Dedicated love for his sport. Pretty Boy Kurt's legs. Excellent artwork...
( He has no clue I took this picture ) LYBG!
To back up a bit... At work our new Leibert Air handlers are in and making all sorts of smooth powerful wooshing noises in the Electronics room. Sounds of perfection and decisive cool air pleasure. I am a happy person... Happier.
I will be set until retirement as soon as my building lease is complete and the modifications I want are finished to upgrade our office space for our staff... Okay... maybe for a year or two..... Love this job.
Now forward to this weekend....
Mo and Trent wanted to see how a racer feels for reals... Mo has flown mine a few times but always with me riding rough shod... or back basket driving.... They tried Saturday but the winds were to "stupid" to get much training out of it and almost everyone but the ride balloons sat on the ground.
It was decided to try again Sunday. Mo got everything out and crew were there and ready to go but Trent had to work that night so was probably dead to the world this morning. So Mo took a friend and had some fun. First thing he did after launching is spin the balloon as quickly as it can ( which is pretty good at making you hurl your breakfast ) as he ascended. Damn ( lovely ) thing is like a top.
Then off to the South then caught the fast North just above and he was gone. We chased and I took a bunch of pictures, some of which are below and others are going to be posted to FB or IG here soon.
He cruised North then tried to draw South at the lower level but that had gone away and was replaced with a heavy West South West or West wind. We chased and he ended up dropping into an Arroyo off Southern in Rio Rancho for a nice "Airplane" type landing with a good 100 foot drag. Smooth soft sand! That was fun for me because I could drop into the arroyo with the Ram and fishtail all the way to him....
Pack up was quick and smooth as everyone ( but me ) is young and healthy... I stood back and handed tie straps and over saw the process. Its a good job and someone has to do it. I need to remember a chair next time.
Back to the field after doing a nicer rear drift loop in the sand and tail-gating and many many good conversations on flying, balloons and fixed wing and air control towers and calling in and ... well lot of other things...
Selected shots below with explanations....
First let me say that I did the unthinkable and read a book ( reading a book ) on my camera at last and I changed a bunch of setting that were supposed to help with light and focus and did horrible things to my shots from shot to shot.... Now I have to remember what I changed and set it back. Its a great book but the settings do not work for hot air balloon shooting... So there are some blown out shots here and there I cant fix.
The Ram is in place saving mode ( Or I have an invisible trailer and balloon ). It was very busy on this little patch of dirt as is usual for this time of year when people are getting current or shaking the rust and dust off prior to flying Fiesta. I have gotten some of that r&d off myself. Next is wash and clean everything....
A nice crop of a burner check. Or creating your own personal hot cloud.
The sun is peeking over the Sandia's. Due to the spot metering it drove the light out of the shot. Works for me this time.
Lindstrand Racers are the sweetest things to fly. But the difference in connections from other type balloons can have you scratching your head a bit if you have never seen them before ( simpler not harder ). No problem for this crew who have worked on many different types. 24 lines from the throat to the burner frame plus three control lines makes for some adjustments.
Trying to inflate a twisted envelope.. It will fix itself but it was interesting.
How many crew members are needed for what size of balloon... But... as I have stated before.. many hands make light work. But come on!!!! I tease.
Pretty Boy Kurt stands in front of his, JP and Jane's balloon, Burning Desire. One pretty envelope. Who da man? You Da Man!
Mo gets a ride up as the basket comes off the ground. She was reluctant to let go today.
A hopper hops around about. Wish I had a cleaner shot of the Pilot as he holds the rotating ring above his head....
A big error in the spot metering gave me this very nice shot of Seth doing a Sundog shot. Very colorful even with the dark.
Coming up soft, crew working to keep the fabric away from the flame and get the balloon upright so that it can fill out. Beautiful envelope, great teamwork and looked like fun. ( expanding the shot shows the teamwork ).
What the Sony RX10V4 does nicely is bokeh shots with aplomb! Showing off the turning vent in the front balloon and giving that feel of distance as well.
Now full of hot air and going up into the air... good job to the crew for that evolution. The sun from the opposite side usually makes for bad light shots but this fabric allowed a lot of light to pass through. ( a bit of blow out thought ).
Mo driving Highperactive along. I limited the shots to only a few here. When your balloon is in the air for once and you are not in it ... Okay.. I really wanted to get a lot of shots of her in the air since I was not flying... I did. Could have been better but it was good anyway.
A very nice sky with fluffy clouds makes for a good balloon shot. If it was just the balloon and blue sky it would not have as good a punch as it does with them there.
I love roads. This one was reminiscent of a real old back road... Yeah it kinda was ... with a crack every 20 feet that your tires go .. bump, bump over and there is grass growing and nothing much else... Yes I am weird.
Mo dropped Highperactive into an arroyo at about 9 mph. Soft sand and a good stretch of space made it perfect... he had a 100 foot or so drag to stop and ripped out the top to stop her dragging farther.
The drag marks. Landings like this are mostly fun. Well planned and prepared for the are exciting and a good laugh. This was one of those.
Mo taking a short break before packing everything up. Love the build quality of the Lindstrand USA team. This balloon is eight years one month old and looks like new. A little TLC on my part and good construction on Lindstrands part.
It is very necessary to have four wheel drive if you venture into one of the local arroyos. Even some four by fours cant deal with the softness. BUT... its a very very nice place to put a hot air balloon down in.
So now we have something like 19 days left until the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta starts. Everyone is trying to prepare for or have prepared or are just winging it ( me ). 550 plus balloons in one place at one time .. it just boggles the mind every time we get to this time of the year.
I am very lucky to be able to take all the time off work.. The people I work with are true professionals and wonderful. They will keep the process rolling and I get to go play. They also know I am completely reachable right after I land....not that that has ever been necessary. A pre Fiesta shout out to all at the NWSFO Albuquerque office! WOO HOO!!!!
If I get the chance and the tower will let me I will try and buzz the office once...or as Maverick stated... Requesting a flyby...... A lot slower I would hope.
More on preparing for the largest Hot Air Balloon event in the world... next weekend!
