Here’s the sun rising on the morning of my flight. If you look closely in the top right, you can see Venus shining brightly. We set off a pibal to see what direction the flight would most likely take. Neil – the pilot of the balloon “Cool Flyings” also came out to support my solo effort.

I went through my checklists and Dean took off in the basket with me for the first three or so minutes of the flight. Then I did a landing out in the desert, not far from where I launched, and Dean hopped out of the basket. And off I went into the calm, blue yonder, flying our balloon by myself. Here’s a pic that Dean took on his way back to the chase vehicle, shortly after I took off.

The morning was calm, but I was still a little bit nervous. I took off and did one more landing — my first solo landing — for practice. It wasn’t my smoothest landing, but it wasn’t too bad. Then I took off again and gained some altitude, changing the direction of my flight with the wind. It was such a help having Neil along, because his balloon acted as something of a pibal for me, so I could see what direction he was flying at what altitude.

The winds were slow, and because of the light and variable, it ended up being a bit of a patience game, trying to suss out a landing spot. I ended up overflying some foothills and then dropped down low over a small housing development to get to a good landing field. My landing was beautiful, but in truth, the winds made it look easy. Puffing over those houses slowly, I glanced at my GPS to see that I was barely going 1.2 mph. I passed the houses, a small road, and let the balloon gently down in a field on the other side, where Dean, Kim, and Chuck were there to put weight on, which made it easier.

Here’s a pic I managed to snap when I was flying over the foothills. The winds were so calm that I was able to sneak a quick shot with my iPhone 4. All the dots you see in the distance were ride balloons — there were at least twelve of them that day.

Here’s another quick pic I snapped from the balloon — you can see Cool Flyings, Neil Davison’s balloon, off in the distance.

Chuck was able to record a little bit of video for my flight as well, and it’s definitely a life memory that I’ll never forget. It’s a wonderful experience being up in a balloon, as a solo pilot. I think I still prefer having company though — gets a bit quiet up there with nobody to talk to. Amazing feeling though — just you, the wind, and the sound of the burner.

Here’s the video:

Thanks so much to both Dean & Kim Rosenlof, as none of this would be possible without their help, guidance, and instruction.  Thanks to Neil Davison, who let me fly his balloon up north for practice a few weeks before my solo, and got up at the crack of dark to support me on solo flight day. And of course, thanks to my wonderful husband, who supports my adventures and makes all my dreams come true. I can’t wait to be your wingman when it’s your turn to solo.

Halloween 2009 we were looking for something fun, yet low key to do. We went and watched some bats fly out at dusk, then stopped by the Peoria Halloween celebration, and afterward went out for dinner. At the Peoria celebration Shari got to get closer to a hot air balloon than she had ever been, and we met Dean and Kim. Soon we were crewing for them and other balloonists, and we “caught the bug.” We got our student pilot certificates, started studying and training, and less than five months after last Halloween we bought Sonoran Star.

The balloon community here in Phoenix are some of the most kind and generous people we’ve ever met. Willing to help and teach and share. As example of that, Dean offered us the opportunity to bring Sonoran Star out for the event. He was Pilot In Command, and we got good training and experience. Just one year after first meeting them, we were at the same event with our balloon – it is so cool how much you can accomplish, and your life can change, in just a year.

The only downside to last night was the wind. We did a cold inflate for a while, and then did get the balloon to stand up. But the wind didn’t cooperate and we had to take the balloon down after not long. Since the wind didn’t cooperate we just set the basket and burners up in candlestick mode. But it was still fun – the kids enjoyed being able to use the burners. They also enjoyed trick-or-treating. We owe my dad a big thank-you for coming out to help and being great with the kids and handing out candy.

This is a great way to start off our flying season. But we start this year a little differently. Instead of looking forward to learning about balloons and maybe an occasional flight, we now have the goal of getting our pilot licenses. And in a few months we plan on achieving that goal.

Flying in a Mass Ascension, especially on Special Shapes Day, was a lifetime experience that I’ll never forget. We gently flew off the field, ascending slowly, which allowed us to take gorgeous photos of all of the special balloon shapes. The colors were a feast for the eyes, and it was a priceless opportunity to view them from the air.

Fiesta means early bedtimes and early wake-up calls. With the time zone being one hour ahead, one morning we got up at 4:30am — 3:30am Arizona time. I spent the week being pretty exhausted, but it was worth every minute. One morning after flying, instead of heading back to the hotel room for a nap, we headed up the Sandia Mountain and rode the Sandia Tram up to 10,000 feet. Then we did a two-mile hike at the top, which was quite the difference from our usual Phoenix-altitude hikes. I was panting with a racing heart just five minutes into the hike, but after setting a pace and enjoying the beauty of hiking the Sandia Mountain ridge, I soon forgot about being tired.

We won’t be able to take our own balloon up to Fiesta until we have 100 hours of flight time logged, but we’re looking forward to crewing with our friends for the next few years until we can take Sonoran Star to her first Fiesta (with us). If you ever want to see the sport of ballooning in all its glory, Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is the place to go. From the excitement of being at the pilot briefing in the dark before sunrise, to watching the Dawn Patrol balloons silently glowing their way across the field, to the exhilaration of seeing hundreds of balloons launch into the air at a Mass Ascension — it’s something to remember for the rest of your life.

I still have to get all of my video compiled into one big clip to put on YouTube — I’ll link that this weekend. Below is the gallery of photos we took on the trip.

Click on the pic above for our Fiesta photo gallery.

Official Event Website: http://www.balloonfiesta.com/

The Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival is a weekend celebrating the wineries of Temecula as well as ballooning. I’m not sure how many balloons were there, but if I were venturing a guess, I’d say perhaps fifty or so. We spent the weekend helping crew for Happy Hour (Cameron 105K) and Calypso (Lindstrand 90K). Both balloons are owned by Tempe/Scottsdale commercial balloon pilots and good friends of ours.

On the Saturday morning of “mass ascension”, I got to log a flight hour which was quite exciting. Taking off when you’re surrounded by twenty other balloons close to you is a good learning experience. The trick is to watch carefully around you, try to keep an eye on other balloon shadows, and no rapid ascents. Pick your track and have a nice, gentle ascent while watching closely to see where other balloons around you are flying.

Click the picture above to view the full photo gallery

We flew out over a small lake, which was beautiful. And then the winds completely went away and we were becalmed. The winds died down to almost nil, leaving us out over the small lake and wishing for a breeze to take us back to land. I took us up to about 4000′ AGL (above ground level), hoping for some kind of breeze on a different layer that we might be able to use to get us off the lake. No such luck. After hanging out in the air for over an hour, there was FINALLY the gentlest of breezes that picked up enough to take us just off the edge of the lake and… onto the side of a small mountain. Good times.

Since we landed on the side of the mountain, Kim and I hopped out to start walking the balloon down to the road (with much effort as Mother Nature decided that NOW was the time to start blowing the wind up the side of the hill instead). I called Chuck, who was our chase crew for the morning flight. I said, “Hey, how are you doing?” He replied, “I’m doing better than you, I’m not the one stuck on the side of a mountain!”

All joking aside, we safely got the balloon down to the road and began to pack up. We landed on a nature preserve along with nearly twenty other balloons that had the same winds, and had to wait as our chase crew was brought in nearly one-by-one. It was a long, dusty wait, but we eventually got back to the launch site where we enjoyed a nice tailgate before heading back for an afternoon nap.

It was a fantastic trip, and we had so much fun that weekend. Looking forward to hopefully going next year as well, maybe finally as licensed pilots and bringing Sonoran Star!

Official Event Website: http://www.tvbwf.com/

Testing the burners is fun. Who's got the hot dogs?

The flight was a fairly basic flight until the end. We took off from Tumbleweed Park in Chandler, did a practice landing in an empty field just north of Germann Rd, after which my instructor had me contour fly over a large mound of broken concrete. (It’s rather interesting, especially when seen from the air. They take old asphalt/concrete to this location where they process it to be reused.) From there it was a fairly leisurely flight, but we didn’t have much west to steer with, so many of the convenient landing spots were out of reach.

The landing was a good learning experience for me. Within a few hundred feet I had a top layer of north, a middle layer of north-north-west, and a stronger bottom layer of east. The bottom layer was pushing me towards the road, so it took me a couple attempts to get the approach – and I ended up having to fly over the west end of the empty lot and then descend quickly so that we landed before reaching the road. It was a little stressful, but I found myself thinking, “Now this is *really* flying.”

Here’s a map. (Although we didn’t actually flight in a straight line…)

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter.  We’ll see you in the air soon.

We got to Tumbleweed Park to meet the other balloonists and set up a pibal (short for pilot balloon). The pibal is a helium balloon that you set free before flying so you can tell which way the wind will take you as well as which direction to lay out (set up) your envelope. Because of the direction, we all changed our launch point to Gilbert Civic Center instead.

The setup of Sonoran Star went fairly smooth for its first time, although things like the uprights and the burner blocks (what the burner attaches to) were a bit difficult to lock in. Those kinds of things can be easily adjustable on a free weekend in the driveway (which is what we did on Saturday, Apr 3rd). The top of the balloon is yellow with a classic happy face, and there is a US and an Arizona flag flying from the end of the crown line.

We launched around 7:25am and shortly after launch, I did my first landing (probably 100 yards away from takeoff) just so I could practice. It went smoothly, and then I lifted off again for the rest of the flight. The balloon flew SO light. It was quite responsive, and I found myself over-correcting a bit with the burners at first, but then I was able to stabilize my rates of ascent/descent and control it much easier.

We flew for just about an hour, and got to land in a fantastic open field that is on the other side of some canal project reservoirs. On approach to landing, I was probably 15 feet over the water, and resisted the urge to do a “splash ‘n dash” — seeing as how I don’t quite have the skills for that yet.

The ducks flew into the air from the water, the jackrabbits darted every which way from one brushy pile to another, and I tried (vainly) to part the Red Sea of gnats that were clouding around us in the basket. My second landing was quiet and smooth, and I now have officially two landings to log for that flight!

Chuck did a fantastic job chasing, and was there with the jeep and trailer just moments after we landed. We packed up — it was great having extra help for this first flight — and headed off to a wonderful tailgating breakfast. First flight successful!

Here are some stats for Sonoran Star’s first flight:
Launch Location: Gilbert Civic Center
Max. Speed: 22.5mph at one point (didn’t feel like it)
Ground Distance: 11.5 miles
Max. Altitude: 3200′ AGL (Above Ground Level)
Fuel Used: 9 gallons of propane
Number of landings: 2

This weekend (Apr 10th), Chuck gets to fly Sonoran Star for the first time! I’m excited to be able to chase as well as hopefully capture some video and photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/SonoranStarBalloon/SonoranStarFirstFlight

Clubs / Associations
Balloon Federation of America
Arizona Balloon Club

Governance / Regulation
Federal Aviation Administration
FAA Registry – Document Index Inquiry
(check to make sure your paperwork was received by the FAA)
FAA Registry – N-Number Inquiry
Arizona Aircraft Registration Unit

Safety
FAA Safety Team
BFA Safety Seminar Schedule

Weather
CSC DUATS (requires pilot license for registration)
Weather Underground
National Weather Service Forecast Office – Aviation Weather
National Weather Service – Aviation Digital Weather Service
Blastvalve Weather
Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS) Surface Data

Ballooning Resources
SkyVector – Online Aeronautical Charts
Balloonmail – Aeronauts’ Global Balloon Mail
Repair Station Listing

AZ Ballooning Events
Glendale Glitter & Glow Block Party – January
Cave Creek Balloon Festival – January
Havasu Island Balloon Festival & Fair – January
Peoria Halloween Monster Bash and Balloon Illumination – October
Caballeros de Yuma – November
Page Lake Powell Hot Air Balloon Regatta – November (bad website design, search calendar for November)

Other Ballooning Events
Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival – June
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta – October

Just For Fun
Balloon Simulator