Day old Chinese.

Stacked pictures of yesterdays flying was fun. Looked them over and brought out the familia balloon and posted them to facebook. Lots more but I'm not going to just post whatever. There are some very interesting shots buried in the files. Lots to play with this week. Not that I will the next two days or Today and tomorrow as I have a presentation to finish up. Oh I have it thought out but its really a winging it kinda thing. I have to just write down my main points... run up about 100 power point slides and I think I will be good to go.

Looks pretty cool industrial huh. I may have to use this too as a background. It ties in nicely to my blog tonight which is going to be about different pieces of balloons with shots to show. Manufacturers... not all... Lindstrand, Cameron, Aerostar, Head, Firefly, Cubicek, Fantasy and more... Each has a way they build and a reason and type. Its nice to know you have a choice.. and you can even mix and match some of the systems together. Heck.. Each Pilot has a way and a reason for doing what he/she is doing and why she/he likes what they like. The good thing about most of the best Pilots is that they will always watch and learn and adopt best practices of other Pilots.

My main pick up at this time is using a full harness with slip knotted rope tether to secure my system to my vehicle. When I am ready to go I just have to flip one knot and slowly release the other slips and I am off or I can hold it just by clenching my hand and I cant go anywhere. THere are other devices and I will show one below I have used. I don't anymore because they can friction lock. My thought on that is if there is enough pull to friction lock the thing I should not be in the air. But I digress.

Here are the pictures with explanation of what it is or what is happening...

Cameron squeeze burner grip in Lori's hand.

A very nice dual burner that had a bar running across below to help control the direction of the burn. The red squeeze tab is on both ends of the bar. The brass one is the pilot light knob. Very powerful burner.

Lindstrand Squeeze burners.

Different design, similar idea. very powerful burners. I prefer the Lindstrand because the squeeze triggers are on top, Both can be grabbed by one hand or two fingers if necessary and they are protected from accidental activation by their location. Round cans instead of square cans of the Cameron.

Firefly single. It has a verticle squeeze tab.

Trustworthy and strong. Springs keep it centered in the throat of the envelope but with the ability to rotate it when necessary.

Velcroing the top in.

Almost every balloon has a crown that is velcroed in during inflation ( to keep the hot air in ) until the crown is pulled loose of those same tabs before launch so that the crown can be opened to release hot air and descend. In some balloons there is a catch and no velcro.. in Aerostar's there normally are both velcro and butterfly springs to hold the crown in place.

 Teather quick release.

 This is what I was talking about above. The black strap goes between two uprights on the burner frame and that connect to the tether "eye" that is hooked to your vehicle. This is to make sure the balloon does not get into the sky before you want it to. This can happen... This is a bad thing. It is nice have the quick release if you need to attach your drop line to it later or then release said drop line if necessary... All safety things I can go into another time. I will get shots of a drop line and tell you about it.

The crown ring for Puff ( Firefly ) balloon.

Smaller than mine but a larger balloon than mine. Details of the manufacturer. Fantasy balloons have a loadtape ring and there isn't any metal ring at all. All of those ropes go to the edges of the crowns opening. Yes they get tangled and yes its smart to not let them stay that way before you inflate fully.

So many things to get tangled or hung up or caught. Pilots do many walk arounds and go under their envelopes and look like they are just bumbling around but are really checking ever darn little thing out before committing it to the sky. I used to think it was impossible to remember everything you had to do when I was training but you can.. and do... and it becomes second nature after a while. I can go on about that at length too but not tonight.

Whew!

My facebook banner today was of a nice bit of green bush out on the mesa. Focal length is very shallow and it was a pretty green... Yes, when I am out taking pictures of balloons I get distracted.....no.. really I am looking everywhere for anything I would find interesting.. and there is a lot of things out on the mesa to peek my interest.

If you could zoom in on this you would see that there is quite a lot of detail in those little leaves.

Logo.... for the day....

Sadly there is a lot of trash on the mesa too. Not as much as I have seen in other cities or suburban places but enough to make me angry about it.

And there you go... TOday was a slightly busy day of getting new tires on the truck. Just in time. Nibbling a 1.75 hot dog and soda... grabbing some Krispy Kreme doughnuts for the house... then editing and thinking about that presentation. Tomorrow.. Work! I wonder what the off the wall things will come up.... I need to look over my budget spreadsheets and reprogram some funding. I had a thought and I want to exercise it. Funny how I can do work related things on weekends when I should be relaxing.

Okay..I also had the last of my chinese takeout from yesterday.. It was good....

 Off I go...