A GREAT but sad day..

Had a wonderful day today. Found out that after 1 year 11 months and 6 days my decree nisi was finally granted yeaterday at 10am BST. I am finally officially a divorced man, just need to sell the bloody house, pay her off and I will be free.


Following that we went flying at the fiesta. Winds were picking up so we went off field, as it was special shapes day on field, and set up and flew quickly. I was in the basket with Kelly and Keith the pilot.

Had a nice slow pass of the field at around 5mph and saw some of the stragglers taking off.

Wells Fargo Stagecoach over Fiesta field

Flew on over the Rio Grande and splashed down just north of the little island in the middle. Current was pretty fast as well as airspeed picking up, we hit the water at around 11mph which ammounts to a lot of inertia in a 90,000 cubic feet balloon. First time I have hit a riverbed in a balloon.

Rio Grande, set down just north of the little island.

Managed to get water.....

and riverbed in the basket.

Flew over a maize maze set out in a field with the shape of a balloon as part of the path.

Maize maze.

Headed for Rio Rancho, north of Albuquerque for a landing. Wind was now getting up which leads to a hell of an exciting landing. Came in at around 30mph and just missed a house as we came a bit low, had to burn to rise above the roof and must have missed the chimney by inches as the owner was standing there waving and taking photos. Not sure if they were for fun or in case of an insurance claim. Hit the ground and bounced and dragged a good 20 yards with lots of other peoples crew hanging on to stop us. Balloons were laid out all over the area after lots of hard landings.

After landing.

Unfortunately there were some accidents due to the wind speeds. A young lad was caught in one of the lines and dragged by the neck for about 20 yards right next to our landing site, he was taken off to hospital. A worse accident occurred about a half mile away from us where a basket was caught in some power lines and the propane hoses were ruptured. The basket caught on fire and the pilot was thrown out to his death whilst the passenger hit the ground and sustained multiple broken bones. All balloonist's thoughts go out to all the families involved.

George Hahn, a pilot in the same launch square as us has taken what is commonly known as a cattle car, a large basket from a ride balloon, and mounted it on a truck chassis to make a vehicle for running around the field.

A cattle car on wheels.

As this is probably the last day for flying due to inclement weather coming in overnight we had the Sky Angle crew photo.

Bill, Tina (SkyAngel herself and crew chief), Dennis (tame weatherman), Keith (pilot), Kelly, me, Ray.

All in it has been another great week down in Albuquerque, thanks to all who have made it such an enjoyable time. Back to Illinois tomorrow.