February 2000
Flying
byGeorgeDenniston
SouthLouisiana,schedulingaflight
forsomeonewholives100milesaway
andwhodoesn’twanttogetupearlyin
themorningislikepickingn umbersin
theLottery. For onecou ple,their luck y
day, or unlucky, as the case maybe, was
abouttoarrive.
After trying to schedulethis couple’s
afternoon flight for more than a year and
having one disappointing “no go,” which
theyweren’thappyabout,wefinally
thoug ht we hadtheperfect Saturdayaf-
ternoon.ItwasmidSeptember. A weak
cold front had passed through on Wednes-
day,thenligh tnortheastwindshadap-
pearedonFridayandSaturday,witha
highpressuresystemdominating.For
Saturday afternoon theforecast was north-
eastat5mph,calmafter sundo wn.We
couldn’tmiss.
Our passengers drov e inandmetus
at a local restaurant. Doing what I th ought
wasroutineandkindofa showforthe
passengers, Iput up apibal.It went straight
upandslightlytothesouthwest.The
temperaturewas91degreeswhichwas
coolcomparedtoafewweeksearlier,
andtherewasnothingonradarwithin
200miles.Thehighestwindrecorded
that day at the local TVstation was 9 mph
duringthelatemorning.Sincetheob-
served (pibal) winds were light and vari-
able,we chose a launchlocationcentral
to landing spots since we would be flyin g
over subdivisions withlots o f trees, and
some powerlines. Greatplace to launch.
We had done it on many occasions before
passeng ers, myself, andfuel to safely fly
for 1hour and10 minutes.
We launched an hour and forty min-
utesbefore sundo wn.Myfirsttipasto
whatwastohap pen that afternoon came
during inflation when we noticed a slight
windgustfromthesoutheast.Atabout
700 feet I got mysecond tip. We picked
upspeedtothenorth,whichcame asa
complete surprise. Flight in this directio n
would have to be cut short. Not wantin g
todisapp ointthecoupleagainwitha
shortflight,Inoticedtheflagsonthe
groundwere calm. Noproblem. We just
droppeddowntocalmairatabout200
feet. But, in about a minute, my thirdtip
camewhenwestartedpickingupspeed
ina southeasterlydirection.
Three strikes and y ou’re out... Hav-
ing flown balloon more than 600 hours, I
have experiencedfrontal gusts and thun-
derstorm outflo ws, but had never experi-
encedanythinglikethis.Notknowin g
what was going on, I made the decision to
landina small op enlo t I was approach-
ing,realizingI would have to explainto
my passengers later why th ey drove here
againfor only a 10 minute flight. Before
reaching the lot, the balloon made aninety
degree turn to the northeast toward pow-
erlines. Altitude was in our best interest.
Rising up over the trees, low andbehold,
itfeltlikesomeonewasreallylo oking
after me becausethe windsettledoutto
the northeast at about 3 to 5 mph. We had
a good time for the next 35minutes.
Now theflightis45minutesold.I
will have no problem with my passengers
if I land, butwe have graduallychanged
direction again to the southeast. With the
windconditionswewereexperiencing,
we were too clo se to some cross-country
transmissionlinestoattempttoland.
Radioin gtomycrew(yes,Ilovemy
radios)thatIwouldlandassoonasI
cleared the “big powerlines,” we changed
directionagain to the southwest, backto
the verylot wherewe hadlaunched , be-
lieve it or not.
Beingverybigonvisualization,I
visualizedlandingat our lau nchsite an d
proclaimingtheultimate b alloonflight.
Ofcou rsemypassengerswouldh eap
praiseuponmeaboutmyflyingability
whileenjoyingthe Champagne celebra-
tion.NOT!Thewin dwaspickingup
again.Iburnedoutmyothertanksan d
switchedtomylast10gallontan kand
was looking for a place to make apossible
10mphhighspeedlan ding(notfastin
many parts of the co untry, but Louisiana
isa different story). My crew was on the
wrongsideofacanalandhadtog o
aroun d in order to help me. Luckily, I was
entering a subdivision that had all under-
groundelectric and open cul-de-sacs.
Now, let the finale begin...I started
to pick up speed. Since I was going away
from the big powerlines I didn’t mind to o
much. It was gusty but I figured it was not
a prob lemwithmycrew waitin g. We’d
land between gusts. But instead of slow-
ingdown, we changeddirectionagainto
