#78 Chatfield

Good long flight .Practiced touch and gos. Take off was a circle jerk with me re setting twice trying to chase the wind.
Note to self: if the wing changes after you set-up…wait a while before you reset…It could be a short wait…or the wind may change again and surprise you twice!
Several balloons were up including “The Big Blue Guy” who went high and headed North on a X-Country flight. The corn maze is looking good!

#76

Great day! Marek and I took of in moderatly strong winds. It was great crabbing around the south end of the park. There were areas where it was blowing hard enough that there was no way to penitrate and just 100 feet away it was lite air. I really felt like a leaf in the stream.

That evening I won the last race of the season by a good margin.

A very good day!

#75

John Sieb and I covered alot of ground all over Chatfield and Roxboro Park. Three Ballons were up with us and I was digging it. On landing I broke the lower motor mount on both sides of the frame. it was not a hard landing so I think it was just metal fatigue. Also damaged were the prop tips and netting.

#74

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

#72 Rocky Mountain Balloon Festival

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!

#71

Motor Out!
Take off was a normal early morning launch. I was heading to the Balloon Port and approaching the crook of Chatfield Res when the engine died. I tried several times to restart but gave up and landed in a field of tall grass. It must have been 5 feet high and almost caused a hard landing because I didn’t realize how tall it really was and flared a bit early. I hitched a ride to the port and Alex gave me a shuttle out to the truck. When I got back to the park Bubba quickly diagnosed the problem as a broken wire which we repaired immediately.

Flights 66 thru 70

#66 & #67 Aug 18, 2007 Simms
Wonderful flight…I took off into 3-4 knots and flew west to Red Rocks Park. I didn’t go right up to the Amphitheater because it was after a hot day and I thought there might be hot air rising off the Rock mixing with cool air flowing down from the mountains. It is definitely a place to come for a sunrise flight. So I played it safe and climbed 2600 agl and checked out Bandamire Speedway and Red Rocks from on high.

#68 &69 Aug 19, 2007 Simms
Chip and I waited 45 minutes watching a scary bank of clouds over the foothills the winds were 8 to 12 mph and I didn’t think we were going to fly but very quickly the winds died and the cloud band broke up. It was amazing it was there and 5 minutes later it was gone. One thing of note was that I did my first Touch and Go on the second flight. Despite the scary looking sky earlier it was relatively smooth everywhere.

#70 Aug 22, 2007 Chatfield
Nice long flight! I’ll always remember this one because as I was coming back I saw lightning coming from Blue Sky. More on that later. I took off at 6:30 am with the wing coming from the South. After climbing 2000 ft AGL I headed south following Roxborough Rd. until I go into some turbulence that was being kicked off of Wildcat Mountain which is really only a little cone that sits along about 1 mile east of the hogbacks. So I turned east for a ways and then continued south until I was over Sedalia. This is really beautiful country. The homes are widely spaced and fabulous, the term estate better describes it. Some were Tuscon others were French chateus and there were a few plain old ranch houses. This was my farthest afield yet and when I got to Sedalia damn if the wind hadn’t turned 180˚, so, I was fighting a headwind all the way back. For a bit I was worried that I was going to have to “land out” until I dropped 500 feet and was better able to penetrate.
As I was approaching the LZ I was looking at blue sky ahead and all was well…then out of nowhere lightning struck in front of me. I didn’t loiter over the field like I had planned instead I checked the windsock and set it down on the first pass. While I was packing up the wing it started to rain with great big drops, not enough to get me wet, just a few minutes and then it was gone. I guess next time I’ll make it a point to check my six once in awhile.