Author: JoeO

Powered Paraglider pilot since 2005

The Flock Assaults Chatfield from the Titan LZ

Flight #557 was a pleasant surprise.  A week ago I posted to the Yahoo forum that I was planning to fly Chatfield on the Sunday morning after the Fagawie Sailboat Race.   In the beginning we would race from Sunset till Sunrise but over the years as we have aged, it has been shortened to a sunset till midnight race.  Since I was going to get some sleep I thought it would be a good time to schedule a Chatfield flight.  It was a disappointment when nobody responded but I figured John Sieb would want to go and even if he didn’t,  I hadn’t flown my old home field in over a year and it was time.

The Fagawie was a floater with little wind at the start eventually dying to zero.  Our speed was measured in inches per minute so we decided to abandon the race in favor of getting an extra hour of sleep.  At 6:00am the alarm went off and Dawn and I struggled to crawl out of the berth.  The air was considerably cooler than the last couple of days and I pulled on long johns to wear under the light pants I’ thought would be sufficient. At  7:00am we were pulling out of the Marina and encountered Chris Montes who had made the wrong turn at Roxbourough.  He waved and follow us to the field where we saw a big part of the Front Range Flock. John Sieb was getting ready to launch and I counted several others including, Mike Bennett, Ty, Nate, and Marek and amazingly Chip who hadn’t flown with us for ages.

The wind was light from the east and so I set up at the west end of the field and waited while Nate cleared the runway.  The launch was clean and I quickly turned to fly back over the parking area.  Dawn was shooting pictures and so I threw the monkey on a drogue.  I’d been promising to do it for months but always seemed to forget.
There were 5 balloons ascending over the west end of the lake so I set course and caught them in a string stretching from North of the corm maze to the south end of the Reservoir. 
Except for one, they were climbing fast, so I headed over to take some pictures of the corm maze.  This year it is half the normal size and not very elaborate. I expect it’s a victim of the budget crunch but they could have been a little more creative in their selection of design.  Oh Well…..

On the way back to the south end I encountered a red white and blue balloon close to my altitude we blew by each outer with a wave and I turned around toward the bottom of the lake. 

Last nights huge 50 boat raft-up was greatly reduced but still impressive.  This is the first year but I’m sure the Annual Mega Raft-Up will be a regular event.

I flew over to the marina and RC Airport before heading back to the LZ.  What a great flight!  I was back on home turf and the conditions were perfect.

Thanks to everybody for coming to enjoy it with me.. 

Beautiful Cross Country 547 and 548 at Vance Brand

What a beautiful morning to fly with the Balloons!

There was absolutely no breeze at Vance Brand airport this morning.  The sky was clear and I could see one lone balloon at altitude off to the south.  After launching I noticed there were 3 others at low altitude east of the Boulder Reservoir.  I climbed to 500 feet and went to meet them.  There was a 10 mph breeze from the north and the Falcon picked up to 40+mph.   Smooth air all the way.
I did encounter a small fixed wing GA at the same altitude who was heading right at me.  He turned away 1000 yards off my nose.  It could have been that he did not see me until I started to bank away giving the wing more visible surface area.
The return was slow and it started to get bumpy when I dropped altitude to get out of the head wind so I climbed back up opting for the smoother air.   I cant really call it a cross country because I was only up about 40 minutes but it was 14 miles … 7 out and 7 back.
This weekend is the Fly In at Bubba’s.  Have a great time guys … I cannot make it this year.

#545 & #546 Vance Brand

I awoke early and decided to go for it.  The air was warm and still when I arrived at Vance Brand about 6 am.  The first launch was picture perfect.  I lined up on the dirt track and launched right down the runway.  There was a good strong breeze from the South West above 50 feet.   As I was setting up to land I noticed a couple of balloons to the south.  So I landed …. gassed … and set up to reach launch.
This one was a little different.  I didn’t damp the wing quick enough during the inflation and it folded up in a frontal.   I watched it in the mirror as it collapsed and fell behind.  I contemplated aborting the take off but I had plenty of room ahead and decided to see if I could save it.  I throttled down and rolled along for quite a long distance with half the wing but eventually  it inflated and I powered back up.  I was rolling over the grass and waiting for my speed to back up until I came adjacent to the swoop pond. Eventually I got off and went to chase the balloons.  There were 5 in the air with one playing very close to the ground.  Since he was the closest I headed that way and we danced together for a few minutes before I turned back toward the LZ.  I aborted the first landing attempt because the wing was oscillating.  I think it was the result of a hard turn as I descended through the temperature inversion.  Anyway it wasn’t settling down and rather than come in swinging I went around again and landed without trouble.
The balloon was landing east of the field so after packing my gear I drove over and said hello.  There was an FAA inspector who showed up shortly after I to do a “ramp inspection”.  The captain was an elderly gent who seemed a bit forgetful and I didn’t like the idea of the FAA guy quizzing him.  Or me!  I said a quick good by and was on my way back to the house.

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