Balloon Life,June2000

36

LOGBOOK

The First Annual“Great
Pumpkin”Fun Flight

UnofficiallycalledtheGreat Pumpkin,
theLone Star BalloonAssociation held
fallfunflightlastOctober.October23,
1999sawballoonistsgatherinAlvin,
Texas. Entry fee was one unwrappedtoy
that the club planned to donate to Toys for
Tots.
The morning greeted everyone with
clear skies, temperatures cold (for South-
eastTexas,anyway),andwindsstrong
out of the northeast.Fourteenpilotsand
theircrewsmetatthestandardAlvin
meeting place, theKroger parking lot, and
stoodaroundinthepredawndarkness,
drinkingcoffeetotrytostaywarmand
hoping against hope that the winds would
drop.Noluck,eitherstayingwarmor
gettingthe winds to drop.
At sunrise, thirteen of fourteen pilots
decidedtostanddown.Onepilot,Stan
Krovontka, chose to give it a go and make
ahigh wind flight.A couple of otherpilots
and crew went off to help while the rest of

us made a leisurely drive to a local park to
begin settingup for the picnic.
About forty-five minutes later, as we
wereunloadingchairs,food,andagas
grilla thepark,welookeduptoStan’s
balloon,Bullfrog, moving quickly toward
usfromthenortheast.Hadhegottena
little bit of right, he could have landedon
the vacant soccer field rightby our shel-
ter.Asitwas,hepassedtotheeastand
southofus,landingafteraboutaforty-
five minute flight. Thanks to Stan and his
flying skill, thiswas trulya flyingevent!
Asforthepicnic,theLSBAhad
provided the meat (burgers and hot dogs)
andeveryonehadbeenaskedtobringa
side dish ora dessert. All told, we estimate
aboutseventy-five localpilotsandcrew
came to the picnic but, in Texas tradition,
wesomehowmanagedtoendupwith
enough food forabout 150! After a couple
of hours of socializing, photos,andhan-
gar flying,thegrill was firedupandthe

by Jeff Orlowski

eatingcommenced.Around11:30,as
people were finishing up their meals, not-
too-fabulousprizeswere awardedtothe
topthree of those who came in costume.
Finally, about12:30, the ventbegan
tobreakup.Whileonlyoneflightwas
made,itwasagoodandsafeone.In
addition, countless stories were swapped,
thousands ofcalories were consumed, and
asweallenjoyedacrispfallmorning.
Most importantly, as many pilots brought
more than one toy and many crewbrought
toystoo,32toyswerecollectedwhich
wenttoneedykidsatChristmastime
through the Toysfor Totsprogram, pro-
viding warm smiles we can only imagine
on Christmas morning.
Many thanks to the pilots and crewof
the LSBA. This was a very informal and
loosely organized event. I think everyone
hadagreattimeandwe’realllooking
forward to making the event happen again
this comingOctober.

Lone Sta r Bal loo n
Association members
catcher for the Great
Pumpkin flight, pic-
nic, custome contest,
and Toys for Tots col-
lection.