10/11/07
Albuquerque Fiesta Park
Odometer Reading
We were out of bed and dressed by 5 AM. It was amazing to see the thousands of people out on the field that early in the morning. The parking lot below us was full to capacity and you could see the lights from the cars streaming in from the highway.
When booking our flight back in January I asked for a small basket and a smaller balloon, however we ended up on the largest, newest balloon and a 12 - person basket with Rainbow Rider’s. Our pilot, Mike Collins, has been flying for 15 years. All pilots must be commercial pilots and meet very strict requirements before they can fly with passengers.
At 5:45 AM several balloons went up for the Dawn Patrol.
These balloons go up and fire their burners for the “glow” within the envelopes (balloons). It is beautiful to see and besides the beauty of it all these balloons help to determine if the “box” in the area is present. The “box” is the airflow that carry the balloons in a box formation. It is interesting to watch and the “box” is a phenomenon that is unique to the Albuquerque.We finally got to our balloon at around 6:45 AM. Balloons cannot fly until the “Zebras” on the field give the pilots permission to inflate the balloons. Weather and wind conditions must be perfect to fly since safety is the number one priority. (I’m good with that!!).
The “Zebras” dress in silly hats but take their job very seriously. If they say “no fly” then its over and you get a refund and leave the field.
Fortunately we were cleared to fly. We went up with the shapes balloons and got caught in the slow flow “box”. We hovered over the launch field for about 15 min because we were unable to get into a reasonable air – flow that would take us away from the launch field. The benefit of hanging over the launch field was that we were able to watch the shapes balloons inflate and take off from a birds-eye perspective.
This was Linda and John’s first flight so they naturally had some concerns. They were amazed that all of their fears melted away as we took flight.
We finally got into an air – flow that took u s over the Rio Grande River. The pilot was planning a splash and dash (bringing the balloon and basket down to the river touching down on the water and then lifting again) however we were traveling at 11 miles per hour, too fast for that event. We did float 12 inches above the water but could not touch down.
Our pilot witnessed the accident that resulted in the one fatality so was extremely cautious. He is the Chief Pilot for Rainbow Rider’s and was very watchful especially for wires and obstacles that could get us in trouble.
Interestingly, we were having difficulty finding a place to land. The area has become so populated that open field is difficult to find. These balloons need very large areas to come down because of the size of the envelopes.
Mike, or pilot, was getting a little tense because we were on our last tank of propane and he could not find a space to land safely. There is about 90 minutes of propane on board and we had been flying for 80 minutes. This was the longest flight we have been on to date. Finally we managed to land on a horse farm but not until Mike asked the owners for permission. He did tell us he would have landed anyway and apologize later.
It was a great “soft landing” and a terrific ride. What great views we had on a perfect day.
We got back to the launch field after packing up the balloon and had a champagne toast, and received a certificate of flight and a pin.
After the flight we went back to the RV and had breakfast. Spent the day at the site and did some shopping at the kiosks on the fairgrounds.
The evening brought a Glowdeo, shapes balloons inflated but kept on the ground with the burners open wide to light up the balloons in the dark. The Glowdeo was followed by a spectacular fireworks display. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.
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This is a link to another Balloon Fiesta Rver they did take some nice shots enjoy.
http://picasaweb.google.com/ruagore/AlbuquerqueInternationalBalloonFiesta/photo#s5120640289849073698
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