Sunday...... Sunday Sunday.... We made the way and got up sooooo early and got coffee and made the field with only a few others making it there before us. Then.... then a LOT of balloons showed up. We were shoulder to shoulder and one crew got right at it while we watched two pibals go off in a strange way. Even two wild men had their hoppers out. ..okay... a hopper and a chariot. Still .. neat!
Both Mo and I had our systems but no way did we have enough crew to get them both up.... so Mo let me fly... and we borrowed Bob and Brian from Fred as he has a massive group. Thanks Fred. Now we had enough but still Mo set me all up and we checked the turtle sensor for the right number and I got that punched into the 6040 instruments while the envelope started inflating.
Just as the envelope started packing in the winds changed and we had the balloon coming back over us. Only two things you can do... turn off the fan and rearrange everything or go full on and blast it up. Heh... Blast away. Cut the fan too early and the envelope came up with a half close throat I could not burn through... with help we hopped the basket and envelope around 180 and that opened the throat and I could get some hot air in it. It rocked. A bad inflation situation saved by very knowledgeable crew and fast action. SAVE! Set up and everything going... Asked Bob and Brian to get in... yeah.. three big guys.. but Patturns In Czech handles weight like no ones business.
Up, out and away.... Followed Fred into an arroyo.. testing my ability to control the descent and not wack the ground... which we didnt.. A nice curve into ground track at one foot up. Landed.. skipped and stopped. Watched Fred and Keith goofing around then went back up again...lofting up around 750 ish feet.. I should check the instruments and I will post that below. Landed again past Paradise and before Unser. Bob took over and did some landings so he could stay safely current then I ground tracked us to Paseo Del Norte to land just over the road ( watching for high trucks as we went over the road ) popped it down into the hands of the crew... Nice.....nice nice nice. Then Fred caught up to us and spiraled around us to land.
Heck of a day.
Here are some shots from the sky and also of the instruments.
After all that it was home.. get everything put away.. or mostly away... then dump all the pictures and fling things everywhere... Oh.. and put up the 13 foot long shelf behind the chairs in the living room which was a super chore all its own..but it had to be done..... resting after all that when we get a call that Mo is short on crew ( he decided to do an afternoon flight ) and will need help on his pack.... Okay.... Off I go and find him playing around and not landing for a long long time!!!! What!!! Okay..... so they played around for awhile only to land right on a road! Sigh! Always with the roads this kid! The people living in the area all came out to check it out.. they loved it. It's always a cool thing to have a HAB land in your road by your house.
He needs to get back to landing in open areas... sigh...
Some phone camera shots ( since I thought I was just going out to pack ) Hah!
Robert Fear having some burner time. Mo.. ham.
Mountian Vista City.
Mojo's Reverse Gravity Machine on the mountain.
Here we are blocking traffic.. haha.. not really... but in the road again. Packed and put away quickly and the area cleaned up as if we were never there......... Wooosh.
There was more stuff but ...damn.. I'm tired!
