Our week at Balloon Fiesta was spent with three great guys; Stan our pilot, Bud the crew chief, and Marc the everything guy. They are a team from Canada and were kind enough to let Paul and I work with them this week.
Team Magic Moments 2015
Stan’s balloon Magic Moments flew seven times this week and Paul and I each were able to be passengers on one of the flights. Paul’s flight was from off the field and a competition day so he was in the air quite long catching the box of Albuquerque where the balloon flew west and then north to the field, circle the field and landed north of the field. They were never able to get into the field to hit the target but the flight was beautiful. I flew on Wednesday with a VIP passenger from Canon. His name was also Mark and he had a very fancy Canon camera so I am sure his photos are excellent.
Looking back over the launch field
Flying with Darth
Never know who you will meet with at 500 ft!
Some of the balloons were thinking of a swim in the Rio Grande!
A creative Farmer
Stan has been a pilot for 40 years and the team made our week lots of fun. Chasing is always interesting. One day Marc went on a flight and Paul had to drive the chase car. Bud was our navigator and we chased pretty well until they landed a block over and I thought they landed further so we went way out of our way to get to them. The good news is balloon is very much a family sport and their was lots of other crews nearby to catch up to the balloon and help Stan get on the ground and deflated.
Magic Moments being inflated
Flying the Canadian Flag
Magic Moments neighbors, with the Turtle lauchig
Ballooning is such a visual activity. Flying is amazing but just being on the field watching balloons inflate and take off is just as spectacular, especially when there are more than 500 balloons inflating.
The view is awesome
Can’t wait for the next time we make it to Albuquerque in October!
Sums up the feeling of being on the launch field with over 500 balloons ready to take flight!