Hot Air Balloon Flight Record - 14-15Jul2012
Sarah and Natascha; Mary and Jeff

Again this year the Music Festival starts on Saturday afternoon, and so do the flights. The afternoon was breezy when we arrived but expected to drop in time for a flight. It was close to 7 when we inflated and took off with Sarah and Natascha. The winds were headed N, initially up the W side of the river. One balloon landed in a known good farm, along the river, but we continued. Eventually decided the E side looked better so I climbed to turn a bit R. Three other balloons landed at Camp Keewanee, but as we approached the expected slight L turn never materialized so we set down in the field across the road to deflate (powerline precluded waking over :-( ).

Sunday AM was calm with only light ground mist that quickly burned off. No passengers this morning so Mary and Jeff went up. Very slow drift N toward the swimming hole again. Just NW we dropped over the river and reversed for a while, leaving our Firefly print in the sand. Headed W for a bit, but that area is not as accessible (to drive up) so we climbed to turn ENE toward the baseball fields. I didn't get the expected W when I came down, and instead turned NW toward yards and Phylis Ln in the distance. Before we got that far we came over a clear but tight back yard. The homeowner was out enjoying all the balloons and gave permission to land so we did. Took some careful placement to get the basket where the envelope would miss all the trees and plants on deflation.