Patturns Of Highperactivity: Weeks worth of flying in two days.

Another weekend is close to the end and it was full of balloons. Is there anything better than that?

I am going to make a tri pic out of this or just one big picture for my wall.

Terpsnickery or now know as Patturns In Czech above.

A storied balloon envelope that has flown in so many places and then dropped into my hands to care for her in her later years only to find she has no want to stop getting in the air. She is a tight little 90,000 cubic foot envelope of white and yellow soarcoat fabric. A lightbulb in the sky.

So do you want it back to front or as it happened?

As it happened it is....

Saturday was the final local Top Gun event before the Big Event at the end of May...

The Rio Grande Classic!

The target for this day was placed out in Rio Rancho at a field the AAAA use to fly from but that was only one of four tasks. They used trackers to work their magic so there was no need to drop baggies but that didn't mean Pilots did do just that. Out of 17 flying 14 came to the target.

I was impressed.

Here are some of the shots of that....

This is a situation almost all competition Pilots have encountered. While throwing a baggie it gets caught in the lines connecting the basket to the envelope. So you can either try and unwrap that baggie and miss the target or you can grab another baggie ( the color didn't matter on this target ) and try and throw again and this time one caught the other but he still got a good score on the target. The reason is, he didn't lose his head and was in control even when the baggie was out of control. A very good job.

The scoring team with its head official looking over the listing sheet. It's very important to verify the baggie dropped from the balloons, where they land, when and if its part of the target, and what color. They have the option of measuring at once or waiting depending on how many balloons are incoming to that target. It's better to wait usually.

Sometimes you can get right over the target. Sometimes you are about 500 feet above the target and then you have to throw or fling the baggie out where you think it will go. Mostly when you do that the winds as it descends play with it and send it off course or more on course. It's a crap shoot. This drop was very nice.

The baggie is measured with a tape that is attached to the center spike of the target and always measured to the nearest point of the bird seed filled portion ( weighted packet ) of the baggie to the center spike. A baggie MUST be fully unfurled when it hits the ground. If it's wrapped up in a ball then it's likely going to be disqualified.

A hard throw almost straight down. He was very high up but got a good score too. It takes a lot of practice to get his kind of targeting down. Its always better to be just above the ground going over the target but also next to impossible to get in that position as they have to launch from quite a way away...depending on the conditions of that target.

The team will score anything within 100 meters I believe.. and that is also dependent on what the task is called. There are so many different ways a target or set of targets can be set up. There are even invisible ones in the sky that you have to try and get into and stay in for the longest time.

A very good swing toss. Great positioning near the ground but the winds shifted and he was off track slightly which threw him off by just enough to make it hard. Still a good throw.

The center spike in the target. See that blue baggie I think was scored at ten centimeters or so. Pretty cool. The target can stay open forever or for a set amount of time. There are targets that you cannot allow your baggie to rest on the target itself... and there are tasks that a quadrant of the target is open for fifteen minutes at a time.

If you have a good arm you can get a lot of distance on a baggie throw. A lot of people say you need a special type of balloon envelope to compete and win and I know that that isn't true. It can help but you can win in anything that will hold air nicely. The big choices are launching location... if the winds stay as you expect them to, and if you have enough fuel to make multiple passes on the target. Practice makes perfect. Luck is in there too.

A good lot of fun in the middle of nowhere listening to the coyote yowl in the near distance. It was also cold. We did bring chairs. I got free run of the target.

My rule is not to get into anyone's way but if I get hit by a low flying basket I will take those lumps. Keeping aware of the balloons coming in helps a lot to not be run down. Its been close at times. The pictures were worth it.

The sky was stunning and that made it all worth getting up at 4am.

I think I had over a thousand shots and around a hundred were nice. I had to take a lot because when the baggie is going to be thrown you don't know exactly when so I just hold the shutter button down and let the camera burn through as many frames as it needs. I know I took over fifty on one throw alone.

I had the lens ball out but it was pretty useless for the speed things were happening.

*******

Sunday was my chance to fly... and opening up the garage door and stepping out into the fast wind didn't make me real happy... but until the sun comes up you can never tell. Funky clouds looked like an alien invasion.

At the field and only Bob was there with me. For a while, it was like a ghost town... no ... ghost field... then more and more showed up to play... Really stand around and wait. Bob put up two pibals that went East but as they rose went North.. which was good for us so we got our gear put together and launched.

It was dicy as we stood up the winds started getting stronger but still okay.. past what I usually want to fly in but the direction meant that we could do a two hundred yard drag landing and there would be no problems with that as there isn't anything out there. What happened is, Bob got off and headed North East and I decided what the hell and launched after him, Though I went up quickly to try and not got too far East.. that didn't help at all as I was in a line right behind Bob. ( This is the full version of the banner shot run through a single shot HDR process).

We cruised off at 15 mph ( fast for ballooning ) and looked for some nice open areas we could drop down into for a drag landing but it was all houses until after Northern Blvd. As Bob was in front of us we could see he slowed down over an arroyo and that though he was to our West at that moment, the spot in front of us was nicely graded arroyo sand so I steadily and not too quickly dropped down. Probably 70 feet per minute until I was over that house in the background then I came down that hill and dropped over the fence back there just above the wire behind the trailer and touched lightly then hopped then touched then hopped and stopped. Wow.. A landing at 4mph instead of 15. Nice!

We were just standing there as the chase crew came up not a moment after. We walked her back a bit so as to not disturb any marker stakes and laid her down nicely. Above, Paitt stands up from sealing the throat. Below Alan holds the crown ring and milks the remaining hot air out of the envelope. One thing this envelope does not do is let the air out.

Soarcoat is silicone sealed fabric. If you don't get all the air out it will not fit in her storage bag. Very embarrassing.

Almost all out. Then we got to squeeze the rest of the air out and velcro straps every ten feet or so to stop it from sucking back in and getting full again.

Nicely laid out and waiting to get dropped in her bag.

My Son and his group found us... I think he has LoJack on my basket cause he found us within ten minutes of laying down. They took over breaking down the basket and putting the burners away while I took care of cameras, radios, instruments and such. This Lindstrand basket is so very nice.

We headed back to the launch field by way of Einstines bagels where we got two dozen and a bunch of cream cheese for the crew to munch on. There was also Easter egg hunt for the kids that were out of the group. A tradition they have is that there are also real hard boiled eggs hidden and one raw egg.. so if you find the raw egg.. it gets smashed on your head at the end... And that's why I don't hunt Easter eggs any more..

Mimosas and Champaign are staples and though you can get juice, soda or water it is Champaign that is the choice of Balloonists everywhere.

If I couldn't spend this Easter with my Granddaughter this year ..and I couldn't... I will always take spending it with my ballooning friends out in the middle of a dirt field in the middle of nowhere (ish) and enjoy their company.

A great weekend...

Here is my full track via the HOT AIR app on my Ipad.

Never follow Bob... Never follow Bob... never follow Bob... how did I not remember this today.

Here are some clips from the Kodak 360 cameras.

Pre hot inflation Sun Glow.