Early morning... Wet outside but very still. Drove to get coffee then made the launch area by 0602. Lots of other balloons there already. Ground was saturated but not soaked. The dirt scuffed but did not stick easily so that was a good. Parked our butt right across from the entryway. Strangely as soon as we got out the winds came up. Stood around with friends for quite a while waiting for them to die down.
It took an hour for the winds to drop then everyone else leaped up into the air and went in every direction. Some had serious problems with their inflations and it was weird because it looked like if you were laid out South to North it would be cake. The predominant direction for the wind was South East fast still.
We laid out with the wind at the time which was South East to North West.... Yeah.... what crap that was... I had to shift the basket three times and it still got funny while cold inflating. It seems there was some sort of ripply effect going on above our heads... Just enough to make it irritating. So we did get there.. and stood up and where I thought we would be rocking around we were nice and solid. Got up and in the air and sadly were heading directly East.... going up to altitude only made is go East and South faster so we ducked back down looking for something North... didnt happen. Lofted about a bit then landed over some power lines and called it a day. I got taxied to an open patch of ground and laid it out. It got all funky there too. It was like we had an extra balloons worth of fabric on the right side and it caused the pack up to be very fussy.
It was good and a fun time but I like it more when I can play around on the ground. Eric got some very cool shots of a coyote and we saw a lot of rabbit action but little more than that.... Some nice shots of the crewing going on around and a few in the sky but not many. The 360 camera now....
thats another story..
THe 360 cam I attached at the bolster on the long arm to see how that would look.. and it looked wild. I had two GoPros up but one quit right away which was also frustrating.... I charged it. GO figure. THe other seems okay also... I did edit the 360 twice... once for the bubble view and the other for a full pano. As soon as I have time to edit them I will post the link.
I do have one of the balloons inflating a few weeks ago that I had the dickens of a time getting uploaded and processed.. that link is below....
http://InvisibleBlack.zenfolio.com/p715442282/e468c5630
Some of the shots I took today...
Pulling it all out.
Crown:Descended.
Dive Bomber.
All in all a good day with fantastic people. Next as I have been advised is to clean my system... as its a bit dirty now. The envelope is fine... the burners are covered in soot and need a polish and the bolser and upright leather needs to be cleaned and conditioned and the basket has to be washed down and the floor pad washed and wiped down... Basket floor has to have the dirt washed out and wiped down and all the pads and covers washed and wiped down. I plan on doing this over the next three day weekend bit by bit. I may have to think about rearranging things as my best pal put that little thought in my head.
Facebook banner for the day... lovely flame from my burner during the test....
And my logo that looks like flames...
And how it feels at work sometimes..... terribly funny...
And off I go to try and get more video edited.
Caio!
