Welcome to the US NATIONAL BALLOON CLASSIC PAGE.

Well the trip up was long.  A 14 hour day followed by a 12 hour day but we made it.  We stopped along the road in Illinois to take a photo with Maggie Mae and the miles and miles of corn.  It just goes on forever.  Made it into the campground across the street from the balloon field and pulled up right next to my sister Jules campsite.  This will be a great place to rest and to socialize with the family and crew.

My planed surprise was no longer a surprise.  Apparently one of the girls in the balloon museum told my sister who started putting together pieces with my nephew and Kim till they all figured out I was on my way.  Hard to keep a secret from a Thompson in Indianola.  So I just decided to drive the rest of the way into town and camp out for teh night.  Once I was here we were fairly sure that my parents still did not know so a new plan was hatched. I would fly in the morning and try to take off behind Tyler and Kim and land with them at the Main Field.  We will let you know how that works.

We had our first practice run today.  We did a fly in to the main field.  The goal was to drop a marker on the target that was already on the field.  My nephew Tyler was out on a training flight with my father and Kim went along to make a warm up flight for himself.  I went out with Pam and Andrew to make my own run on the target.  We were hoping that we could jump up in the air behind them and then surprise my parents.  Since I did not know where Kim, my Father and Tyler were going to go to launch I made sure we were out in the area first and was hoping that we had gone out farther than they had so I would indeed be following them.  We found a spot and waited a bit then decided to get going.  We had a second balloon who turned out to be an old friend, Rob Bartholomew, join us in our chosen launch spot.  I inflated and we threw Andrew, a freind of Hailey's on board with me and off we went.  We were scanning the skies to see if we could see Kim or Tyler but they were no where to be found.  As we were flying the last mile into the field we saw some balloons off in the distance even farther out than we were just launching.  We came in on the field and I tossed my marker on the X and was just outside the end of the arms of the X.  Not bad for a practice run.  We then flew on beyond the target the required 500 feet and came in for a sliding landing to an upright stop.  I had tons of fuel left so I was going to leave the balloon up till the other balloons came in but the winds picked up real fast and with only one person on board and only one crew we just did not have the weight to fight the balloon and had to lay it down.  I only took a few moments after that to realize that the balloons behind us were not going to make the field.  The left wind on the ground was very quickly going away and the speeds were picking up fairly fast.  We packed up the balloon and headed back to Camp Jule.  We watched Kim as he came in and landed on the other side of the park right in front of us.  Kim was shooting for the parking area but with the poly skids on the basket he realized that there was no way he could get the balloon stopped so he gave it a big blast of heat and then popped the top and hopped over the curb and dropped it on a steep down hill slope and even then had a hard time getting it stopped.  All was well.  Only two of us landed at the field and I was the only one to make a drop on the target. A great fun practice run!

After Kim and Tyler had bagged up and headed back to the main field I decided that would be a good time to spring my surprise on my parents since I knew they would all (Kim, Jule, Hailey, Tyler, Kevin, Mom and Dad) would be there. I also needed to refuel my balloon.  So  I drove over to the main field and the look on my parents face was priceless.  We just got back from breakfast and I have log books to do before check in.

Flight 2 Friday night Flight

Well what a day.  After breakfast we went back out to Camp Jules.  Sat down and started to review the rules and fill out log books and more or less wait for registration to open up.  We went over to the Pilot compound and sat out under the pilot tent and waited for them to get ready for registration.  As soon as they opened up Kim and I were some of the first ones to get in line.  We showed all of our paperwork and collected all of our markers and maps and other goodies and then went back out to Camp Jules to sort thru the stuff.

We noticed several rule changes from the previous online version we had downloaded and we got our basket banners put on.  Then it was into town to get moved into our dorm rooms.  I finally had my first shower in a couple of days.  Funny thing there is nothing in the dorm room showers.  Now I know I had to bring my own soap but no towels or wash cloths,  Opps,  So I had to go streaking back into my room (soaking wet) to find towels.  After we were all moved in and freshened up we headed back out to Camp Jules.  We were hungry but had no time to stop so Kim called ahead to my sister and they threw some brats on the grill to be ready for us when we got there.

We put our banners on the baskets and then noticed that the rules say that the trucks had to be marked as well.  Earlier we saw a few vehicles that had stickers on them and wondered why we did not get them.  We made homemade numbers for our trucks and stuck them on there and then headed back out to the pilot compound so we could laminate up our maps and prepare for the 6pm pilot briefing.  Once we got back out to the pilot compound we found that they did indeed have competition stickers for our vehicles, they were just not ready when we went thru check in.  Got our maps laminated and trucks and trailers all marked up and just in time.  We had about 15 minutes spare before the pilot briefing.

So tonight is going to be a fly in task.  We have markers to drop on an X and there is a porta-john on the field just behind and to the right of the X that we are supposed to try to knock over with the basket of our balloons. (Honest!)

The flight conditions were less than ideal.  Winds were forecast to drop to about 8knots and pretty much stay there for the evening and then increasing after sunset with an approaching cold front.  Winds after the pilot brief we still doing 12 to 14.  So we went out and launched a helium balloon and the track was off at about 025 degrees.  We had to go out 2KM to launch so we choose a school out in the right area and headed out.  We got to the school and the winds had shifted even more to the left so we went out a little further and found an area where balloons were launching.  We did another balloon check and saw that the winds were shifting even more left so we took a few moments to watch the balloon that had just launched to see if they would get enough right turn to make the target.  The balloons were going slightly to the right as they were climbing but not enough.  We needed to move further right (East).  We went east and a little further south and found another bunch of balloons launching and stopped and did another test helium balloon.  This one went even further left than the last one so now the target was at 016 degrees and we still needed to be further east.  We moved again for the third time and found another spot where there were a bunch of balloons launching but this field could only hold about 3 balloons and there were 14 waiting inline on the driveway.  So we went around the corner just a little farther east and found a real scrubby, long grass field that was at 004 degrees to the target.  One more helium balloon that took off at 350 degrees and turned to the right at about 010 told us we could get to the target from this location but we would have to hurry since we only had about 18 minutes  to the close of the launch window and the target would close at 8:15 pm.  We had just enough time to get airborne and hit the target and then would have to land in the target field since we would have no time before sunset to fly on further.  NO PRESSURE..  Poor KIM..  he was just freaking.

As normal I was the first one of our group to get airborne.  During one of the helium balloon launches I realized that my waypoint on the GPS had been cleared out and I did not have a target to fly to in my GPS.  So this flight was going  to be good ole map and compass.  I had three crew for the flight.  My niece Hailey, a friend of hers Andrew (who helped me this morning) and our local crew Ralph,  Kim had my sister Jule and her partner Kevin for crew plus two local people, father and son, for crew.  Mom and Dad had two local people who have been crewing for them for about 3 years now.

I took Ralph an Andrew in the balloon with me for weight and left Hailey to chase.  I knew of the three, she would know exactly what to do on the ground and with the wind conditions I needed some weight in the balloon for the flight.  Once airborne I had Andrew read the map and told him to figure out where we were on the map and follow along with the roads on the ground so he could point to the map any time I wanted to show me were we were till I could lay eyes on the target field.  I gave Ralph my camera and said SHOOT!.

Once I laid eyes on the target I used my compass to get readings and my GPS to watch my track and we were right online!  We are going to hit the field and hopefully the target and the outhouse.  Winds were fast.  20 to 30 at fairly low altitudes.  The 2KM to the field was only going to take about 14 minutes.  No time to screw up and no way to recover if you did.  At altitude we only had about 12 degrees of directional change to work with.  It was late enough in the day that it was almost a must that we at least hit the field so we could land there.  We would not have enough time to fly on to a place to land before sunset.

As we approached the field we were watching the drift of the dust kicked up on the gravel roads below and the balloons in front of us and there was a huge turn to the left on the ground.  The wind speed did not drop off that much and the turn began fairly high up off of the ground.  This was going to be a real bomb run.  Stay high till the last minute and then go bombing in like a (LOL) big red yard dart!!!  I was lined up real nice and waited till just the right moment and then started my bomb!  Dropping at about 450 FPM and only about 400 feet in the air and traveling at better than 18MPH this was going to be a wild one.  Came in on ground level and we actually had the score people on the field moving to get out of our way since they seemed convinced that we were going to plow into the ground.  I leveled off about 5 feet off the ground! (The perfect height to knock over an outhouse) and started to turn toward the target.

As I turned to the target the wind was just not quite enough to get me to the X and the outhouse but I was going to be real close.  The series of photos below show just how close.

That outhouse was worth $250 if I could of hit the stupid thing.  Just missed!!!!  I did however drop a marker on the target and was told later that I was definitely in the top ten.  At least there is a little prize money for that.  Not much, (I think about $75) 

I set the balloon down without even a hop at over 10 MPH.  We tried to hold it up but could not.  The wind was still fairly high and we were supposed to GLOW this evening.  I did not want to have to bag up the balloon and then drive back in front of the crowd and put the balloon up again.  We were unable to keep the balloon up so we just dropped it and then got to watch Dad and Kim come in behind us.

.  Dad came in on the target and tossed his marker!  Missed the outhouse but landed about 100 yards to my east.  Papa made one of the nicest landings I have seen him make.  Mom later said it was because he was going down hill.  The ground matched up to him and not the other way around.  He slid about 150 feet before getting the balloon stopped and then just laid it down.  Now we were looking for Kim, we could not see him and wondered if he even had gotten up?

It did not take long before we could see the Big Red Yard Dart on the horizon.  He was lined up good and screaming in.  He dropped out of the sky over the target and we watched him toss his marker.  Looked like he may have been off to the east of the target about 100 feet but he still got to make a throw at the target in front of the crowd!!!  The best part was getting to hear them announce his name over the loud speakers as he came in over the crowd and then them say "Flying Big Red Yard Dart"  O you gotta love that!  He greased the landing and we were all shouting ATA BOY Kim at the top of our lungs.  Kim landed just to my east about the same distance away as my father was to the west.  Kim also slid his landing to a nice STAND UP!

Afterward we went back fueled the balloons and then partied with my parents for a while.  I left about 10pm and headed back to the dorms.  I had not gotten a good nights sleep for about 2 days now.  I got all settled in my room when there was a knock and rattle and someone was trying to get into my room.  It was Kim.  Still on an extreme adrenalin rush from the flight.  He stood in my room and relived the flight over and over,  He must have said "Holy Fu<# man" and "Damn that was cool" about 2 dozen times each.  I think he had a good time and when I told him the competition has not even begun yet the grin on his face was priceless. 

It is morning now as I write this,  Time for me to go get Yard Dart up from his sleep.  I would not be surprised if he is already up.  I think his adrenalin levels are still off the scale.

Ralph and Andrew had a great time on the flight and thanks to both of them for a great job.  Thanks to Ralph for the photos.  Those are shots I normally would not be able to get while I am trying to fly  the balloon.  Ralph will be out with us the rest of the week so we will try to get a photo of him and Hailey for the blog.

Scores for Friday Night.. 

Capt Kim McCourt on his very first competition flight EVER finished in 9th place with over 70 balloons in the sky!  Ata Boy Kim.  I won the event!  Still wish I could have hit that porta-potty!!!  What great fun.

Good Monday morning to you all as I write this.  Sorry but the weekend has been FILLED with stuff and we have not stopped moving for a moment.

Flight 3 Saturday AM Flight

We did not fly, :-(  We had a frontal system passing right at flight time.  Winds were high and the potential for rain was fairly good.  You could see some Virga all around us.  Hope for tonight.  In the mean time we have a parade to get ready for.

The Parade,

O what fun!!  First thing we had to do was go and get our coolers loaded and pick up some candy.  Kim went out and came back with over $150 worth!  SO we now have full coolers and enough candy to feed an army of kids.

We got Kim and his rig and my van and entered into the parade.  The TA van in front and the pickup with the trailer right behind.  I had the basket all hooked up, (burners too!) and we were both loaded to the gills with candy for the kids.  We went down to the staging area to get in line for the parade.  Kim and Kevin rode in the back of my sisters pickup truck and I was in the basket on the back of my van.  I had taken Maggie Mae's tennis ball sling shot with me just in case.  The parade is a very big deal here.  The entire county fire and rescue services come out with all the trucks.  The Shriners were there with there little mini cars, the local horse club, world war veterans with cannons and old vintage army jeeps.  The high school band and cheerleaders,  even the local Mustang Car Club was out with about 18 ford mustang's from all sorts of different years.  There was a grand marshal for the parade (the mayor) and even a Classic Beauty Queen!  As I said this is a big deal.  Kim had no idea what he was getting into!  The only unfortunate part was the Balloon Pilot participation.  I think only about 12 to 15 pilots and crew teams were in the parade.  I understand because of the hours we are putting in and sleep is a bigger priority but this parade is all about the classic and the classic is all about balloons.  I am glad we were there to at least help represent the ballooninsts!  We started off throwing candy into the crowd but quickly turned it into a game of hit the bag.  Many of the kids had small plastic bags and buckets like you would use for Halloween.  I started to use them as throwing practice like putting a marker on a target and Kim quickly followed suit.  Once in a while some big kid would jump in front of a little kid and steal the candy and that is when the sling shot came out!  I would yell keep the bag open I will throw another piece to you.  The crowd would then wonder how in the world I was going to get another shot as the parade kept going and the target was more than a half a block away.  I would reach up and fire the burners off and get everyone's attention and then pull out the slingshot.  Laughs all around as I would load a jaw breaker of square piece of bubble gum into the sling shot and shoot the candy back a block to the kids.  WHAT GREAT FUN!  had on boy that stole candy from his sister from both Kim and I so I shot a jaw breaker back to his sister and nailed her bully brother right in the head with it.  EVERYONE was laughing at that as I yelled out "NOW THERE IS REAL JUSTICE FOR YOU".  We had so much fun and so much candy that we cut the corner at the end and re-joined the parade again near the end and went around again!!  This time we ran out of candy about half way thru so we got into the coolers and started tossing ice cubes!  O was that fun when the kids caught the ice and realized what it was!  Parents were laughing.  I did not have a cooler with me in the basket so Kim was tossing ice to me from the pickup truck behind me.  That in itself became a game that we all enjoyed.  He would throw and I would try to catch and then toss the ice to some poor kid in the crowd.  We all had a great time.  Thanks to sister Jule and niece Hailey for being our drivers in the parade and to Kevin for helping Kim in the the back of the Pickup truck.  I apologize I was having such a good time I never did take photos.  There were about 20 THOUSAND spectators for the parade.  As I said,,,  This is a big deal here in this little town.

Saturday PM Flight

Tonight’s flight is going to be a real rock and roll flight.  We have had a very warm day with lots of sunshine and a frontal passage this morning so the air is turbulent and wind speeds are fast.  We are doing what they call a hesitation waltz.  This is where the judges choose several targets down wind of the main field.  We have to get into the air and try to hit one of them.  It is a real crap shoot since the winds are real variable and there is no good steering.  Just luck of the draw mostly.  I took my time since under these conditions it is usually best to be patient and let things calm down some.  Kim was both eager and excited to get going so he began his inflation.  The wind was rolling him around fairly good.  I have some of my dearest and oldest friends in town tonight and they are going to fly with me.  Tom and Joann Schulz live here in Iowa and are up for the weekend and out with us tonight.  Tom is an old High School Wrestling buddy of mine.  As you can see in the video there are a bunch of balloon lifting off and the winds are fairly strong.  At one point my sister began to yell for me and this was not the type of yelling to just get my attention there was a problem and by the sound of her voice it was a big one.  I ran over to Kim’s basket to find that one of the uprights had popped out of the basket.  His balloon was almost full and ready for heat and Kim was up at the top giving instructions to his crown line person.  I just reached down and pulled the red line and deflated his balloon.  Kevin was on the ground trying to put the upright back in its sleeve.  I told him don’t bother at this point since you will not be able to fight the balloon in this kind of wind.  Just wait till the balloon is completely deflated and then you will be able to put it right back in with no problem.  I walked back up to the top of the balloon and told good ole capt. Yard Dart to start over.  This time please make sure your uprights are  pinned in completely.  Now it was time for us to start our inflation.  I was fortunate to have Hailey as part of my team and Pam another great crew person who in the past had crewed for Dave Sullivan and the Harley Davidson balloon.  Both were very experienced and were able to put my top in without any help or instruction from me.  Our inflation was very smooth under the conditions and once I found a launch director and got permission to launch we were off the ground in just seconds.  I cycled thru all of the targets in my GPS to see what target we would have the best chance to hit and found out very quickly that the winds had not turned to the east south east as much as the judges had anticipated.  All of the targets were well to our right and there simply were no wind layers that would get us to any of them.  I chose the one that was the most northerly and tried my best to get to it.  We managed to land in the target field but we were well north of the target and just outside what was considered to be the scoring area for that target.  The nice part was that we had a wonderful flight with a sky full of balloons and had a safe and gentle landing in a drivable field where we knew we had permission to do so.  Great night and great flight and a little bit of good video.  Cant wait for tomorrows competition flight.

Well the scores are up for the Saturday night flight.  I had a little fun with Kim.  I told him he got 26th place.  He started bouncing off the walls!!!  Kim said "I didn't even drop my marker?"  I told him it was his landing spot, he was right near a target spot.  He then got way way excited,  Kim said " I could have landed there!!!  I could have been even closer but did not know that was a target!!!  After I let him bounce around for a bit I explained that we all got 26th place.  Only 25 pilots actually scored on the targets and everyone else got 26th place.  Then his excitement went the other way. now he was pissed off that I had duped him and that he did not really score like he thought.  GREAT FUN PLAYING WITH THE ROOKIE!!

Sunday AM

O this is going to be fun.  We have a FIT, CRAT and a Hesitation Waltz.  Here is how that works.

The FIT is a Fly in Task.  The judges have chosen a spot on a road upwind of the main field.  They have placed an X on the road and you have to go upwind and fly back and hit the target with your first marker.  Here is the trick.  They will measure your marker anywhere within 10 meters (Aprox 34 feet) of the X.  Outside of that they will measure your marker only if it is on the actual road surface!  So if you can not place your marker within that 10 meter area you had better make sure you are on the road!  The CRAT is a five part scoring area where you must put your marker in the scoring area that is OPEN at the time you pass over.  What the judges have done is used a local base ball park where there are 4 baseball diamonds.  The first 15 minutes of the hour the ball diamond A is open and the second 15 minutes of the hour B is open and so on.  You must drop your marker in the open field as you pass.  Measurements are taken from home plate, closest is best.  Task 3 is two targets down wind of the CRAT where you can choose either to go to and drop another marker on an X. 

We found a great place to launch and there were about a dozen of us trying to launch in a field that should hold about 6 balloons.  Notice in the photo how close Kim is to the carport.  I am surprised he did not tear his balloon on it.  As I stood my balloon up Steve Jones launched and was blown into the top of my balloon.  We watched as he frantically pushed my balloon away from his basket with his hands as his balloon slid up the side and over the top of Venus.  Later we ran into him at breakfast and asked him if my balloon passed its annual since he was obviously doing a very close inspection of it at the launch field.  He laughed and apologized but I told him no harm no foul.  Nothing hurt and those things happen.  For a two time National champion Steve was obviously very apologetic and surprised that it even happened.  Steve is a fantastic sportsman and a great balloonist.

So I get into the air and I am heading for the first target.  Once I have it in site I can see that I have a  great line on it.  I have about 4 balloons in front of me and they are all going over to the right and then descending and sliding left over the target so I follow suit.  As I make my decent I begin to slide right.  I look at the balloons in front of me and they too are beginning to go to the right of the target.  Too late for me to make an adjustment so I am going to have to put my marker on the road.  I get as low down on the tree tops as I can so that I can be as accurate with my drop as possible.  Cant miss the road or I will get no score at all.  I was able to drop it right in the center of the road but I was at least 100 feet away from the X.  I climbed back up and headed for the CRAT.  I also got on the radio and called Kim and my Father to let them know that a right turn has developed in the last 150 feet near the ground.  I said fly toward the van parked on the side road and as you descend you will turn right into the target.  later Dad commented to me that my info on that was right on the money and he was able to make a great drop right on the X.  Kim dropped his marker in the grass next to the X.  Since it was not on the road we can only hope that it is within the 10 meter circle around the X where every drop gets scored.  If it is not then because it is not on the road he will not get a score!  On to the Crat.

The CRAT

(Calculated Rate of Approach Task)

This one is a tricky one.  You have to estimate your timing to the target to figure out what target area is going to be open when you get there.  So you are looking at your GPS and your distance to the target as well as the speed you are flying and trying  to figure out what time it will be when you get there.  Here is a drawing of the target area.  There are actually 6 baseball diamonds being used.  4 are part of the timed event and the last two downwind diamonds are connected by a 10 meter wide area that is also used for scoring.  If you can not make your drop into the open scoring area you may drop your marker in the area marked E since that scoring area is open at all times but…..  Your mark will be measured all the way back to the center of the 4 timed areas so you will still get a score but it will not be a very good score if there are many pilots who score in the timed areas.

I was able to make a great run on the B scoring area.  I was about 17 minutes after the hours so I knew it would be open by the time I got there.  I was very high and moving very fast.  I threw my marker from about 800 feet and I tossed it when I was passing over first base on the C scoring area.  I kept watching it drop and yelling out “clear the fence, clear the fence, CLEAR THE FENCE!!!!”  it did and dropped right about the short stop position between 2^nd and 3^rd base.  I ended up with a top ten score on that one.  Now it was on to the final targets.  One was the main field and the other one was even further to the right of the main field.  I was not sure if I could even get far enough right for the main field so the optional second choice was not an option at all for me at this time.  I began a very aggressive climb to go find a butt load of right turn.

I finally found  the right turn but it was over 2000 feet in the air.  As I got the turn I had to start my decent almost immediately.  By the time I got the balloon back down I was almost out of the scoring area.  I had to throw my marker again from real high up and hope that it got to the ground before it flew past the white line that shows the boundary of the scoring area. I threw my marker again at a ridicules distance before the field to plan for my altitude.  It fell and fell and fell.  I was worried about the scoring area that was passing so quickly below me when it hit the ground about 20 feet before it would have passed the line.  At least I would get a score.  It would not be a very good score but I would get one.  There are very definite disadvantages to flying a large balloon in competition.  Here is a shot of the field.  You can see in the photo how high I am and if you look careful you can see the white line that makes up the scoring area.  I was just at the left end of the model airplane runway you can make out in the photo.  Since I was so high there was no way to land at the main field so now I had to find a place to land.  My Crew Pam and Hailey were right on top of things as they have always done so thus far.  Right beside me when I began a decent into a great little spot to land.  We set it down just behind a house and walked it to the front yard where we were able to lay the balloon down next to the driveway to the house in some nice mowed green grass..  At least we finished well.  I know my run will not get me any great scores but I did score on all three tasks on a very aggressive day.  We will have to see how Kim did.

Well the scores are in for the Sat AM flight.  Dad is in 17th place overall.  I am in 42nd place overall :-( and Kim is 62nd.  Kim was given a 250 point penalty for touching the ground inside the white line on the main field.  no landing or ground contact is allowed inside the scoring area.  Poor Kim,  After the flight he had been complaining about some woman on the field who would not move as he was trying to land.  He kept telling her to get out of his way and did no understand why she did not move.  Later we figured out that she was trying to make him fly over her since she was standing in the scoring area.  As an official she can not actual say anything to help Kim but she was actually trying to help him.  If he had gone ahead and flown over her he would not have been in the scoring area and would not have gotten a penalty.  Rookies make Rookie mistakes and that is why we call them Rookie mistakes.  Kim was heartbroken but realized what he had done and swears never to make a silly mistake like that again.

Sunday PM

Windy Windy Windy.  No flight tonight.  But we did get to play with the stunt kite and Maggie Mae was the hit of the crowd when she began to chase the kite and try to catch it.  I would get the kite to swoop down along the ground and she would go after it and when I turned around and when the other way she would do a back flip and go after it the other way barking at it like she was pissed off that she had missed catching it.  O we were in tears and you could even hear the other balloon pilots laughing in their trucks as they were leaving the field and passing the spot where we were playing.  Out to eat dinner and into bed.  O BTW one of the Weather Guys here at the event had on a TA T-Shirt today!  He was one of the people who went Creekin with us our in Waco Texas two years ago!

Monday AM

The flight this morning has been cancelled.  We have thunderstorms as I am writing this.  Kim is sleeping and I am working on getting all of this back up to date.  I started at 6am and it is now 10:15 and I am putting the last updates up.  Sorry it has taken so long but we are simply busy every minute when the weather is good.  Looks like we might get one in tonight and then the weather will be great for a couple of days. 

Monday PM

Well the name has stuck!  Big Red Yard Dart is becoming famous!  It is amazing how many people we run into know or have heard of the Big Red Yard Dart.  Even Steve Jones a two time national champion made the comment “What a great balloon name”  When you think about it, what do we do?  We go out and fly in the sky and then stick our balloon in someone’s yard, just like a yard dart.  Kim and I were walking down the midway and he wanted to get a steak sandwich.  After he had placed his order the lady at the counter said you’re Big Red Yard Dart aren’t you!  Would you autograph my program!  Kim about shit his pants!  The grin on his face damn near had me in tears!  Someone, maybe for the first time in his life, was actually asking for Kim McCourt's autograph!  HOW COOL!

O by the way as promised we have gone to the balloon museum and here is the promised photo of Kim and the Griswold trophy!

So we have been having a bunch of fun with Kim.  We have been teasing him awfully but he as been taking it all in great stride.  There were many things over the months leading up to this moment that I had told him but one I had forgotten but Kim had not.  Months ago,  I told Kim to make sure to ask if they would run the Basset and the Bunny.  That is a spoof on the hound and the hair.  Well,  Kim did!  I had forgotten all about it but the other day he ask and the balloonmeister Bill Clemmons about fell out of his chair.  He thought that was as funny as he had ever heard.  Well,  guess what we got to fly last night.  The balloonmeister even announced to the entire place who it was who had asked to run the Basset and the Bunny and Kim stood up and took a bow in front of the whole place.  I have stuck up here a photo of the actual task sheet from tonight.  I do want to give credit to Bob Carlton since I think I heard the phrase from him.

So now for the competition.

It is HOT,  85 degrees and near calm conditions and even what little breeze you get is a hot breeze.  We forget in Florida when the wind blows it is often the result of a thunderstorm nearby and that breeze is cool!  Not here.. Tonight the winds are calm up to 1,000 feet.  We are going no where fast on this flight.  The Balloonmeister has split the field into two.  Odd numbered pilots will fly into the field and even numbered pilots will fly from the main field.  We found out later that Bill actually made sure that the even numbered pilots got to fly the Basset and the Bunny because Kim was an even numbered pilot!  During the pilot brief I sent a text message to Hailey and told her to get my rig out in the field and get me a spot to launch.  She also got Kim's crew to do the same so after the pilot brief we did not have to make a mad dash out in the field to get a spot.  The procedure for the launch was that the Bunny balloon would cold inflate and the Bassets could hook up and lay out but could not start their fan until the Bunny hit the burner.  Most of the pilots knew on a night like this you want to be up and after the Bunny quick.  with the light and variable conditions things could change fairly quickly and if you were too far behind you would have no chance of getting to the Bunny. You have never seen 50 balloons inflate and launch so fast.  I was ready and in the air about 6 minutes after I started my fan and Kimmy was right there with me.  Another ATTA Boy to add to his long list at this event!   Another little bit of information that was critical was on the task sheet for the flight. The Bunny would take the first available landing spot.  So you had to watch and be aware that the first place that looked good they would take. The winds were real light all the way up to 1000 feet but just around 800 you would pop out the top of the inversion and take a hard left turn.  From ground level up to 800 you were on a heading from 145 degrees to 192 degrees but up at 1000 feet you would be going 097 degrees.  We watched as the Bunny flew out fairly straight but then quickly popped up into that east layer and I had a suspicion that he had a spot in mind.  He was not up in that layer for long when he then dropped down and started making an approach.  I believe he missed his intended spot since I could see ground crew walking into a field he would not be able to make and indeed he flew over the tree line and landed in the next field.  I went up to get a little left and then started to come down.  I was to get myself into clear airspace but was unable.  I had two or three racer balloons all around me and with me in my big boat I was forced to pay way too much attention to them.  They can just think about climbing and I can not get out of their way fast enough.  Sure enough when it came time to descend for your drop I had 4 of them under me.  I stayed with them real good on the decent and I was hoping they would slide off to one side or the other a little to give me a little space but to no avail.  I was just unable to get my balloon down low enough to get the turn I needed to get to the Bunny.  I ended up sliding just off to the east of the tree line.  The Bunny balloon landed real close to the tree line and if I were to drop my marker on this side of the tree line it would not count.  Even though it would have been close enough for a normal score they boundary of the target field is the limit of the scoring area making my drop useless.  Kim went all the way down on the deck and was drifting ever so slowly over the tree line but by the time he was over it he was to far down the field to be in what would be the scoring area.  He called me on the radio and asked if he should toss his marker and I told him just to hang on to it.  So we both climbed back up and started to search for a nice place to land.  I spotted a real nice area of homes off to our south east and remembering the left layer up high I knew I could get there.  Called Hailey on the radio and sent her over there.  As it turned out this was the same neighborhood pictured in the photos above the toilet in my guest bathroom at home.  REALLY!!  What a coincidence.  Both Kim and I made nice landings in the same yard together and Father was in the same area as well.  No scores for us tonight but that is ok.  The evening flights do not count for the overall points.  Tomorrow morning does!  O and by the way.  On the Sunday morning CRAT target I scored a 6th place finish which earned me a 936 point score.  That is more than enough points to get me into the nationals for 2010.  All I need is to get three more like that so that my average is at least over 850 and I will get a definite invite

Tuesday AM

We had a good one today.  First we had a minimum distance double drop on the field combined with a CNT or FIT then a water ship down and a hesitation waltz.  5 markers and four tasks.  On the main field there was an X.  You had to put a purple baggie on the X. (CNT or FIT part aka.. Convergent Navigation Task or Fly In Task) Each leg of the X was also the center line of a large square divided diagonally into four scoring areas.  You  had to drop a yellow marker into opposite scoring areas as close together as you could without touching the fabric of the X in the center.  Then as the balloons approached the main field another balloon would launch from the field and you had to chase it and drop a marker on an X  This X would be placed by the Hare balloon in its landing field. (water ship down part)  Then you had to fly onto one of 4 other targets picked by the judges and drop a marker on one of them. (hesitation waltz part)

Well,  The winds were out of the south and south west.  Aloft it turned more to the west so we headed out to the neighborhood that we had landed at last night.  In fact it is the neighborhood pictured just above this paragraph on the right. We had thunderstorms south of us and some of them popping up just 35 miles away.  This was giving us the northerly wind directions aloft.  They were forecast to dissipate during the morning and should not be a threat to us other than having the winds all screwed up.   The winds were supposed to be coming from the north east and from the east but they were from the south and south east at sunrise.  So now comes the big choice.  Do you go with what the PiBal say's or do you go with the forecast?  I chose to go with the Pibal since that is what the winds are actually doing at this point.  The storms to the south were fairly large and we could see lightning all morning so far.  It may be a while before they go away totally and the wind shifts.  Hopefully long enough for me to get to the field and make my drops.  We went out and got the balloon launched and at first it looked like we had nailed it.  The winds were headed straight north aloft and on the surface we were heading to the west.  I was about 2.7 miles away from the target field and the winds were 4 to 5 miles per hour.  I needed a heading of about 327 to get to the field and I had 000 aloft and 270 down low.  So far I had what I needed but it started to change very quickly.  Kim and my Father were still on the ground and had not launched yet.  We had some concern that the winds would do this so I offered to be the guinea pig.  Sure enough I was not in the air more than 10 minutes when it began to change.  My lower level winds went from 270 degrees to about 220 and my upper went from straight north (000) to 026 degrees.  Ok this is still doable but will require me to make a much bigger swing.  Not a problem when you are flying a 105 with only two people on board. Unfortunately as time went on the winds not only began to turn even wider but they started to slow down as well.  It became apparent that I was not going to get to the target at all. Even more important was the fact that the winds had almost stopped all together and I was looking at an area that was several miles square of nothing but corn creeks and soybeans to my east and south.  If I wanted to get to a landing field I needed to start working it now.  I was actually able to navigate back to the little housing development where I launched from (after about 50 minutes) and land.  Kim and my father had gone farther north and launched.  Kim chose his own site more south than my father.  Kim got in the air and made it over the target field but just barely the south end.  Not close enough to make any drops.  Dad got in and was able to drop two markers.  One of the yellow ones that landed just outside of the scoring area. (so there was no use in dropping the other one since you must have two to get a score) an the purple one for a score on the X.  We had packed up and were back and fueled so we were able to watch both Kim and Dad make approaches.  All of a sudden Hailey said "O POO we got one in the lines.  We all turned around to see a balloon up against the power lines just behind the pilot compound.  We are still not sure what happened or how but there was only one person on board and he was ok and believe it or not the balloon was unharmed as well.

Tuesday PM

Talk about rock and roll.  We have a fly in target tonight.  Target on the field that we must go upwind and fly back to.  Winds are running about 13 and gusty!  We are going out to fly but was not sure if we would.  As it turned out less than half of the pilots flew.  When we found the place that we wanted to launch from it was full of balloons and several more in the drive waiting for a spot.  We would never get up and to the field before sunset and with these winds we defiantly do not want to be landing any where other than the field.  We will need a very big area to put these things down if we do fly. Forecast is showing that the winds will not drop below 9 all night and will begin to actually pick up speed right at sunset.  We moved further west and found a small spot.  I was counting on the forecast winds up at 3 thousand feet to get us back to the field since all of the lower stuff is going right below.  To add a little more pressure I had been talking to the FAA who were out to watch us this evening after the power line strike this morning.  Silly me I offered them a ride so one of my passengers on this super aggressive flight would be someone from the FAA.  We must have launched in less than five minutes and about 2400 feet up we finally found the left turn. Traveling at 28 miles per hour the last 3/4 of a mile was one long steep decent into the field.  Kim flew right at the crowd and with the help of about 50 people stopped his balloon with only a few feet of it hanging over the fence into the crowd..  GEEZZ KIM cutting it a little close weren't you!.  There were a bunch of guys on the field running from balloon to balloon catching balloons as they came screaming in and of course they came after me.  I yelled out no problem guys I am just fine but they kept coming after me.  I said what did I do?  Am I in trouble?  They were laughing as they grabbed onto my basket and let them all know they were screwing up a perfectly good high wind landing.  Afterward I did thank them all and when Tony (the other FAA guy who stayed on the ground) got to the basket he just looked at me and said "WOW Very Impressive".  Even Bill Clemmons the balloon meister came over and said "Nice Job Jeff"  Tony later told me that he was standing over by the propane line listening to a bunch of pilots critiquing the landings and when I came in they just went "A Well MMM  That was ok"  He then said when they say that you know they were impressed and did not want to actually say anything.  We both had a good laugh. Needless to say my FAA passenger had the time of his life and was still jabbering away as they left for the night....

Wednesday AM

O do we have a fun morning today! 6 markers 5 task...

We have a JDG that is a gravity drop, A Maximum Distance Double Drop in a scoring area, A FIT, A CRAT and a JDG.  6 markers and 5 scores.  The first target is located about 2KM upwind from the main field and lined up well with the winds and the main field.   We found a dirt road to launch from and since B roads are considered public roads we were able to launch with out having to fool around with getting permission so all three of us laid out on the road and went to work.  We had a large PZ in our flight path on the way to the first target so we stayed as low as we could in the beginning to work the left.  We knew when we went up over the PZ, and it was a 1000 foot one, we would go hard right.  With Yard Dart hot on my butt we headed for our first target.  If you look you can also see Papa in Shazam coming up behind us to clear the PZ.  Using a map compass and a plotter we narrowed where we thought the target was and we were on a great line for it.  I laid eyes on the target and told Kim where it was. I also noticed that the approach to the target was a gentle up hill slope and informed Kim that we should stay far over to the right since  I was expecting to get a little more left on the apporach from the terrain.  My suspission was confirmed as I saw several of the balloons out in front of us suddenly scramble upward to gain some more right turn.  I told Kim I was going to target the small brown shed over to the right before I was going to make my decent to the surface.  On a gravity drop you need to pretend as though you are going to land on the X since you can not throw the marker you must just lay it over the sid of your basket and let it drop. As we approached the target the radio came alive with the chatter from our ground teams reminding us of the color of the correct marker for this target and that is was a gravity drop.  I was able to fly directly over the center of the X and let my marker go just a half second late and it floated about 4.5 feet past the center.  Still a great drop for a gravity target and as I flew away it was the closest marker on the X.  Kim came in behind me and put his marker on the end of the leg of the X!  What a thrill for me to be able to watch Kim come in and make a great drop on the mark.  Now it was on to the part of the flight that may be the hardest of the flight.  We had a double drop in a scoring area with an X just outside of the scoring area on the main field.  This target we actually had GPS coordinates for so we put the map and plotter away an started flying using the GPS numbers. On the double drop you want to place markers in the scoring area as far apart from each other as you can.  I lined up on the corner of the north east corner after watching several pilots come in and drop markers right in the corner in front of me so I knew it had to be a perfect drop.  As I descended I began to turn too hard to the left so I had to climb up a bit and was real worried about making a good drop since I was going to be tossing my marker from much higher than I would like and that just leaves tons of room to screw up.  I started to get the right turn I needed and gave good ole Venus a huge vent and then a big burn.  Dropped down to about 50 foot off the ground and made my best toss and POW!!!!  Right in the corner.  A perfect drop and the best one on the field.  I would find out later from the balloon meister that I did indeed have the best drop at that end of the scoring area.  Now I had to climb to get over to the other side of the area.  The X target was placed over to the east side of the scoring area and not near the corner so you almost had to make a choice of getting the best distance on your double drop or getting a good drop on the target.  I chose to try to get a little of both so I headed over to the X and was paying too much attention to my approach to the X and threw my second marker too late and it landed about three feet outside of the scoring area resulting in a no score for the double drop.  What a waste of a fantastic corner drop!!  O I was PO'd  I dropped well on the X and then climbed up to head for the CRAT.  We did the CRAT earlier in the week but it is basically 4 base ball diamonds that are each only open for a specific time.  You must know what time it is when you get to the diamonds to know which one to fly at and all measurements are made from home plate.  Once again you want to be as low as you can when you make your drop but the diamond has light poles everywhere and the real tall backstop also is a concern.  I had to fly around two real tall lights and drop my marker before I got to the backstop and hope as it drops it will clear the fence.  So I am yelling go over the fence, go over, go over, go over.  Then as it cleared the backstop now I am yelling HIT HIT HIT.  It landed on the third base line just outside the batters circle.  Not a bad drop and it looked like only about 8 or 10 markers were better.  Not bad in a field of over 100 balloons and should also hold up as a great score.  Kim managed to put his about half way from home plate to the pitchers mound.  Great job again Yard Dart!  Now we only have one target left.  This is also a target that we had used earlier in the week so I had a GPS mark in the computer for it so away goes the map and back out with the GPS  This one they would only score if you were within ten meters of the X or 200 meters if you were on the road.  Something that would make for a real tough decision as I approached the target.  I was trying my best to stay in what we call clear air.  In other words staying away from the crowd of balloons and get clear shots at the targets and so far I had managed to be nearly completely clear on the previous drops.  There were several balloons out in front and they were taking a real far right approach to the last target and my fear was that we would loose the left turn on the surface since we were late in the morning by now.  As we approached the target I still had good old Kim tucked in behind me and also on a great line for the target.  I had a group of about 6 balloons all making a low approach in front of me and I was well off to the left of them. As I climbed up I gained a little more speed and it looked like I was going to get to the target at the same time and since the lower balloons have the right of way I was not in a good spot.  I eased my way just above the balloon nearest to me and as soon as I could I slid right down along his east side with enough speed to put me just in front of him and I bumped into a balloon to my north east which effectively stopped my momentum to the east and headed me back at the target.  I should find that pilot later and thank him....  At this point I was over the road and still farther out than I could throw into the scoring area.  I was wondering if I could make the turn enough to get to the target and make a drop or if I should just throw it down on the road to get a score.  A tough decision after screwing up the second marker earlier on the double drop on the main field.  As I settled down just below the treetops I started to parallel the road just 30 feet to the left and was able to toss my marker just inside the legs of the X.  Here again not a fantastic drop but a very good one.  If you look just to the lower left of where the legs of the X cross you can see my marker laying just off the fabric of the X.  Yard dart came in right behind me with only a couple of balloons near him and was able also to make a great drop inside the scoring area less than 10 meters from the X.  Again there was a bunch of screaming on the radio!  Now I needed to find a place to land.  I remember there were a few homes just over the hill and trees to my south east.  I also knew that the home was right on the edge of a red PZ  The problem was that if I missed the landing I would bust thru the PZ and could get a 500 point penalty.  Just when I thought all the pressure was done!! LOL. I made the front yard with only feet to spare and we were golden.  Overall I had one screwed up task.  One great drop. and three very good drops.  It was a great morning and I believe I have accomplished one of my goals for this event in that those very good scores will most likely be good enough to get me on the invite list for the 2010 U.S. National Championships.  Cant wait for tonight.  We will be doing a glow tonight if we do not get rain so watch for some fantastic night time photos to come.

 Road Kill Manifold Cook-off.

This is an event put on by Jim Fram.  It was held at Aquabi State park.  We went out for the event but no one was there so we had our own impromptu picnic.  Good fun.

Wednesday PM

Tonight's task is to go up wind and fly back to the field and then stay inflated and glow.  This is the big night for this whole event.  This is the one that they promote the most.  Tonight is also Landowner appreciation night.  There will be many people who allow us to launch and land on their property here for the free food and beer.  So we looked at the winds and we figured out where we should go and off we went.

The winds were mostly out of the north.  The surface wind was sliding slightly to the south east but most of it was going directly south with a little south west as you got up to about 1000 feet.  We found a spot that was slightly north east of the field.  We could climb up and go straight south and if we needed to correct back east we could come back down to the surface and slide southeast.  Looked like a perfect spot and there were already 9 other balloons inflating there.  Father and mother decided to stay on the ground since they do not like to fly and then pack up and then re-inflate for the glow and then pack up again.  Doing it twice a day is already hard enough but doing it twice on the same evening was just too much and we have already flown 4 or 5 flights in just the last three days.  Kim and I got launched in very fast fashion and began tracking to the field.  The winds were real light about 4 to 5 miles per hour at best.  We were only a few degrees to the left of the target with about 10 to 15 degrees more right aloft.  As luck would have it, as mother nature seems to have been doing to us all week, things started to change.  The left on the surface was gone.  Everything is now going to the right of the field.  Normally this would not be too big a deal but tonight is the glow night.  If we do not land at the field then we have to pack this balloon up and go back to the field and do it all over again.  So...  I headed up.  The forecast said I should find a left aloft.  Might have to go to 3 thousand feet to find it but we have to make the field.  At 2800 I found the left and was just a couple of degrees to the left with almost 3 thousand feet of right below me.  This will be a real bomb run.  I will have to wait till the last second and then go straight down.  Kim followed me up and also started to get the left.  We could look around and there were several pilots up there trying the same thing most of them had taken off even further to the right than we did and there was simply no way they were going to make it.  Looking behind us we could see many others on the same path as we were down low but unless they came up here they too were not going to the field.  There were a bunch of pilots who were way over to the left and unless the ground wind did a hard turn to the right they were also not in a great spot.  The flight was both fast and incredibly slow at the same time.  As we got up into the left the speed was around 12 miles per hour and we were only one kilometer away from the field.  The GPS said we would be there in less than 8 minutes but sitting up there looking straight down at the field trying to guess just when to start your decent from hell seemed like it took forever.  I looked around below me to make sure I was clear.  I was just coming over the edge of the field and had 2600 feet to drop and clear air below so made a huge vent and put the tray tables in the upright position!!!  Here we go!  I was holding a fairly straight line right at the target until about 1400 feet.  Then I started slipping.  The right layer on the surface had begun to increase and every thing up to 1000 feet was not going off to the south west HARD.  I looked over to the south west to see that Kim had not made the field but was in a small farm house yard just north of the field.  He was down safe and his crew was their with him.  Since this was the glow night there were several pilots already in the field and tethered.  The rules on that are that until all free flying balloons are down the ground teams can not enter the main field.  They were sitting at the back entrance to the field located on the far west side of the balloon field.  Right where I was going to end up.  I radioed to them and told them I would be in their hands shortly.  I had one balloon directly in front of me with trees below and power lines on the other side of him.  There was no room to go over and then down so I just continued my falling like a rock right at him.  They got the point and his team started to walk him over to the right to make room for me.  As soon as I cleared the trees I dropped a line to the crew and they started to slow me down and we set it down softly.  Now it was time to walk the balloon back around the tree line and into the main field.  Slowly more and more balloons came walking up from all corners of the balloon field. (remember this place is big enough for a couple of hundred balloons)  More and more were flying in and even more were coming back and re inflating.  Soon we had more than 50 balloons all around us and it was starting to get dark.  This was going to be a spectacular night.  The crowd was HUGE and the winds and weather were fantastic. The winds stayed real light for the whole event and the temps were in the low 80's.

And then it was time to GLOW.  They released the crowd to come out into the field and we were flooded with over 25 thousand people!  Many of the kids found out that balloon pilots had trading cards like base ball cards.  They are cute little cards that have the picture of the balloon and the information about the balloon and its name and the pilot.  Kind of cute but we did not have any!  We must have had about 250 kids (no exaggeration!) come up and ask.  For a while we were just responding with a polite no but after a while and the fact that many of the children were becoming fairly demanding and had lost all semblance for manors we became creative.  We started saying we don't have cards because we bought a dog! (Maggie was in the basket)  That was fun for a while.  Then we would point out some small child on the other side of the field and say "he took em, go catch him for some"  We tried trading.  You give me one and I will give you one.  No takers.  I even started saying Sure they are $15 each!  That one got a bunch of funny looks.  We are supposed to glow again tonight.  We have gone to Wal-Mart and purchased several decks of playing cards!  When the kids ask tonight we will be ready.  Here you little fart.  Have an eight of diamonds  See you in the AM.

Thursday AM Flight

Well today is another weird weather day.  The winds are forecast to be from the north east but are running from the south.  We are supposed to fly back into the field and then on to one of several Judge Declared goals. So another tough decision.  Do you trust the forecast or do you trust the pi-ball?  The first Pi-Ball went south.  So we went out to the north west. Launched another and it backed up to the west and then went slightly north.  Ok there was the change that we had expected near or just after sunrise so off to the south and east we went.  Launched another just to make sure and yepper it went to the west and started drifting to the north.  We also had about 2 dozen balloons launching from yards along the same street just across the highway from us so we figure we cant be that wrong.  O Yes WE CAN!  No sooner that we got up in the air things started slipping left.  I started off going west and then slowly as I climbed started to go to the north west but stopped turning about 10 degrees shy of what we needed. So once again I was going to be the human Pi-Ball-oon.  Up we go.  I kept looking for any trace of a northerly component since we had launched just slightly south of straight to the east of he field.  If I could find anything that was going at 340 or 350 or anything that was 0 something up to about 045.  Anything that would give us more north.  I stopped searching around 8 thousand feet.  We did have one lone curves balloon who was going to go along with us for the desperate search.  After a long climb up we knew we were not going to make the target field we started looking at the other targets that we may still have a chance at.  I radioed Kim and said you have a chance on target 233.  Just in front of you on your left is a purple balloon who is going in on the target right now.  Plug in 233 on your GPS and go for it.  I started to come down from my lofty perch..  I realized there was no way I was going to get to that target and since all the other targets that the judges had selected were even farther to the west and to the north I knew I was done with competition for the morning.  Now I had to figure out where I could land myself.  Off to my south west was a small and I mean small field where we had launched on that first Friday night flight.  Tall grass but drivable and I knew that we had permission or at least we were given permission once and it would be most likely to be given again.  I came almost all the way to ground level out over the south creek bottoms and was going almost south.  I climbed back up and found a layer going off to the south west.  I only had a few degrees more than what I would need to get there but it was enough.  I would have to bomb in on this one as well.  To make matters worse the field ran east and west so we would be coming into it from the north.  The shortest distance across the field so if I could hit it I would have to stop the balloon real fast or be in the soybeans.  As I descended (very rapidly) into the field my south motion stopped completely.  I started to turn right?  Pam and Hailey were right there on the road and I told them go down to the corner, I may have to land on the road.  As I slowly went to the west I started turning to the northwest.  The wind just can not make up its mind.  I ended up in the yard of the house on the FAR side of the road to the northwest and near the end I was actually traveling up to the northwest.  All was great and Joey and I had a fantastic and very hi flight.  We could even see Red Rock from almost 8 thousand feet.

Thursday PM Flight

Windy Windy Windy and Gust and more Gusts.  We went out to fly but things were just a bit too gusty.  We had flown in stuff like this earlier this week and Kim and I both made the field but tonight the gusts were just a little bit stronger and last time we had waited almost too late.  We did not hit the target last time because we did not get to the field until after the scoring period had run out.  In fact we only landed at the field just 3 minutes before sunset.  Tonight we would have to wait again to the last minute and I choose not to fly.  I told Kim is was his choice and that we would stick around to help if he wanted to fly. I told him later, after he chose not to fly, that this would be the last flight of the entire event.  The forecast for Friday and Saturday is not good.  Rather go out on a good note than try to push one more flight and then screw something up.

Again tonight there is supposed to be a glow at the field after the flight.  We headed back to the field to watch the pilots who did fly come in and land.  They were coming in hot and all making good landings.  Of course there were tons of pilots and crews all over the field ready to catch them as they came in.  Only a couple of rough ones and no one was able to keep their balloon up for the glow.  About 45 of the 105 pilots tried to fly so that was actually a good turn out considering the conditions.  To be out on the field you must be wearing your pilot or crew badge and Maggie Mae was no exception to the rule.  After the sun went down about a half dozen balloons did put up and glow.  Kim asked me if I were going to glow and I told him I already had done two and you are only required to do one.  Kim had not done any so far so I told him, "guess you are!!"  He took some of my crew and his down into the low spot on the field just in front of the main X.  Hailey was with him and they put the balloon up and did a fantastic job in those windy conditions.  In fact I believe Kim was the most stable and under control balloon on the entire field during the glow.  Another ATTA Boy for Kim.

Friday AM Flight

Wind and Rain.  We woke up to a fairly stiff wind and a radar full of rain.   It looked like the rain would get to us just about flight time and it did.  No flying today but lots to do.  We headed back to the dorms so that I could at least get a start on my laundry.  Today's social event for the pilots and crews was going to be the road kill manifold cook-off at Aquabi state park.

Friday PM Flight

Too much wind.  Kim Hailey and I are headed into town to have dinner with my mother and father at Gino's.  The road kill cook-off was cancelled but we did not know so we had a party with Brad Tmire and his team who also did not get the message and were out at the park.

Saturday AM Flight

Todays flight is a no go.  Winds are 13 with gusts to over 18mph and there is no end in site.  Looks like we are all finished with this event. 

Saturday PM Flight

All over.  Now for the party.  We will not be flying tonight.  We will however be having a great party with our team.  Photos from the Party.  I will not provide an explanation you can make up your own.

The TEAM

I know thru out the week I have been throwing names up here that are unfamiliar to many who are reading this.  Here is the line up of the crew who were invaluable to me here in Indianola.

Hailey Most of you know Hailey.  She was priceless.  She arranged her work schedule so she could be out for every flight.  What a week this must have been for her.	Pam Pam is always a treat to have out.  Her easy going demeanor and desire for quality was fantastic!  Only stepped in it once when she told Sarge to get out of the  way!  We will tell that story later.	Joey Joey was enlisted by Pam and ended up being ballast on several flights.  Great help and fantastic attitude with a smile that will make you smile too.  See you again next year Joey!
Devin Devin only was out a few times but his enthusiasm was terrific.  He jumped right in and many times when we stopped to help one of the other balloon teams he was one of the first out the door of the van!  I think he only got to  go on one flight but it was one he will remember for a long time.  Hope again to have you part of our team.	Ralph He had no idea what he was getting into when he volunteered for the classic.  Here is one of the true local hero's who make the Indianola Classic a true Classic event.  Ralph had thought about crewing for years and decided to do it this year.  To say that we have changed his life would be a fair statement.  He has also changed ours. As constant as clockwork he was always there and with a smile on his face.  That is why this photo is perfect.  Eager to learn and no fear to dive in.  He ended up getting to fly about 4 times and he had only hoped to get one for the week.  We will see you again next year!
Rhonda is Hailey's Boss at work.  She came out on several flights to help.  I am unsure if she knew what she was getting into but I think she now has a great understanding of Hailey's passion for ballooning.  We were able to get her and her daughter and grandson up on a flight the night of the big tether.  Wish I had a better shot of them but thanks for all of your help.	Maggie Mae The wonder dog!  She was fantastic the whole event.  Made many new friends and by the end of the week almost everyone knew who she was.  We played frisbee and chase the tennis ball out on the field almost every day and by the end of the week everyone wanted to play with her.  In the evenings back out on the field she would wander around to all the balloon crews to get a little loving on!  She even went to one of the pilot briefings and laid on the floor just wagging her tail. What a great companion for me on this trip.

My very sincere thanks go out to every one of you.  Your desire to help not only me but my parents and Kim was simply outstanding.  I could not have asked for a better group or a higher quality of people to share my time, my knowledge, my equipment and most of all my HEART with.  Please whether or not I get back here next year come to the classic and be involved again.  It is people like you that make the classic what it is and it is people like you that make my chest puff out and my eyes tear up when I say "YES I AM FROM IOWA!"  God bless you all! 

Jeff