Sunday Before the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

And I am sitting in my chair waiting for carpets to dry. They said they would be practically dry when they finished but that is so not true. Going from the carpet to the tile flooring is a lesson in the mambo. Even at 50 you could put a hip out quickly. Be warned. Yesterday was a treat though....440 shots taken....

This week was a jumble.. If it stood out I'd write it here but there is little to report on that. I did have a visit to the office of a friend and fellow balloon Pilot. That was pretty cool. I got to show him how we work in the NWS. Where all the data comes and goes and how we manipulate it to to produce watches and warnings and forecasts. That was fun.

I went to a runway incursion meeting at the Sunport. They have these every year and its very eye opening. The are working at making the Sunport much more safe by removing trouble spots.. they work at this all year long.

That was it until Saturday morning when Burning Desire came out to check her corrections from last weekend. It was terribly overcast and horrible for taking pictures but I got to get more pictures and with a little processing they turned out very nice.

Posted below with comments.

This will be a week of very speedy processes. Work is a process but that is guaranteed to go at its own pace. After work will be getting some minor things done around the house.. or for Fiesta.

Thursday is registration.. I was going to wait till my Son got off work then register with him but then I would be paying attention to myself and not him and as this is his first official Fiesta as a primary Pilot I want to watch and take pics of him running the tables. ... So I am going to go and be myself and stand in line before the open up at the pavilion and drive people nuts till they open the door to register... Then I will go buy supplies and return to the Sid Cutter pavilion in time to meet Mo and walk the tables with him. 

Sounds like fun huh.. It is... I should not have to see the FAA nor Insurance tables but will probably go shake hands and chat.. I will be going to the competition table to get my markers and other items.. then I will find my favorite person, Lisa, Owner from Lindstrand USA and chat about many many things.

Its always pandemonium in my head.... not much in the building as they have things in order.... Far too much excitement... no coffee needed that morning....

Friday will be Albuquerque Aloft at the Emerson Elementary.. static.. no flying.. breakfast and fuel.. another visit to the field and maybe some shopping for a coat for the Granddaughter.

Saturday will start the wild times of balloons everywhere, pictures of everything, and video of everything else... Friends not seen all year and lots of food.

Saturday Shots....

Kurt, JP and Jane's bottom end. Aerostar basket with Zone 5 burners.

Another new Adams with a Cameron bottom end with single / double burner.

Laying out on a tarp to protect the envelope fabric from micro abrasions.

Another balloon goes hot... cool effects.

Three in a row and bright as can be. Winds were non existent at the surface so everyone laid out every which way.

A good hand on the crown will keep the envelope from swinging from side to side causing lots of trouble at the other end.

Center pulley for the crown and all the centering lines that keep the crown.. in.. the.. CENTER!

Looking up and an awesome fun shot.

Kurt and Andy connect the turning vent lines up. No shoes.. socks.

The other ( I dont know the name yet sorry ) Adams envelope out. New too.

Burning Desires top all tight and tucked in.

Fireball Whiskey.. wooooo.. things you find out in the middle of nowhere.

Love this burn shot. looks very surreal.

Turning vent. Of two.

Fuel tank ready plus 60%. In the black.

Off they go... nicely does it.

Directly overhead.. took about 50 shots to get this perfect. Lots of wobbling about and framing before they got too high.

New Adams also...

Quad of each side of Burning Desire. I asked them to rotate it in place so I could get this. Probably took 40 shots then found the shots that matched position and then put it together. Each single shot is 6000x4000... for a plus 1 gig singe shot. This is half sized to make uploading possible.

Yep.. so now its back to checking the floor and moving things back.... so you are very very lucky not to have to do that.....

Have a fun and quiet Sunday...

Pat

Burning Desire and a little fun flight.

Such a strange week this week. High point being the changing of the oil in the radar. Never fails that you get it all over yourself.

Same with honey at the Mexican restaurant.. honey.. just everywhere.

Sunday was a fun flight with old friends and taking pictures then chasing a new envelope through the skies.

Lets go back to front here because there is a lot to say about the new envelope and little to say about oil.

The owners of Enchanted Diamonds needed a new envelope that could carry more people as Enchanted Diamonds is a 77,000 cubic foot balloon and Burning Desire is a 90,000.

Burning Desire.... Kurt, Jane and JP... all three awesome and wonderful friends had to go from scratch on this. They got to choose the colors ( Got this wrong. The colors were part of the package)... got to choose the size ( part of package too ) and lastly ( MOST IMPORTANTLY ) had to figure out a name.

Three very hard things to do really.

I think Kurt ( sorry Im spilling the beans here.. you can hit me later ) spend a massive amount of time coloring in envelope blanks by hand. When designing an envelope you have to take into consideration every other balloon out there. So many duplicate balloons. You really would think that there couldn't be THAT many balloons that a duplicate design could pop up right... happens all the time. Kurt busted a good one in the end.

Three colors. Turquoise, Burgundy, Golden Yellow. FOUR ( corrected again. This is what happens when I try to write too late in the night )  right directed arrows of each color with the other colors complimenting each section. Impressive. Then they added the zia on the crown to top it off.

It is a 90,000 Adams with dual turning vents and a parachute crown. Enchanted Diamonds was a 77,000 with a para-vent and no turning vents.

This balloon will allow them to carry more passengers and fuel cooler and longer.

 I believe it was Jane who came up with the name after so many went by the wayside. It fits perfectly.

( Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire hit me after )

Since this was her second flight a bunch of items came up that need correcting but that will be taken care of quickly and her second flight will be next weekend.

I will bring out only the cameras and take as many shots possible to get some really good ones. Its pretty easy since the balloon design is amazing.

My son had my Kennedy / Lindstrand system out and prepped so I could pretty much jump in and go.

With the squirrelly winds about we had to rotate everything 180 degrees as the ground winds shifted and inflate that way. Inflated... passengers loaded and off we went.

The forecast was for 8 mph going East. We took off heading Southwest then a little higher we had straight West. Chasing Burning Desire up and over the nearby hills. We had rabbits running everywhere.. we had wasps come up to 200 feet to bug us when we were becalmed... popping up another 300 feet lost them and we were back off to the West.

We came over the hill and the winds picked up noticeably so I decided that the next nice road was a landing spot for me. We came in low.. tagged a few bushes and my son, Ross and Joshua caught us and brought us to the main road with Rory being the anchor. I had my passengers get out and the crew taxied me over so we could lay the envelop out safely on the cross road.

Packed up and put away we went back to the launch site and had bagels and soda, water and mimosas... we talked about how good our flights were and the odd things we got into and a lot of other things.

Nothing like spending your morning in the middle of a field somewhat in the middle of nowhere ( kinda ) yacking and munching.

Here are some of the clips from the video cameras and then from the Nikon D7100...

JP flying after an interesting hand off from Kurt. Road landing just prior to this.

JP wanting to check the equator hits the ground hard enough to bring the envelope down to the basket. Loads of fun... and the after....

Is the penduluming that happens and it was a lot of swing around that hot ball of air above.

Myself going hot. You can see the yellow dot of flame in my sunglasses. Clips from the Kodak 360 4k cam.

Rory and Ross on the throat keeping the wires out of the flames.

Up and in the air cruising along... just venting at the top.

D7100

JP is excited and ready to go.

Eric and his gang look on....

Her balloon... and she is holding the crown line. She did a great job of letting it come up smoothly. Normally the heavier you are the easier it is.

JP puts some heat on. Preflight test of tanks, burners, peizos.

Burning Desire sees light for the second time. Glorious colors assault your eyes. Bright and shiny fabric.

Kurt's tattooed leg is all you can see as he goes in search of his red line and turning vent lines. Or a quick nap...whichever.

Boldness above.

Kurt lights it up.

You cannot ask for a nicer canopy above your head while at 500 feet. Lovely!

Burning Desires one of three sides.... She slid over the hills so well.

And that was my week.. mostly one day.

The oil thing is just too boring now... It is always novel replacing oil in a huge radar dish. Not going to talk about how many steps up and down it is to get into the dome. UGH!

We also had a great dinner during the week which turned into a honey everywhere you could think fest... yeesh! This was while an engagement party was going on beside us and we figured that most of the women there were trying to see how short a skirt they could wear without being arrested for having things hang out. It was so very very silly. Ill pass thanks.

This next week... Work and some fun there if you think paperwork can be fun.. which it can.... Cleaning the basket is a bit of fun too. Tanks out, Burners out, poles out, floor pad out. Wash all the dust off and soak the wicker one more time... Wash the floor mat,, wipe down everything, Do a full condition to the bolster leather and upright covers with some Wheeler's leather conditioner...smells like heaven... dry.. put it back together and we are ready to go for Fiesta!

Some work about the house... Some fish to capture and relocate... some cables to run..but there is a video of the new balloons flight Im about to start processing... So..

Happy new week to you all.... Hope you have as much fun as I do getting to the next weekend. Drive safe.. smile a lot... Make people wonder... Use your turn signals.

Notifications.... and flames.

Going to run with three things today... 1. Kodak 360 4k VR camera system. 2. The check of Pitas Kisses crown, and 3. The Samsung note 8. Due to size limitations of the blog it will only be a touch of the Kodak 360 4k camera.

1. Posted above as my blog banner for the day is the unwrapped version and clip from the Kodak 360 4k cam. You can see the splice in the middle where anything close is gone. This is due to the overlap of cameras. I can bring it back but everything in the distance will have two distinct pieces then. I would rather lose the burner frame.

Its the way the cameras are set up and I want to be able to use the video take for panos later so I have them set in this orientation.

The software to unwrap and rewrap in VR mode is basic and since this is me playing at the moment its as good as its gonna get for now.

I made a clip of the launch you are seeing above and the spin and it came out nicely with a little error due to the unstable place it has on the basket. When you move in a basket the basket moves too. Jiggle jiggle... so....   It was fun.. It worked.. It will be better. I did upwrap the video as panos too but have not had the time to do anything with it.

I did just now grab a little clip from the flight right when we took off that is all up view and shows how fast the Lindstrand Racer can rotate.. its pretty wild to watch the sun throw the shadows of the lines across the scoop as we spin. I didn't even have the vent open that wide.

Ill post it when it starts working .. it keeps failing.

Yay! Working now...

http://invisibleblack.zenfolio.com/p316393783/h964ABAD2#h964abad2

I will give a more in depth post on the camera later after I have played with it more. Trying to upload to YouTube isn't working but it is to Facebook. Who knows why. So far. Nifty.

2. Pitas Kisses crown.. The crown being the most top part of the balloon which is really a separate circle of fabric held in place by "positioning lines" ( remember that ) and  have a point where those thin lines attach to a pulley and a rope goes through that pulley and down to the basket on one end and attached lower in the throat of the envelope on the other side. This when pulled draws the crown away from the edges of the top of the envelope and the big hole up there to vent hot air out causing the balloon to go down... Longer the pull faster the descent or drop. There are limitations to how long you should open the crown depending on what kind of balloon. Doing it too long is very very bad.

So... Pitas kiss has had a problem with staying up in the air since she had some repairs done. It seemed to Bob that he had to burn an awful lot to stay level or climb. Bob thinking he might be too old for flying was worried. HAH. So we went out this Saturday and stood her up to check out what might be happening.

We found out.

The crown should bubble up into the load tapes ( Load tapes are an inch thick ribbon of strapping that really hold the balloon together and the fabric in place. They go up to a ring and are sewn to it at the top. The crown should be puffy against this web. The crown should also be stuck tight against the edge of the hole around the top.

This was not happening at all. The "positioning lines" are too tight and are holding the crown off the top slightly which is causing the crown to not seat which is leaving large gaps all around the edge exhausting hot air all the time causing it to be unstable in the air and wanting to drop all the time. This is a bad thing. There is another problem but its associated with this problem. So .. Bob will be going into the repair station Monday to get it all corrected.

From that we go to number 3.

I got a new phone... mini computer, videography system and all around interesting bit of kit per say.

The Samsung Note 8. It just hit the streets but I have been watching it for a while since I have / had the note 4. I was going to go with a note 7 when it came out but I don't need an explosive thing in my pocket while flying.. no thank you.... That problem being with the battery and the manufacturer of the battery not getting them within the tolerance that Samsung required which meant it would rub and explode.

Back to the Note 8. No problems with booms. That's good.My note 4 was going down the drain. Battery life was bad. New battery's were not helping... and the note 8 came out and it was a package of things that were very very cool.

The dual camera was my first like. Takes two pics at once... plus you can bokeh any shot forward or backwards, you can slow video or speed video... There are so many options in it....

The ability to send very large files to people or myself is the second like.... way.. up to 2gig. Used it three times today. Two video clips that would never have been sent went.

The colors and screen are next... Colors.. wow... Quality and crispness and displaying pictures of video or taking either is a dream.

I used it instead of my Nikon to capture the crown in Bobs balloon rippling and showing the holes and the line problem. I also played with the speed option while he was doing a burner test... Link below. I used it to speed up Matthew down at AERCO working on a dry bag for my son... no link.

I worry about dropping it. My note 4 had an otterbox over it and you could near throw it on the ground and not worry. This otter box does not have a screen cover so you only have the belt clip cover to protect it and it does not cover the whole screen! Thank you Insurance.

Link to the slo mo of bobs burner check.... Slight processing error in the middle due to my computer not the phone.

http://invisibleblack.zenfolio.com/p316393783/h964934AF#h964934af

So easy to capture and then you can go in and re position when you want the slo mo to start and end... or if you want more than one section... sooooo much things!

Here are some shots of what I have done to mine so far....

Screen with side bar activated for quick shortcuts. I have one for family that shows a row of quick call links.

Dual cameras, finger print sensor and health picups. A bit of dust on the otterbox as I need to dust ..and dust is a thing we live with in New Mexico. Better than humidity.

Main screen with my background... Lots of screens to create if you want. I can change the icons and place them any where I want.... and I do.

When the phone is shut off the screen still displays the time and date and any notifications with little icons. You can also add a personal photo to it if you like.. so I did. Now that my head is getting into InstaGram mode and square shooting I can feel myself liking it and its expansiveness in its control.

Music player in the sidebar. Gotta like that.

Camera with cross hatches for lining things up. short cut above to screen. Huuge screen.

Main screen with time shown.

Camera with more options displayed with a swipe of the finger.

Its not really a phone. Its a processing system with the ability to make phone calls. Ill use it more for its videography ability than as a phone. I've stopped wanting to talk to people unless its specific information. Texting is less time consuming. Yeah.. the world is a changing... you can even see it happen now.

I do know a few ( very ) who only have flip phones and don't text or use that device for anything else but calls... I don't know anyone who has stopped using a cell outright. No .. its not like I'll die if I don't have it with me.. but its convenience in a small package is worth the need to carry it.

I only answer calls when I want to. Texts when its necessary. But the other bits.. all the time. Flashlight, camera to record bar tags or equipment at work or capture a picture of writing I cant see because its behind something else or too small for normal reading... for work it helps me... for the Photographer/Videographer its my backup for my DSLR. Not a replacement... as I love my 24 megapixel Nikon. But in a pinch you can capture some great things.

Other than all that I have been working with my home video cameras... they seem to fail out on and off. I have replacements but its getting frustrating. Going to run new line to make it less frustrating.. which is frustrating...

New week and closer to Fiesta... Getting some things done but today because a measure of lethargy... nothing was moving.... nothing was happening... and I know for a fact tomorrow I will be mad at myself for not getting anything done..... Intervention!!

Okay .. I dusted the computer room... satisfied?!

Probably not.

Ride Em Cowboy

Hoping Florida and all who are being gnawed on by the hurricane stay safe and are able to ride the storm out. Be safe peoples!

In the desert Southwest its frisky and warm.....

The big thing this week was watching the hurricane storm into the Florida area and hoping everyone stays safe. Things can be replaced.. Lives can not.

Here farther West its watch and wait and head out to lend assistance as soon as called in.

Most of the week is kind of a blur. I am thinking I am forgetting things but I might remember them later on and I will... if I do remember add them here.

This weekend was the AAAA meet on Fiesta field as a run up, and to get used to flying from the field. It kind of worked. We are reminded that the drainage wind that makes the Albuquerque Box appear can sometimes stay too high to fly.

Some did get off the ground but their landings were novel to say the least.

The old adage.. Its better to stay on the ground and wish you were in the air than be in the air wishing you were on the ground.

Due to that I play it very safe and stay on the ground more often than most... but I feel I didn't or cant hurt anyone doing that.. where as the other way there is a possibility.

The Mounted Rescue were on field , which I love as horses are so very emotive in a very subtle way and I love taking pictures of them. These horses were out to get used to the sound of the burners and the large shapes above their heads... They work the Fiesta and are excellent friends of balloonists.

Something like 600 shots.. lots of duplicates due to movement causing focus problems... Honed down to a few favorites Ill post below....

The gathering of the group... the horde!

Rainbow Ryders lofted two ride balloons early on. This one being overtaken by a pibal balloon.

He sees you and knows you are taking a picture...

Just ride into the western .. oh.. too early.. come back, come back!!

A herd of zebras and their handler.... Gotta watch em.. they get out there flinging thumbs all over and its pandemonium!

Undercover Zebra training... Don't go there.. or there..   are you watching what I'm saying.. pointing... anything... Bueller?

Team backup with the thumbs up. Clear above and around.. up is out!

Ive lost my keys.. somewhere ....

Spreading out the envelope just in case we can go hot...

You again? Okay.. we pose...

Come here often?

Hands resting on pommels.. the standard American saddle. Calm and in control. The horses color is sorrel.

Fisheye shots... Bob has Pitas Kiss standing but things were all wonkers.

Vivas with their big gores are not happy players with strong winds.

Oppsie... Torquing the uprights ( flexible ) around as the envelope gets spun around by the winds.

I am going to touch your camera with my nose... because I can.... Silly horse.

It was a good day for shooting.

We also have our Fiesta locations for launching. Banner number 52, Launch site L9.. which is a return to where we were about three years ago... all good.. and we are standing up at Emerson Elementary for Albuquerque Aloft to show the kids the balloons as they probably wont be able to get to the field for fiesta... some education for them... and fun.. and cards to hand out.

So we head into another week.. lots to do and the time just evaporates in your face as we go forward...

Happy Sunday afternoon to you all.