The last time I flew a hot air balloon was about a year ago. It wasn’t much of a flight — just three short hops on vacant field to get current (the FAA required three take offs and landings every 90 days.) At this time, I’m no longer current and I also need to do a biennial flight review to be fully qualified.
I’ve also released my half-interest in my balloon Aero Cordero, so I no longer have my own ride. The envelope was getting pretty old and porous anyway, so it was time to say goodbye to it.
However, last weekend, I helped facilitate balloon club fly in which has been held traditionally over the Martin Luther King weekend in Las Cruces. At one time, as a fully organized rally, it drew 50 hot air balloons from around the region. This year’s event had eight balloons, but it was still enjoyable for me to get back in touch with many friends in the ballooning community and be part of the event. I crewed one day for a long-time pilot and friend, Jim Hoidal.
I’m attaching some photos from the fly-in. All were taken by a local photographer, Victor Gibbs, and I’ve posted a link below to his site to view all of the images he captured over the two-day event.
https://adventuring.smugmug.com/Las-Cruces-Hot-Air-Balloon
As I’ve done for many years at this event, I did the weather briefing for the pilots. Winds for the Saturday flight were a bit iffy, but four of the balloons flew. On Sunday, conditions improved and six of the pilots had great long-lasting flights over the north and eastern sides of Las Cruces.
I do miss flying occasionally, but after 35 years of doing it, it was just time to quit. I’m sure I would have no problem piloting, but because of various medications I need to take after my heart surgery three years ago, it’s best I don’t risk any regulatory issues that might arise if there was an incident.
I’m glad to say that in my 35 years of flying, the only injury that ever occurred to one of my passengers was a tiny fracture of a woman’s pinky finger on one of the softest landings I ever made. The woman was the wife of an orthopedic surgeon, and she didn’t even know she had the minor injury until several weeks later.
aero-cordero.com 