Basket out of the trailer. Upright Mylar poles up... Balloon envelope on its cart in the background.
Burners up... Fuel lines being dropped from their safe storage position around the metal frame...
Burner check!! After checking for leaks then igniting each burner and whisper valve to verify operation and pressure of the tanks. There are pressure gauges on the bottom of the burners. I have a picture in my pockets somewhere....
See the gauges? The round things... LOL.. see the red wedges.. That's the No No Zone... Either you have too much pressure that you may burn the top of your balloon... yes its possible.. or the other way ( left side of the dial ) too low and your flame sucks and you have no power. My way of thinking about it. Patturns is a big balloon at 90,000 c feet of air inside. These burners ( and rarely do I light both off at the same time ) run on the upper band of powerful. The whisper valves are those two little blue handles and are used for a more even and quiet burn instead of the BOOM! of the main burner. I use mine near horses or other animals that I think might get spooked. The other use of a whisper valve is to make your balloon glow at night... the flame is much more yellow instead of the blue of a main burn.
Talking too much again...
Here Nick is holding up the right side lines and one turning vent line while Rory attaches the lower lines to the top of the basket frame. Looks like a total mess of lines. It does work out most times and when it gets tangled you can reconnect and untangle while cold inflating.
Walking the envelope out of the bag. Most balloons are hand carried while the balloon is being pulled out. This one is pampered and has a cart. So you just walk the cart backwards while a crew member lifts it out.
The envelope laid out.. Its long.... long... but its stretched out. Once it fills with cold air it will draw in while the equator spreads out.
Cold inflation starts.. That red thing in the bottom left corner is the Tecumseh 10 Horse Power fan. Bloomin thing is so powerful it only takes a few minutes to pack this balloon. Serious oomph!
Here I am with Rory in the top of the envelope straightening out some of the crown positioning lines. It was very flipped around. Took a while to get it to set right and not have any lines knotted up or hooked around other lines. It all worked out great.
All the velcro is hooked in and the crown as you can see in the above picture is sucking up into the top of the envelope. I am peeking in to check again that all the lines are running where they are supposed to be and it gives me a very comfy feeling knowing it before I go lighting thing off or leaving the safe ground.
Whew!!!.. Enough for tonight. Ill continue with the evolution tomorrow.... but.... that is what you will see in any balloon made... there are some deviations to this but normally it is... What I said about safety before is the rule... Check.. check again... have someone else check again.
Oh...Dang.. a bit more.... see that thicker line that's going from the right upper side of the picture to that pulley then down towards the left bottom? That is my red line. It goes from being attached to the left inside of the envelope to this pulley then down to about the middle right inside then down to the basket from there. The pulley makes it easier to pull the top down from the pressure of the hot air.
So since I talked all about this before now you have pictures to put with the words of the Ballooning And You sections of my blog. Try and connect some of the names I gave you with the pictures.
You know how much fun it is to share this with the good people around me... WAY! If I was not being throttled by this head cold which followed a sore throat which followed a sinus infection... Id be out there flying my A*$ off. Okay.. maybe not that much but dang! It gets in your blood and .. well the dust gets just everywhere.... Ask the crew about the cool designs on their clothes after squeezing an envelope out here!
Have a Great Evening! I say that a lot.. but I really mean it when I say it... REALLY!
