I guess I can exhale now. Been holding my breath waiting for that one last cold snap and freeze but don't guess it's gonna happen. Course I haven't officially looked at any mesquite trees to see if they have budded out yet but betcha they have. The only trees of mine that haven't budded out are the two mimosa's , everything else if greening up quite nicely. Haven't seen any bluebonnets or paint brush yet. The robins have pretty much moved on but still seeing herds of about 20 or 30 come in and work over the back yard area daily. Speaking of trees, I got two of on the east fence line that "may" have to come out. After last summers extreme dry, they ain't looking too good. I'll give them a while but keep it the back of my mind to take them out this fall if they don't bounce back.
May get some rain this weekend and for awhile. If the weather guessers are right.
68.0 °F
Overcast
Humidity: 82%
Wind: 7.0 mph South
Wind Gust: 14.0 mph
Visibility: 10.0 miles
Dew Point: 62 °F
Pressure: 30.07 in (Rising)
Sunrise: 7:39am
NWS forecast: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 80. South wind between 10 and 15 mph.
And if you notice the time stamp you'll see it's real early again, 4:36 as I type. Yep, woke up all twisted up in the bed covers and didn't fight it , just got up! Guess I'll go through this for about a week then hopefully settle back into a more normal routine.
I had mentioned that I would think about trying to post a story about my time spent in hot air balloons. So I worked on it last evening. But no matter how I word it , it just doesn't do it justice. I guess I'm not talented enough as a wordsmith to convey the feelings,sights and sounds with the sport/ hobby.
But here goes anyway.
Time has dulled my memory but I’m pretty sure the first Hot air balloon rally we attended was 1984 Albuquerque International Fiesta. We were staying with Ann’s Aunt Clara and she mentioned an article in the paper about it. So we went!. Had no idea what to expect except what we had read. Turns out we stumbled onto a sport/hobby/ love affair that would almost consume us. Just so happened that on the first day we met the president of AIBF (Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta as it was called then.
http://www.balloonfiesta.com/) who just happen to live near us in Los Lunas. We just served as volunteer crew that day but I did get a short ride with Charlie and wife Jenny. Dammed I was hooked!!!
Found out they lived near us and they invited us over to dinner and meet some other local balloonist. Shoot, I’m going to abbreviate this story cause it could go on for pages and pages. Suffice it to say we met the cream of the crop in the ballooning world by crewing on their balloons. We learned and studied and got our student licenses and log books and started logging training flight time with different pilots in different balloons. A balloon pilot is governed and licensed by the FAA with a lot of the same rules and testing as a private pilot. Have to know your system top to bottom, emergency actions, safety systems, load limits , flight rules, etc etc. Plus unlike fixed wing pilots, we have to know our fuel system much better. Our fuel is Propane. Different balloons carry different types of tanks and sizes . Generally 30 or 40 gallons. Different manufactures use different burners. Some use a line from one tank that burns liquid propane to keep the pilot light burning , while some use a vapor pilot light that draws it’s fuel from the top of the tank above the liquid .
The one we ended up buying was made in England by Cameron Balloon Works Limited but they now have a plant in
Michigan . We didn’t buy it till we moved back here to Texas. This is a picture of it. My balloon XTC
You want details? Ok. 8 gores or panels and held 65,000 cuft of air. FAA rated as a AX-7 size category, pretty standard size for private balloon.
It was rated at 1300# FAA weight rating. The “system”, envelope, basket, tanks and rigging was 186# standard weight.
Stood up 55 feet tall and 54 feet diameter.
Usually on a flight I’d take one heavy passenger or two small or normal size people.
I know you’re going to ask how hot it gets in the envelope. OK, Red line was 275 best I remember and I usually flew at about 150-180 dgs in the top of the balloon. Yes there is a sensor up there that is wired to my gauge panel. Panel showed me temp of balloon, altitude and rate of climb or descent.
We liked to have a crew of 4 to set it up and retrieve it when we flew. That means me, as PIC (pilot in Command) Ann as PIC2 and 4 crew members but at NASA for that rally for example we had a crew of 20!!
Wasn’t hard to find volunteers EXCEPT we tried to launch at official civil dawn and that was way too early for some.
Down here we had a normal regular crew of 6 which was enough.
Over the years of flying I’ve inflated hundreds of balloons and every dammed time, after we laid it out, inflated it with the gas powered fan and light the burners to heat it up and stand it upright. I couldn’t spit enough to put out a paper match!
What a rush seeing that big ole pile of colorful nylon come to life!
Here's a short example of what it looks like when you finally start the burner to stand it up.
BURN!!
I guess one of my most personal favorite flights was with a buddies balloon over near Los Lunas NM. We were flying out in the desert with no houses or power lines to interfere. He put me in charge and just rode along. I had it trimmed out so perfect I was just skimming the tops of sage brush in about a 15 mph wind. Realize you can’t just blow heat up into it and expect it to stay, it cools off and when it does it drops. If you’re real good you can maintain level flight. and that day I did 2 feet off the ground flat and level. (I did have to jump one fence)
OR maybe it was the fight in XTC when we drove from here, Back to Los Lunas NM fly in the St Patty's Day ralley that we helped start. I had a buddy with me and when we lifted off the winds took us straight to the Rio Grand River. I managed to hold the basket just kissing the water for as long as I had room too. Called a splash and dash. and Yea, you got to be real good and real stable or the weight of the water in the basket will pull you into the water!!!
Highest I’ve ever been in one? Just over 5000 ft above ground level. Which put me right at 10,00 feet above sea level cause the launch site was around 5000 feet just south of Albuquerque and at that height the air was a little thin to say the least. Couldn’t keep a cigarette lite.
We sold ours after about a year and half , two reasons. One we couldn’t get the flight time here like we did in the near perfect conditions in NM , ( I flew 50 weekends one year over there) Our winds and weather here just wasn’t as good . That and it was costing me a bunch with it just sitting in the barn. What with insurance and maintenance, coupled with the poor job market put us out of the sport.
I got hours and hours of video if you ever got a few hours !! And two huge photo albums to bore you with.
Mo' coffee..
OK, Sit your coffee cup down.
SPEW WARNING!!
A firefighter was working on the engine outside the Station, when he noticed A little girl nearby in a little red wagon with little ladders hung off the sides and a garden hose tightly coiled in the middle.
The girl was wearing a firefighter's helmet.
The wagon was being pulled by her dog and her cat.
The firefighter walked over to take a closer look.
'That sure is a nice fire truck,' the firefighter said with admiration.
'Thanks,' the girl replied. The firefighter looked a little closer. The girl had
Tied the wagon to her dog's collar and to the cat's testicles.
'Little partner,' the firefighter said, 'I don't want to tell you how to run your
Rig, but if you were to tie that rope around the cat's collar, I think you could go Faster. '
The little girl replied thoughtfully, 'You're probably right, but Then I wouldn't have a siren.'
