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Saturday, October 2, 2010

#439 Titan

It was 54 degrees when I left the house but cool air flowing down from the hills reduced the temp at Titan to 41 degrees!  I left the cold weather gear at the house thinking the temp was the temp...wrong.  Lesson learned.  The launch was great, it sure helps to have a nice smooth surface and plenty of room.  I inflated and taxied for a long way before I powered up and committed to launch.  At 1000 feet it warmed up considerably so I flew over to the marina and took pictures.  Not much going on over there. 
My friend here is landing on just a spit of land with water on three sides ... Good Job !
The "Ol Balloon Man" was launching 30 minutes into the flight, I was thinking about landing but the opportunity to fly with balloons comes far to seldom so I turned back and played tag for awhile.  I circled him a few times and then passed over the top to catch his thermal.  What a rolercoaster that is!  On the last pass he opened the vents to decend and I shot up like a bubble of champane in a long stem glass.  It's a very small but intence thermal and wanted to see if I could hold a power on climbing spiral and stay in but ...no joy.  What a rush. Looking back I should have taken some pictures but flying around those massive things spooks me and I stayed "hands on"  the whole time we were together"  He had a hell of a day and was still flying after I had packed up and drove back into the park.   I caught up with his wife and asked if they needed any help packing up, she said that they had a ton of crew, but thanks.  We stood around and watched while he thrilled his passengers by landing on a little tongue of land sticking out of the SCUBA pond.
Chatfield


Low Water
calm day


near the end of the season



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