From last weeks Tower rescue to this weeks radar modifications that were supposed to start Monday but due to weather in the area started Tuesday and ended Thursday... whew! Then onto the things that went on ( boring stuff mostly ) during the remainder of the week and then to the weekend and the St Pats Rally in Belen....and to this morning.. Sunday... It was a bit of a rush...
Posted for your entertainment.. ( with comments )
The Nexrad 88D Radar. In Repose.
Looking East at the rising sun behind the Sandias. I had to stop on the side of the road to get it but it was worth the moment.
Launch on Saturday at the St Pats Rally on the main field. We had to be off the field quickly as they had sky divers coming down... and it was a race.
After doing the inflation I had to bail out and let Mo fly as my foot started complaining so I got out and Mo took two up. Rory gives that little extra push to get them up...hahaha.
The sky was very fluid and a good backdrop to all the balloons. I really expected to have time to get a lot of great shots of balloons but the upper winds drove them East so fast I didn't get the chance.
Patturns In Czech hits the upper winds and runs away.
Smokey launch's and watched all the other balloons fly on.
A quick out of order shot of the soccer field launch area.
On the far side of crazy.. no.. Belen.. In Czech drops down out of the speedy winds to a super slow ground track... Trying to find some spot that was not covered n cow poop, horse poop or dead animal carcasses.. sadly people have no respect.
Alan scans for a good spot....
Below are the cell phone shots. Mostly the Samsung note 8 takes a great shot. Like any cell picture thought there isn't much to work with. Zoom in and all usefulness is gone.
Below is a wild wind dragging across the Taylor Ranch area. Big clouds then....
Boom! Dust storm ala extreme. Even closing your nose and mouth there was still that gritty feeling after getting out of it. Ugh!
Day 2 Pilot brief at the VFRS St Pats rally.
Memorial to one of the original rally creators.. Mr Baca.
Lots of little balloons into the sky... It was a pretty sight.
Mo after landing nicely, moving back to clear some razor grass and some horse poops and one dead dog carcass... super ugh!
Driving back North to Albuquerque in Fenway, Mo's truck. Takes about an hour to get home. Worth the drive that day.
We didn't get down to the third day of flying in Belen. My foot was having none of it and the weather looked bad for a flight. I heard some did fly and were fine and that is awesome ... but I also heard some say that it was dicey and gusty. I would have stayed on the ground.
Saturday after ballooning Mo and Alan took care of my bad breaks on my Ram. Replaced rotors and pads. Fantastic job. Much much thanks to Alan and Mo for dealing with it for me. They look awesome and feel very very nice. As the one brake and rotor were into the metal, I must have pushed too much on that side of the brake petal to cause it... JUST KIDDING!
Out at the regular launch site to watch Mo try to fly. Nice view of the mountains again. Ram just chillin.
Tried. Winds were too gusty here also for any of that inflation stuff for Mojo. She spun and rotated and got ugly. Mo decided it was a great day to go to breakfast.
Another balloon trying it out. Skirt burned in spots and rolled onto myself and the trucks even after we moved them.... My coat looks like I rolled in the sand myself. Washer time!
Will doing instruction thought it was an awesome day for high wind launches and landings and scored a 10/10 on the launch. It was awesome to watch and was done very nicely but yeah.. no.
The other side of that pendulum on launch. Weeeeee.... Once they had rocketed East the dropped it settled down to a nice run North. Good job there guys!
Alan does the full body envelope squeeze with help from his daughter Breezy.. or are they sleeping.. Cant tell from this angle.
Overall a good week. Many things done. Some things not done. Some things I feel like digging a hole in the back yard and burying.
On the Fallout 4 bit I decided I wanted to try and make a cube at one settlement that was for reasons of building area would take a 17 by 17 section piece. 17 by 17 sections.. or 170 feet and 170 feet high and 170 feet wide with a 90 foot square of mesh windowed section in the middle. It was hard to do with feeling like you are going to fall off all the time and laying all that was a big pain in the butt!.. but it worked and it looks awesome and yeah.. because I could.
Visio design to see if it was possible and where to set flooring to set walls...
Final after all the work and also making it a viable settlement.
What did you do this week? Was it fun?
This next week I hope to at least capture oh shot on the Sony dslr a day... not just rely on the quick and easy cell phone cam.
