December 1999
Flying
byGeorgeDenniston
like to thinkthatfromtimetotime we
stopandplay“what if“ withourselves. I
remember as a newer pilot I certainly did.
Admittedlynot as often anymore, buton
occasion I still do. And on occasion I will
scaremyselfinoneofmyfantasysce-
nariosbecause itmighttake me toolong
toconsider a safe andpracticalsolution.
Forinstance,whatifyoufailedinyour
preflight checklist and neglected tohook
uptheredline? Howwouldyouhandle
thesituationif secondsafter launchyou
discover this oversight?
I suggest to my students that this is a
verygooduseofsparetimethatwould
otherwisebewastedawaywishingfor
perfectballooningweather. Itisagood
ideawhileflyingthevirtualballoonin
your head to solve these problems before
youarefacedwithsimilarscenariosin
reality. Certainly there aremany “what if”
scenarios that we could conceive with an
evengreaternumberofpotentialsolu-
tions.Thisstuffmakesgreatgroupdis-
cussions, too.
I discovered a “what if” that I missed
overthepasttenyearsofvirtualand
reality based ballooning onthe first Sun-
dayflight of Fiesta.It was a second near
perfectdayatthefinalKAIBFofthe
millenniumandI wasflyingtwoof our
volunteer crew from Germany, Alex and
Christian. We launched at thesouth end of
the field andboxedback to the northeast
inpreparationtodescendandflysouth-
west toour launchsite backon the field.
Surprise, surprise, all southerlyflow was
gone. (Well, thatreally is nota surprise;
thisis ballooningafter all.) Sowe either
parkedormovedquiteslowlybetween
theRioGrandeandthefoothillsina
direction.
After nearly exhausting the three P’s
of flying to a goal, patience, perseverance
and propane, I could still not get across the
Rioandoffthe reservation. Iwantedto
land at an accessible road to avoid direct-
ingmy crew todrive cross-country. So I
chosetolandnexttoSR313atapoint
where the Rio Grande runsnearest.
Theconditions werevariable and very
light. Oftennot evenregisteringa speed
on my GarminGPS III. Thomas, another
ofourGermancontingentandoursole
groundcrewmember,wascontactedon
anextremely chatty radio frequencyand
shouldbe on the way.
After oneaborted attempt at the rather
tight area chosen as our final landing site,
I yelledtoapassingpickuptruckfilled
with reveling crew who had already com-
pleted theirretrievemission. They stopped
andobligedtoassistwithadropline
landing.Now firmly planted on the ground,
smiles, handshakes and thank-you’s filled
the air.
Subsequenttoourlanding,twoor
threeotherballoonschosethisareatoo
andsomeofmynewcrewfriendsven-
turedoff to assist the late arrivals.
AsI tooka private momenttocon-
gratulate…… thenreprimand myself for
squeezing into this spot I againsurveyed
the obstacles and briefly played “what if”.
To my west wasten feet of Albuquerque
dirt lacedwithsandburrs, SR 313, more
dirt,afence,twonarrowcanals,large
powerlines, trees andthe RioGrande. To
myeast was about forty feet of dirt (with
a reallyhighconcentrationof verysharp
sandburrs),railroadtracks,utilitylines
and trees.
Mydecisionhadbeentokeepthe
balloon inflated so Thomas could spot us
and,afterall,Iwasflyingagorgeous
logoedballoonsowhynot.The Sandia
Reservation Police had now stopped traf-
fic to allow the other balloons in the area
touse the roadtodeflate.
I was contemplating the activity and
mynextmove whenoneofthepick-up
crew people pointed outthat there was a
train coming. As I turned to the north there
itwas,screamingourwayatblinding
speed.The engines and first dozenor so
semi-trailerladencarswere pastinjust
seconds.
Thenthe effectstarted.The fullbut
soft envelope began todeformanddraw
dangerouslyclose tothespeedingtrain.
At this time therewere six people hanging
on to the basket with my German friends
Alex and Christian in the basket with me.
It wouldnot be an understatement to say
atthatmomentwewereallcollectively
scarredwitless.
The“what if“ machinerapidly kicked
inwith images of my fellow basket bud-
dies and me rapidly becoming crow feed,
careeningdownthe tracksparallel to the
bullet train riding three partial filled tanks
of propane. Some lucky handy-cam totin’
touristcouldhave collectedwell for that
video footage.
Fortunately that scenario did not have
roomtodevelop,asmore seriousissues
were demanding all RAM capacities. The
pilot, now in need of some fresh sub-trou,
addedlargeamountsofheattotryto
recoverthenice“balloonshape”this
modelisknownforandcontinuedto
calculate options for survival.
AsImonitorthedistancebetween
