Balloon Festival!

[THE PILGRIM]

It's Balloon Festival time in Albuquerque.
Sometimes it'll come to you.
This morning balloons flew from schools all over town, including Eisenhower Middle School, which is near my house. And my Granddaughter goes there.
I wa out on my regular morning walk and I see a hot air balloon low to the ground.
He's looking for a landing place. Turned out to be in a wide curve near my house.
This is what a balloon street landing looks like.
The noise is the Diesel Ford chase truck.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Ok! For some reason I thought that I could upload my iPhone video.
Apparently you can't.
Then I decided to extract a still from the video.
Tried several things which didn't work, gave up,and downloaded an app.
But here's the hot air balloon landing in the street.

 

[g-dad]

Those are pretty neat to see... unless you're a horse. We had one land in the front pasture one year and scared the begeebers out of the horses.

 

[arjay]

They are fun to watch.We used to get them coming over the house intending to land across the road.If they kicked on the burner the dog would go nuts [emoji38]

 

[rog8732]

We had a balloon fest for several years awhile back. Thirty or so would show up, nothing like the hundreds in N.M.

I have flown,crewed, and "chased". After a couple times crewing and taking flights, I think I enjoyed piling up in the back of the chase truck and trying to keep track of the balloon the most.

The Hardee's food chain once had one they sent all over the country, and it appeared here in our small burg for several years.

 

[vt_shooter]

A hot air balloon ride should be on everyone's bucket list. It's expensive - maybe $250 for an hour or so flight, but it's one of those things in life that shouldn't be looked at in terms of cost per hour, but rather something that you should do at least once in your life. There's nothing else like a low altitude balloon flight, just clearing the trees and roof tops as you drift along. 'Wonderful sensation, nothing like flying in a powered aircraft. BTW, the balloon isn't totally at the mercy of the winds - the wind direction usually differs with altitude, so part of the pilot's skill is reading those different winds and adjusting the altitude to change the direction of flight by perhaps 10 or 15 degrees. I've been up in one maybe a half dozen times. Balloon festivals are the best time to fly in one because you get the added scenery of other balloons.

 

[Squarebutt]

We were working on a project in Albuquerque a dozen or more years ago at Balloon Fiesta time. Very memorable. Watching the flights, especially the times when they launched dozens or hundreds, was spectacular. One night they lit the burners and filled up their balloons on the ground while they were tethered all over the field. It was incredibly colorful and beautiful. We helped land a few, but never got a ride.