The forcast looked pretty good for the whole week for the 2006 National
Balloon Classic. Far and away my favorite balloon event. An entire 9 day
immersion in ballooning! Turned out to be a little more afffected by the weather
than the long range forcasts predicted, however.
Got there in plenty of time friday evening to check in at the balloon port
(bp), take our stuff to the dorm and be back for a trial flight at 6:00. My crew
this year, as in the last few years consisted of Brian Allen of Indy, Eric and
Francine Kennedy of a Chicago suburb and Galena, Mike Craven of DesMoines and a
few of their friends that showed up occasionally. Francine flew as my navigator
on this flight as we attempted to knock over the outhouse but the variable
breezes let us get only close enough to land on the western edge of the field
where the crew walked us up to the top for the glow that evening. Several others
did the same thing and along with us had to wait for Bill Clemons to float
slowly, but fairly accurately over the target area before we could move up to
the glow area. His patience worked well for him!
Saturday morning Brian rode along as we tried a fly in and then chased the
hare balloon to the north for a coup[le of miles. We scored on both targets but
unfortunately, this is still just practice for the first competition flight
which will be Sunday morning. Another thing that was a little different than
before was that the wind speed at corn tassle height was 13 mph! We did manage a
stand up, if slightly bouncy landing but took the balloon down immediately
because it seems that all the balloons were headed for the same field. Thank YOu
to the cew that caught us as we hoped the fence into that field by the
way!
Saturday evening saw another flight but when it was finally time to
start the contest flights Sunday morn the weather wouldn't cooperate...But we
still have M, T, W, T, F, and saturday mornings left for them so no
worries!
Sunday night I think we flew but it was just too hot to consider taking a
pax so I flew solo...Maybe that was monday night ...or tuesday night. Too bad my
log book is out in the truck. Anyway, There were all kinds of evening flights
but, alas, the mornings just wouldn't cooperate until Thursday! That means that
there would only be contest flights Th Fri and Sat mornings but
the forcasts led one to believe that all three would take place at least.
Thursday morning we took a sponsor ride, Andrea, who was a friend of
Michelle whose family had sponsored this year. We had a nice launch from the
north of the river and headed toward the first target just to the south of the
river. (BTW, that's a creek down here in MO!) We managed to work fairly close to
the target but it was a gravity drop and we weren't THAT close, Like 24th or
something. went up again and headed for the next target on a road further south.
This time as we approached we were headed straight for the target but because I
hadn't allowed for increased traffic around the target I had to drop from about
80 feet up. I was only about 30 feet from the X BUT 12 inches off
the gravel! No score if not on the gravel! Bummer! The field was a
CRAT...Calculated Rate Approach Task. You have to determine which quadrant to
aim for depending on the time which is broken down into 15 minute segments.
Somehow, I accidentally scored on that target too! The last target was south of
the other "river" so we went up a bit to try to spot it and finally figured out
from the other balloons paths approximately where it was. The winds at 500 feet
were moving south pretty well but on the surface the were moving to the east but
not in a very orderly fashion. That seems to be typical for Indy. We dropped
down for our approach to the target only to find, along with 3 other baoollns
that there wasn't as much left as there had been. We drifted ever so slowly in a
breeze that was going to make us miss the field to the south but as we floated
just above the weeds to the west of the target we headed more toward the target.
We held our altitude high enough to get over the trees as we and the other 3
balloons converged in a four way kiss! pretty cool. Unfortunately, it left me
just over the trees in the scoring area and I tossed it into the field just to
say I got it there but knowing it wouldn't score because it was a gravity drop.
2 out of 4 won't win you anything in Indy! Those scores put us in 66th
place!
Took Susan on a sponsor ride friday morning as her husband, the manager of
the Ford dealership followed along in his car. Launched from the east of the
field a couple of miles and flew in for the X and a MDDD...my least successful
task where you have to drop one baggie in triangle A and one in Triangle B. I
can never seem to get both triangles. I told the crew to keep their eyes open
just in case they got to wittness some history being made! But alas, nothing
historical about this flight! Scored on the x and on triangle A but missed B.
The next target was only about 3/4 mile away and I'm not even going to try to
explain this unique, but not that uncommon way of the pilot choosing which
target to attack but just let it be noted that if I had of been going for the
right target I wouldn't have done too bad! These scores moved us up!...to
62nd.
Saturday mornings thunderstorms made them cancel that flight so the entire
race was determined by Thursday and Friday Mornings flights. I think Brad won
but I'll have to have someone else tell you for sure.
All in all, it was still a lot of flying! I think we flew 11 of 17 possible
flights including the one that required the formula.
Formula, you ask?
Yes. Altitude divided by 100 times 4 seconds plus the speed factor times
the square root of the weathermans rural route number and the local area code.
That's how one determines when to release the baggie when yu are travewling 30
MPH. All of those calculations add up to $3.00 which is the cost of a lost
baggie that went WAY past the target. Try it sometime when you have a calculator
or slide rule handy. It works every time!
Thanks Jason, Matt and all the officials and especially the sponsors and
organizers! You put on an excelent event again this year. We all hope you will
invite us back again next year too!
Sweet breezes too you all!!!
Herb Heriford