Patturns of Things

Three main days until Fiesta. Its three days until registration,. Four days until Albuquerque Aloft and five days until the Saturday Mass Ascension.

And what are we doing.. playing with our new balloon....

Yep.... In years past with only one balloon we usually hunker down and hide the month of September. No flying at all if we can help it. That way you cant do something foolish and possible damage the system right before all the big fun starts. Getting an envelope of some other part of your system fixed this late in the date is very tough. It can be done but its a cost that is just not worth it.

This year picking up two new envelopes.. of which both are filled with history and are just amazing it was impossible not to get them out and in the air. Not only to fly them but to see them. Yeah... since we are going to fly one in Fiesta it was a very good idea to fly it and understand its characteristics. Each balloon envelope is different and within parameters can act differently in its maneuvers and processes.

One thing I had changed..because I could was have the red line.. Or the line that attaches to the crow to vent hot air to go down flipped so it came down the right side instead of the left. I usually use my left hand to control the burners... always have and only use my right when I have to flip around.. so to me having it on the left was frustrating.. I had to remember it was there.. so.. now its flipped and all the lines come down the right... which by the way is how my Lindstrand lines come down. No thought now as to where they are I can just reach out and grab it.

We ended up our flying this Saturday shaking down Ytivarg.. a very special balloon. Its new name is MOJOs Reverse Gravity Machine or MOJO for shorts. She is an Avian and modded to an Experimental by Ken Kennedy... His first envelope way back when... so its very special to many people and we are going to treat it with ... well as we treat all our envelopes.. which utmost care. She is a tank though. Fabric is very strong and very tight. Mo liked her and she has some interesting quirks. Our other wonderful envelope named by same Sr Kennedy is Terpsnickery for the goddess of dance and we will be updating the name as soon as we can agree on one. Its pretty hard.

We want to intertwine the old name a bit.. omage... but want to make it ours too.. so Patturns in front of the name. InCheck has come up.. Lemon Meringue.. Mellow Yellow and some other novel ideas.. none have quite hit the mark... I wanted to do the 505 area code but that was vetoed so fast... I still feel the burn... maybe swap the 505 for her N number 477.... still working on it.

After all that we are coming into the last part week before Fiesta with a lot of things to do. If none of them get done we are still fine for the Fiesta week but it would be nice to have them done. My front yard is beautiful again thanks to my gardener who is excellent. I cant clean up such a mess of bushes and stuff due to a crappy back and lack of the correct tools ...and I hate gardening.

So... ready or not... the next blog will be the first Sunday of Fiesta dn I expect some fun and interesting things will be posted for you to enjoy.

Here are some shots of the last week.

So now off to get some things done that need doin!

Do your things too!

Dreams and dreamers

Ya know I never thought I would be flying or want to fly a hot air balloon. Its so strange that whatever path I designed for myself sure isn't the road I am on now.... is that a bad thing... hahahahaha... no.. not even close.

Completely novel. Do you ever go on and think about what the plan was? What was the plan! Who had the notes and why were they shredded soon after they were written down.. what did the NSA have to do with it?

Here I are.....owner and co owner of five envelopes of different manufactures and scratching my chin. One will never fly again without major rebuilding , another needs paperwork done to maker her an experimental, one beautiful Lindstrand racer, one home build that I had my eye on for ages and one that has so much history its stunning. Just by being in that right place at the right time or as a Pilot I know says.. making your luck. Prayers...but not.. Dear Lord.. I want two more envelopes. More like.. Thank You Lord for this life.

The one Kennedy build envelope is a dream... She is super light but super strong. That's her above. The other An Avian that has turned experimental and I need to get her out of her bag and in the air... SOON!.

We took the Kennedy out this morning. Inflated against a very light wind and promptly had the envelope go right over our heads and flop backwards. A quick shutdown of the burners and a flip of the frame so they didnt burn anything and a good team on the crown line brought it back to the right layout and we started again but with more cold air and a faster and longer burn to bring her upright..

40 gallons of propane and a couple in the basket and off into the airs we went. Up, over some power lines and down to ground track. When you vent this envelope she will come down...down fast. Add the weight in and it's a quick curve to get her to do what I want her to do... but she is very forgiving and having the Lindstrand Doubles above me meant I could push heat quickly if it was needed. Two landings. Last a little bouncy as she does not want to stay on the ground when you put her there. Not without a good vent.

We switched out everyone. My son Piloted and two friends got in. They went off up over some houses.. up high due to the very strange person who yells at everyone and down to a nice soft landing on the edge of an arroyo. Swapped out one friend and up and out again.

This time the went up high and the winds changed so where we thought they were going to come down was not where they came down. A lot of racing to the other side of the world and Mo tracking across rooftops to find a hole to drop her in as we tried to find a road going the way they were going ( impossible ) and they were able to pop it into a cul-de-sac and stick it. Team Cannaday got there right after they landed and we were about five minutes behind that.

Grey hairs... three more. LOL

Packed up and off to tailgate and watch a Private Pilot get his Commercial initiation.. which is always fun. Got home at around 1130....long day....long long day.... But made better by a hot shower and some food and a great visit by the Daughter..soon to be Son in law and Granddaughter... SEmmers my Granddaughter fell asleep in my arms after trying to cuddle with a bar towel instead of her blanket.... add blanket and she was out. She is a treasure. She talked and talked today.. mostly.. Dadadadadadada.. or such, and that brow furrowing "I don't buy what you're selling" look. It was great.

Soooo..... Here are some shots I shared on Facebook today of the fun. Nothing of the bag over as I didnt have the camera out but the video camera caught it so you will get to see what an oopsie is with a 90,000 envelope is. Love that we recovered with absolutely no damage and we got training in how to deal with that and then flew for two hours and fifteen minutes! I got 45 minutes of that.

Mo overhead acting like he is having fun.. total lies!


A Pilot initiation. There is oatmeal in there.


Diana and Philip real time video captures in flight.... wild.



Squooshed in between two fun people.... Alan hanging out on the top end.


Cohorts in crime.. or flight.. Kurt, JP and Lori and stalwart crew!


The banner at top in full.  Mellow Yellow .... ( not her name ).


So much to clean up before fiesta and if the weather holds out we will fly this next weekend.. which is very surprising since we usually hunker down and try not to break thing right before Fiesta starts.

Not happening this time....

But we are also having to get used to very special envelopes....sooo... we got REASONS!!!

Scads more video footage I have to edit but I am so far behind on that its scary.

Okay.. thats enough typing tonight... hoping you are having as much fun in life. Not that this is the only fun to be had but its damn fun.

The word ...Doable.

Yeah it was Doable but best not to chance it. Turns out that its a sucky word. I hate it. Cant it just be too damn fast or slow. The gusty stuff sucks. The strange directional shifts are worse. It sucks and blows.

It was a AAAA meet on Fiesta field on the run up to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Its a chance to shake the cobwebs out and check the rigging and reflexes. It was blowing directly to the Pueblo and that is no place to go at this time.

On the deck and slightly higher it was coasting South but you had to stay low..low low low. I was not up to a long jump going North and hopping for a left ( West ) wind to get me off the reservation. My son hitched a ride with a friend and they made it but it took them over an hour and it was all high speed high altitude flying. He is very lucky. Me, I had two passengers and I could not guarantee a feather landing or even where we would end up so I called it after some others had taken off. It felt like a good decision but its real easy to look after and say it was "doable".

Now, Monday I have to get the envelope into the repair station for a red line adjustment which I hope makes it easier to fly then set up for next weekend for some flights.. maybe even Sat and Sun. Gotta get it in the air and feel it out. So far the Kennedy 90 rocks and sweet as a cradle in the sky..... even with weight.

I want to use her to do some couple flying. I have not had the chance for a long while to take up more than one person at a time. This is my chance.

Here are my photographs for the day.. some of them. I took 356 today. Lots of double shots due to the darkness and the want to get the shot...so really around 170 or so.

Mounted rescue were out again this year to help their horses get a feel for the noise and size of the balloons. These animals and riders are fantastic.



Ian riding out the low winds before lofting to chase the North. Rainbow Ryders and World Balloon in the background.



Never Forget 9/11

Up, down, left, right.... everywhere... small scale fiesta.

Tethering or playing with the skittery winds on the field. Everyone had some fun or some interesting moments.

Matt needs his glove bad! Its really going up not down.

Stack em up and make em go.

Nothing up my envelope. Venting out to lay down.

Whew... a good day for taking pictures... I wished I was in the sky.

Next weekend I am going to put a two day out. Gotta get some of that high air.



Hanging out over the field.

On this anniversary of 9/11 we had a moment of silence for all those who lost their lives due to the twisted reality of psychopathic people. We pray for peace, but we should look at history to correct this problem or be forced to repeat it. Remember

That's why my logo for the day is this....

Unser and Westside Sundays

Dragged out of bed this morning minus the balloon to see how the Unser and Westside launches went. Did not have crew to let us fly but when we got out there were a ton of people with Fred. A massive amount of people. Oh well. Hopefully tomorrow we will have crew to go fly.

I took both cameras.. 18 to 200 and 10.5 lenses. Since I didn't have to worry about a balloon I could roam about. I am just going to post the 10.5 special pics today since they were the fun ones. I did take a lot of the sunrise over the Sandias.. some with all the light posts in the way and some from the other side where they were not in the way. Such selective light that I am not sure if they came out okay or not. I will check after this.

Check these out.

Ian







Bob




Fred












Damn but that fisheye lens is fun to manipulate.

The biggest problem I am having right now is trying to remember settings between the D300 and the D7100. Both are completely different from the other as to where the metering and focal set adjustments are and how they handle the changes. Going to have to get another D7100 soon so I do not go insane,.

Something interesting to look at.

Two shots of the sunrise... and one of Ian test burning behind me.







And.... this is a swatch of the soarcoat our "new to us" balloon is made out of.. You can see right through it. Amazingly slick fabric.



Cant get a good in focus shot of it this way. Oh well.

Tomorrow hopefully we have the crew to help us get it in the air and test fly the booger.

I guess I will get to the regular shots of flying this morning as I drink one more cup of hi test coffee.

Go have a good cup yourself! Just a few days until Fiesta!