Fly Me Friendly

This was my first instructional flight in a hot air balloon.

I was at Mildura as part of the Australian Ballooning Federation’s “The Lake 2010″ event

Here’s my notes from the flight:

• Paul’s FICOM check process
• Cold, crisp conditions with steady light winds
• Inflated under Paul’s guidance & did a “3 Bounce” take off:
  • Stay on the ground line
  • Inflate & get lift
  • Let it return to the ground
  • Repeat 3 times
  • Launch on peak of next lift
  • Lets you identify false lift
• Went to about 2,000′ to check direction of winds aloft
• Wasn’t totally comfortable at altitude (“the voice”)
• Back down to low level again – skimming the ground was great fun
• Stand up landing in a field
• Got out and rode with the chase crew so Cynthia could get in & fly the second hop
• Elation to be flying at last
• So much to learn
• Paul’s “count the balloons” method for keeping track of others

Click here to view my log book entry at JetRecord.com

Europa Film Treasures have made available some footage from the Austrian Film Archive showing Wilbur Wright demonstrating their aircraft in France. In addition to some low approaches and a landing, the 1909 silent movie film also includes a section where the camera was mounted in the aircraft with Wilbur. Hailed as the first ever air to ground filming from an aircraft, it is well worth watching and I’m ecstatic to see it being released for us all to enjoy.

I was also excited to recently stumble upon the National Film Board of Canada and the titles they have available to view and/or purchase (where possible). From an aviation perspective, these include Airplane Casualties (a collection of archive footage), Rosies of the North, Churchill’s Island and many others.

Enjoy :)