May 1999
LosLunas,NewMexicoisoneofour
warm up balloon rallies to help prepare us
for the spring and summer rush of events.
This year’s invitational event was held the
weekendofMarch13&14.Over100
balloonswereregisteredtoflyinthis
year’srally.Wewereregisteredfor the
event and hopeful that the burners for our
balloon would be returned from repair in
time for ustofly inthe rally.
Friday night we traveled down to Los
Lunas forthe registration party.Wepicked
upour pilotpackandattendedthepilot
briefin g.Duringthebriefingwewere
toldthattheweatherfortheSaturday
mornings flight looked marginal, but con-
ditionsforSundaylookedmuchbetter.
Wewerestillho pingthatourburners
would be delivered by UPS in time for us
to fly. When we returned to Albuquerque
we foundthattheburnershadnotb een
delivered, so there would be no flying for
us at this year’srally.
Kodakrecentlyshippedmesome
new ElOOVS slide film to test, as well as
an ewKodakDC260ProMegaPixel
Digitalcamera.Idecidedthatcoverin g
the St. Patrick’s Balloon Rally strictly as
a photo grap her, rather than a pilot, would
give me a chan ce to test the new film an d
camera.Youcanseetheresultsofthe
unexpectedquality of the digital revolu-
tion, inthe p hotog raphsthataccompan y
thisarticle.
Saturdaymornin g’sflightwascan-
celledbecauseofone ofthefewsnow-
storms New Mexico received this winter.
Sunday morningthe weath er turned
outtobeperfectforaballoonflight,
although the winds were almost too light.
Afterthepilotbriefing,whichincluded
theexcellentweather,PZ&SAwarn-
in gs,th eballo onistsheadedfortheir
launchsitestopreparefortheirflights.
truck, which was parked in our launch
site, to make our own preparations. We
loaded up the camera’s, rather than the
balloon, and got ready to photograph the
launch. Nick and I photo graph ed the two
launch waves, then chased the ballo ons
as they drifted slowly to the south. After
we got all o f the pho tography that we
needed to document the event, we headed
back into Los Lunas to get a warm break-
atoneofou rfavoritecafe’s.Our
appetites filled, we returned to th e launch
field tojointhe balloonists for their tail-
gate party and awardsceremony.
Itwasfunb eingonlyaballo on
photo graph er’s, but we really missed fly-
ingtheballoon.Nextyearweplanon
flying the St. Patrick ’s Balloon Rally, as
well as providing our usual photographic
coverag e.
