at this time.

The Goliath robot out front of Meow Wolf. A place to make those with CDO uncomfortable.

Hanging things with lights and stuff. Up over around down in out.. not a great place to be with a boot on ones foot.

Pure black and white room...except the camera catches the slight difference in light being used.

Tonal laser harp thingie. The sounds and music? being played throughout the area was novel.

One of the more fun aspects of the place is the fire place you can go through to another part of the place. There were fridges and washers and doors and walls and such.

Another room of sound and shapes. This guy was a little frightened.

So overall after going through the place and sitting in the bar area watching people with cotton candy margaritas I tried to decide what the people who created this place were trying for..

And all I got was .. slightly weird.

As a person with CDO or OCD it was troubling but its not my place so who cares.

Was it fun.. yeah it was.. I could have done without the huge crowds of people in there. It was Saturday of Spring Break so there ya go on that point.

I took a lot of pictures but not as many as I thought. I thought I had taken pics of some things and I didn't or they didn't come out.

I do know where they got the idea for some of the things in there.

I really liked the last room I went into with the sounds and buttons to adjust the beats.

All of this weekend was parsed with my granddaughter. Whenever she was awake I wanted to be there to enjoy watching her do whatever she was doing. She is a smart girl.

I had other plans as well but they are shelved for now.

Today its Easter and a time for rest and reflection and LOTS AND LOTS OF HAM AND PASKA!

Enjoy the family!