It's my sister, Phyllis' dream to ride the Balloon. And in this July, we made it happen. We drove to Langley airport,
where a van picked us up and carried us to the launch site. In fact, we didn't even have a launch site yet. The pilot was
still deciding where to launch, depending on the wind direction.
The van driver kept contact with the pilot using the walkie-talkie. We U-turned at least 3 times, trying to follow
our pilot's directions. Finally, we reached the launch site. Everyone had to help out to set this up quickly. Some set up the basket, and
some tackled the tag line while the balloon was inflating. The wind was strong.
It was a very smooth takeoff, not like a jumbo jet's. Hhhsshhhhhh .... three burners fired up into the balloon. Man, it's so hot.
The burners were located right above us. Our pilot wore a 1/4 inch thick leather hat to protect from the flame heat.
Roll it out
Blow air into Balloon
Just wait, it's coming up
My sister Phyllis, Ariies and Me
Fire ! It's super hot standing next to the burner
Looking out to the horizon was so relaxing. We first rose to 1500 feet, because there was no rudder, the balloon relied on
different layers of air movements to maneuver.
See my signature shadow
The basket gotta be strong, else ...
Look at the horizon ... if you look carefully, you'll to Mt. baker
1242 feet in the air
We rose and dropped, and rose and dropped. Everyone on the ground waved as if they'll never see us again.
Looking at all these big properties from above was very interesting. Why does almost every house has a swimming pool and
trampoline in their backyard.
Wow, we just fly over some 500k volot powerline
This is one way to shop for real estate, isn't it?
I'm the last one to get off
We ended our flight and landed on an open field. The funny thing was that, our pilot had to keep talking to the ground staff about
where we were going to land, and they had to first get there to get permission, because everywhere were private lands.
Everything rolls back into this bag. It weighs 500 lbs
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