Highperactive flight.

Such a good day. Starting out with getting coffee, driving out to Rainbow and finding out that even with arriving 15 minutes early there were people there already!

Then fantastic friends to get it all off and in the air. Turned out I was in such a, well, not hurry but ready to get in the air I turned into the Pi-bal for everyone else. The winds were supposed to be 2 mph... what a lie! Getting the envelope off the ground was interesting. We were dishing in a bit but still was able to get it standing up. Stood up and asked for victims.. volunteers to fly.. Hoping to do some hops. No such luck. Lifted off nice enough but as we ascended the winds picked up.. so we went up farther and still no joy. We cruised off to the South East at about 8 mph. Since the temp sensor was reading about 10 to 20 degrees too high I decided to drop into the nearest field and ground track to the closest road. That was excellent as at 8 mph it was up and down, up and down. The balloon handled sweetly doing exactly what I wanted it to do. Turned out to be about a 25 minute flight so not too bad. I heard after from the other balloon Pilots that it slowed down after a while and they had nice landings. All good in my book. I now have to go get some high temp thread and sew my sensor to the sleeve it threads through as I had before. It worked great there. I had two GoPro cameras running so I got some great footage. I clipped some shots out of it and added them below.

As we took off I was on the black ( counter clockwise ( widdershins )) rotation line. Alan is waving.

And our shadow as we climb out with everyone else just pulling out...LOL. I think I was a little fast today.

Rotated back to front. Off we go. That black line is the crown line.

 Zipping up and cutting South. Looking North.

Now ground tracking like crazy....missed that tree ( big bush ) setting up to touch the ground then do a little bounce landing and stopping right next to the road.

Alan jumped out as I vented to he could get the crown line out and bring us down. Just a little hot air at the top. Twelve of the burgundy colored lines from the throat to the burner frame. Lindstrand has such colorful equipment. Lines, baffle, throat, crown and basket. Nice.

Alan and I lounging around waiting for the chase crew to get there. Not that they were lost. more like I landed fast and they had to wait a bit. No biggie. Our landing was nice and fun.

 The crew pulls up just as we are watching the other balloons scream overhead. Some did touch and drags and launched back up in the air. It was interesting to watch.

Packed up and drove back to the launch field. sat around and chatted for quite a while and eating some tasty chili cubes, sipping mimosa's .. what could be better?

Now everything is unpacked and put away. Video files have been dumped and secured and I am writing. Well before that we did go to the store and did some things around the house. No really. some things! Really!

Sigh. Here are some links....

Hay...balloons...sky.... woooo

http://gizmodo.com/googles-crazy-internet-balloons-will-flock-together-li-1232537205

This is funny. But would work if you cant remember your pin. HAH!

http://lifehacker.com/foil-crooks-by-writing-a-fake-pin-number-on-your-debit-1225157484

Yeah.. oops! Just a bar parking lot... Just a cement bomb... oops...

http://gizmodo.com/the-national-guard-accidentally-practice-bombed-a-bar-1231527481

Do you really need it?

http://gizmodo.com/whats-the-most-useful-gadget-people-dont-know-they-ne-1232709728

As we say in the house when you are changing a subject.. TAB!

I am reading John Ringo's Posleen series.. Its okay. Okay, Its good and its well written, I just can think of multiple ways it could be better. I don't know if I feel that the stumbling blocks are too contrived or I just want it to go a different way.....Or... I wish I could write. No Ringo is good. Worth buying his books. Since I have bought three now and will probably buy more. I would rather read a Powers novel but this will do for now. On my list of favorite Authors it goes this way.

Tim Powers
David Drake
Glen Cook
Phillip K. Dick
Robert Heinlein
And others.

Powers. A fantastic writer. His blending of fact and fiction and dedication to research ":O) is Amazing. I didn't say "awesome" again. Each of his books are different and at the same time capturing your sense of "want to believe" or suspension of disbelief. I still say that people want to step over that line. Tim Powers makes it easy.

Drake. Gritty and real characters. Also a fantastic writer. Good War Sci Fi. His eye to detail and adaptation of real life scenarios to fiction work well. No better than well. Hammer series.

Cook. Funny, crazy fantasy. Lighter and distracting read. I am talking about the Garrett series mainly. Hilarious.

Dick. Do Androids Dream of Chicken Feet. No, Sheep... no. Just kidding. He is good and the angle of his view is different from others. Also.. and yes I have read the book but I loved Blade Runner before it was the Epic people now think it is.

Heinlein. I read his books when I was a child. Great stories to cut your teeth on. My brother set me up with him as well as Asimov.

I was not a reader as a crumb cruncher and I think my parents were worried I couldn't read well. So they set my brother to get me to read. Bad idea.. I read like crazy! I read all the time. I reread the same books like you would watch a movie over again. What I need to do is listen to some august advice and expand my reading. I wish it were that easy. Prod prod!

Go ready you some!