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Gary Eaton sent me an email inviting me to join him, his family and crew, for a morning of tethered flight at Flabob Airport. What started out as a family day for Gary turned into a full day of flying and an opportunity for me to be a part of the crew and fly the hot air balloon again. |
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My Second Hot Air Balloon Flight
8/6/2010
On Aug 6th Gary Eaton invited me to help him, at Flabob Airport, with his hot air balloon. I arrived at 5:30am and Gary put me to work right away. The first thing I had to do was help unfold the hot air balloon. Next, we had to open the mouth of the balloon so we could turn the fan on and pre-inflate it.
Click on image to enlarge
After we got the balloon partially inflated, Gary’s crew chief ignited the burner and started raising the hot air balloon.
Click on image to enlarge
Once everything was set and ready to fly, we started the morning by bringing up Gary’s daughter and grand daughter. After a few other people went up Gary asked if I wanted to go up. Of course I did and jumped in the basket, along with Gary’s son-in-law who had not been in a hot air balloon before.
Once we got the balloon forty feet in the air, Gary instructed me to “grab the handle” witch is what controls the burner. Gary then gave started giving me instructions, in seconds, on how long to fire the burner, just as he taught me to do on my previous flight. Back on the ground, Gary had me add another 6 minute flying time to my log book. I continued to assist Gary’s ground crew, holding down the basket and holding ropes, while Gary took more people up.
A second balloon pilot took over for Gary and let me take the balloon up a couple more times. Al Gester saw the balloon flying and brought the Air Academy students over to watch, which ended up turning into hot air balloon flights for all the Air Academy students. Once the flights were over, we all pitched in and helped tear down and load the balloon in to Gary’s trailer.
Before we finished, I asked Gary how old I needed to be to be part of the ground crew. Gary replied, “You are already part of the crew now.” That made my day!
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