Category: Rocky Mountain Balloon Festival 07

Not a long flight and I was lucky to get it! I slept on the boat and was out at Titan ready to go by 6:00. The wind was blowing and getting stronger. I waited until 7:30 and when I saw the Balloons taking off at the air port I packed up and hustled over there…it didn’t look like they had any wind at all. When I got to the port the balloons were off and the Pikes Peak guys were starting to launch. I aborted the first attempt because the wing was oscillating but got off clean on the second attempt. Later Paula told me that the crowd let out a big cheer When I launched. I saw several people I knew in the crowd including my family, the Riggeros and Mike Steel and his fiance. I decided to land out to avoid the crowd

The evening before the Festival. We launched from the South end of the Balloon Port to the North. It was not an ideal site because you had to clear the trees and if there had been an engine out there were no places to put down safely. But…nobody had a problem and we floated around the area in perfect glass off conditions. Earler in the afternoon Bubba Alex and I went for a sail. Good start for the weekend!