EARTH, WIND AND FLYERS…PART 5

Wednesday, October 6 – This morning was “Flight of the Nations Mass Ascension”. The balloonists from other countries hung their nation's flag from the balloon. It was neat seeing all the different flags. Of course, their were many USA balloonists too!

Did you know that the average balloon is 90,000 cubic feet, which refers to the volume of the inflated envelope.

The crowds are back! Monday and Tuesday were a little light on attendance but the people are back in town today. This weekend should be really crowded.

Marsha is busy identifying each balloon by their name. She hopes to find most of their names and put them in one database and then publish it on our blog. Stay tuned for the “Name That Balloon” blog.

Kachina...pretty neat one.

Flaming Wonder

Levity

It was amazing how many special shape balloons went up this morning.

Pencil Boy is pretty neat. Look at his glasses…what do you see?

It looks like reflections of other balloons…cool!

One of our favorite…Haunted House.

Polly and Tom

If you would like to see more super pictures of the Mass Ascension, click here for group pictures and here for individual balloons.

This afternoon we went to the Albuquerque Zoo for a volunteer's Luncheon.

They served lunch of hamburgers & hotdogs and had adult beverages.

Pink Flamingoes

Cranes

That is all the zoo pictures. Paul says…If you seen one elephant, you’ve seen them all. Not sure Marsha agrees.

After the celebration, we returned to the RV Park for more celebrating. Betty & Jay Crane are leaving tomorrow so we had a little bon voyage' party.

Betty, Jay and Dakota

Donna, Norma and Twinkle Toes

Les and Winnie

Thursday, October 7 – This morning was the Special Shapes Ascension. WOW was it fantastic! There are 94 special shapes this year, and I think Marsha has a picture of just about every one! There are 18 new shapes making their appearance this year. This truly is an amazing sight!

While most conventional hot-air balloons average about $40,000 in price, the special shapes balloons are more likely to be in the $80,000 to $100,000 range.

Chic-I-Boom

Saquaro-Grande

Uncle Sam

Arky

Purple People Eater

To see lots more special shapes, click here.

There were regular balloons that also went up this morning.

Swirls-in-the-sky

Gloria-Caeli

 

After all the balloons launched, it was time for the Flying Competition and Prize Grab. In this competition, the balloonists try to fly near enough to a high pole in order to grab a prize. There are keys to a new Ford Truck, $700 in cash, and many other prizes. It's amazing to see these pilots maneuver within a mere foot of the poles having launched from at least one mile away.

We then visited several of the tents on the mid-way. There are all types of souvenir tents, artists selling their wares, discovery world, informative areas, and of course food tents. The rent for these tent spaces is several thousand dollars.....guess that explains why coffee is $2 and up! We bought a metal-shaped balloon for the motor home.

Tonight was the Special Shape Glowdeo followed by AfterGlow Fireworks.

SIDE NOTE: The weather has been FANTASTIC. It's been said – the best ever for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. It gets in the 80's during the day and about 60 degrees at night. Of course, the humidity is very low, this being high desert. So far, only one event has had to be canceled, out of the thirty scheduled events to date.....Yippie!

Should have kept my mouth shut......the Glowdeo was canceled tonight because of excessive wind. It really wasn't very windy....just too much for the big special-shaped balloons.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you back real soon. Have a great day!

EARTH, WIND AND FLYERS…PART 4

Monday, October 4 - We started slowly this morning. We both decided to stay home and watch the balloons fly over the RV park rather than going to the launch field. It sure was a balloon filled sky all over Albuquerque. The balloons were divided up.....half taking off from the launch field and half flying in and landing at the launch field. The result was a sky full of balloons! It was an awesome morning for balloon flying!

Again, they flew right over our parking spot.

The sky couldn’t get much bluer.

This is called American Dream…one of our favorites.

Another favorite…Silver Star

 

After the morning ballooning, we attended the Volunteer's Luncheon at the big tent on the launch field.

The lunch was delicious! After the typical introductions and speeches the time came for door prizes. Guess who won a prize at the Volunteer's Luncheon.......Paul Weaver come on down!

I won a Croton Limited Edition Stainless Steel Pilot's watch valued at $190.00.   

It's engraved....2010 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.......AWESOME!!! It was one of the gifts everyone wanted. What a surprise!

We visited the Texas tourist station. WOW, what a great job they do. We saw a short movie on Texas, got two pictures taken…one for a screen saver and another cute one…and two Texas flags.

Marsha and I then spent the remainder of the day relaxing and running some errands. We did go to Border's Bookstore to upload all the balloon pictures for the blog. Aren't they beautiful? Marsha did a great job! Thanks hon!

To see more great pictures of the balloons, click here for group balloon pictures and here for single balloon pictures.

Tuesday, October 5 – We left for the balloon launch field a little after 5:00 a.m. this morning. We were crewing for the “Little Bees”. They are a tandem flying team that sometimes includes a baby bee making a total of three. This morning only two bees were flying. The third pilot was participating in the Fly-in” contest later this morning.

The first job was to unload the equipment out of the truck, unwrap the balloon, and prepare for inflation.

Marsha and I worked the throat of the balloon. That meant we held the balloon open during cold air inflation using two giant fans. Once filled with cold air, the pilot began heating the air with the two propane burners. You could feel the balloon getting airborne once more heat was supplied.

After a few minutes of heating it was time to set the balloon upright.

The intriguing thing with the bees is that they want to inflate and launch simultaneously. Once both bees were inflated and heated, the lead pilot gave the word and the burners were held open to super heat the air. The flight director gave the work and the balloon slowly rose TOGETHER into the air.

Once launched, we watched other balloon ascend for a while then it was time to begin the chase. The Bees use a local driver to chase the balloons. He knows his way around Albuquerque and can find good places to land that make recovery easier. He did a great job, as did the pilots, bring both Bees down within 100 feet of each other in an elementary school playground area.

We held on to the basket as the pilot let the air slowly cool and then began opening up the top of the balloon to allow the air to escape and the balloon gently deflate and lay down on the ground.

Paul squeezing the air out of the balloon.

It then looks like this.

Once down, we began the routine of forcing the remaining air out of the envelope and wrapping the balloon up and jamming it into the bag.

The balloon weights about 350 pounds after stuffing it into the storage bag.

We then loaded everything into the chase truck and returned to the launch field to watch the competition balloons coming in for landings. The crew gave us each a “Bees” pin and quite a few trader cards. They invited us to hang-out with them for the morning and welcomed us to return tomorrow to “crew” with them.

Paul asked about the cost of this type of balloon. It's referred to as a “special shape” balloon. It is made in Brazil at a cost of approximately $60,000. The basket adds an addition $20,000 to the total. After propane tanks, and other extra equipment is added, the total cost is approximately $100,000. You then add the chase truck and.....this is definitely an expensive hobby!

This pilot and crew were a pleasure to work with. They were very professional and safety conscientious. We would definitely recommend working with them in the future.

The pilot is the one on the right. Bob Romaneschi is the owner of all three bees. His wife is the second from the left.

Too see more pictures of the balloon from this day, click here for lots of group pictures, or here for individual balloon pictures.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you back real soon. Have a great day!

EARTH, WIND AND FLYERS…PART 3

Sunday, October 3 – We started our day with a beautiful sunrise. This is looking out our side window. What a view.

 

Then there was another mass balloon launch. Paul walked down to the launch field, and Marsha decided to watch from the RV park. We both enjoyed it immensely. Many of the balloons landed around the RV park. Amazingly, no RV were hit.

Our motor home.

So low over the RV park.

High in the sky.

So many different colors and shapes….what an experience!

The Rooster

Stinky

Lady Joker

This evening we worked our shift at the Chase Crew Tower and then went with friends Betty & Jay to the Balloon Glow. That's where they blow the balloons up after-dark and light them with the propane gas burners. They do not launch in the dark!

It started clouding up, and we even had some lightning in the nearby mountains. We decided to skip the fireworks following the Glow and head for home. We arrived back to the motor home just as it started to rain. This didn't stop the fireworks. Even though it was lightning and raining a little, they still held the fireworks.

To see more of these awesome balloons, click here for group balloons and click here for some individual shots of balloons. As soon as we buy a program, we will have the names for most of the balloons.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back again soon. Have a great day!