Weather.... rain, snow, sun, humidity, and a few other things... Winds... while a major part of weather is something I look at as separate.
From Monday to Friday I look at the winds and the weather. But forecasting at that distance is very iffy. I will usually put a quick "wanna fly" note out and leave a little proviso that there will be updates as what is going to happen weather wise. Its just smart. I hate to make crew stand out and then have to go home after an hour of waiting to see if things will clear up.
I look for stability. If the winds are going to be bouncing around its probably going to be a kick dirt day. Rain is easy.. Snow is easy.. I wont put my envelopes out on wet or muddy ground. Damp grass maybe and wet asphalt ugh! Water and envelopes is bad. If you try and heat the water off all your going to do is cook the coating off. You really have to blow it dry with fans and that takes a while. I would rather miss a day of flying then hurt my envelope. That's me.. that's how I am.
This weekend looked very iffy.. very unstable... nothing more frustrating than winds that are on that edge of flyable...but we had an engagement flight and a new passenger to go fly. A news station person who has had two flights canx at the last minute. So we checked the weather all through the week but with the positive that we would have to go kick dirt to see.
Turns out both Saturday and Sunday were flyable (edgy). Saturday there was some virga in the area and after the day was over there were some lenticular clouds forming up but it went well. Low winds were slow and swirling. That made it a bit dicey of an inflation. No one knew which way to lay out as the winds changed all the time but we did get her up quickly. First time I have run the crown line on In Czech as Mo was flying. She came up fast and pulled me quickly forward. I had to use a heel jamming into the ground method to keep my feet. It worked and the flight was excellent.
Two hops. Engagement went fine as the question was popped before launch so that was safely out of the way. Flight was in and around with two loops and then off to the North. Back after for a huge group gathering and initiation.
A few shots from the day below...
Crack of dawn.
Pibal in the air and slowly up in a clockwise pattern then quick to the North.
Sunrise at the cut.
Master balloonists become crew for the day. Thank you much.
Phobic laying and a flag up.
Balloon Works into the pattern.
More and more step up and roll around.
Patturns In Czech ( aka Terpsnickery ) rides the heat upward in a sweet rotation with the winds.
All in a row with Enchanted Diamonds at the end of the row.
KKisses Of Fire rides into the cloudy skies.
In Czech rolls over for another loop over the area.
When you have to taxi a balloon you have to enlist the crew as wheels and power.
The sky was perfect for photography. Lots of levels of clouds for a great backdrop. Shooting a balloon against a plain blue sky is very very boring. This was not that day.
Unfortunately there was so much static type dust that I ended up with a massive amount of dust specks on my lens and filter. I had to do a lot of post editing to get all the blips out. I got most of them.
Here are two I tonemapped. I really liked how they turned out.
Not heavy treatments but nice none the less.
And now another weeks coming up and I will again watch the winds and weather for Saturday. I want to go fly Patturns Highperactive and see how she feels after flying In Czech so much.
Patturns Highperactives new pins are due in anytime now. It will be fantastic to see how they turned out. After a lot of back and forth the design came out nicely. I am very detail oriented and when I do pin designs I cant stand if a balloon is not accurate. Since I have had it happen to me where what I design is completely thrown out and someone puts in their idea of what I wanted.. Very frustrating.
One more pin for the family left ( design is done already ) and working on another. One completed. Next will be some alternate pins and see where those can go.. I thing those will be sale pins... not give out pins. I have ideas!!! Many many.
Granddaughter is due in so off I go to get ready for her activity.. she is a bunch of energy is a tiny package.
Have a great week and we will see you next Sunday.
