Dogmans Balloon Fiesta Blog

dogman dan

dogman dan

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Joined
May 17, 2008
Messages
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Location
Las Cruces New Mexico USA
Starting tomorrow, and for the next 9 days, I was to be crewing for the Darth Vader balloon at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. The most popular of 800 balloons at the fiesta, Darth Vader is still in China.

For the last five weeks the organizers of a mongolian balloon rally have held it, and refused to ship it back along with 13 other fancy shaped balloons. They promised air shipping both ways, and then wanted to ship back by boat once the rally was finished unless 36,000 was paid to the rally. The money was paid eventually, but Darth has still not cleared customs in China as of yesterday.

AIBF is now saying Darth and the others may be there by Thursday. The pilot, from Belgium plans his entire year around being at the fiesta all 9 days, and now he'll be lucky to make 4. :cry:

Y'all probobally don't know, but the special shaped ballloons usually get paid to appear at balloon rallys, or at least get all expenses paid including travel to appear at a rally. So to pay an additional 3 thou or so to get your balloon back from China was to say the least, quite unexpected for the balloon owners. Most of the balloon pilots also missed several other rallys, since the rally season really kicks off in the late summer and fall.

The mongolian rallly organizers were said to have stated, A signed contract for shipping by air both ways is a starting point for negotiations. :roll: So much for the LAST time people ship thier balloon to china for a rally.

OK Rant over. I know many of the pilots at fiesta, and can get assigned to another balloon desperate for crew till Darth appears. So this won't interfere with me romping all over the valley chasing a balloon. :D Nothing will interfere with being drunk of the launch field after the flight by 9:00 am, and remaining there eating shrimp cocktails, drinking margaritas, champagne laced with fruit liquers, etc till the fiesta officials kick us the hell off the launch field. :lol: Btw, the way it works is to drink till about 11:00, then eat and dance yourself sober before driving back to the motel at 1:00 or two. I have a non drinking driver avaliable too, for some of the days and possibly all 9.

I'll be taking a zillion pix, since I won't be too busy piloting a balloon this year, and will post the best ones here daily. Next year, I hope to be back in the air again.
 
it's called corruption. don't blame the chinese. it is the human condition for all those in power throughout the world.

maybe you remember hearing of the protests in tianamen square in 1989, that was entirely about corruption, and popular protest against guvment usurpation of power.

i have met chinese who have recently moved here from china and the one thing that everyone hates is the level of corruption tied to the party and the army and the people in power in local guvments.

the chinese national guvment has just changed the rule that allowed the people to come to beijing to file greivances. this now has to be done at the local level, where corruption is rampant.

that doesn't help you get the balloon back though. but it gives you feeling of what happens to the regular people in china every day. pay pay pay bribes. just like in this country you have to pay for lawyers to make things work the right way, there you pay a bribe to make it work the right way.
 
Make sure this story is filed TODAY with Associated Press. Names of any China officials involved included. Maybe bribes work in China, but so does "Saving Face"... maybe...
Sad story
Lock
 
Hmm, amazing how the story changes between reading in the paper, and actually talking to some of the involved pilots. One who got his balloon out weeks ago, thinks the american festival promoter is more to blame than the chinese organizer. In any case, he put up money, and got his balloon back, only to find they had speared the basket with a fork lift in china. He is out 20 thou on the whole thing, but is also getting to fly. Must be nice to be able to just peel off several thou out of the wallet and keep going.

Speaking of flying , to my suprise I got invited into the basket today, to navigate for the lady pilot that taught my wife to fly. Here's what it looks like from above albuquerque. Due to the economy the fiesta is down to only 550 balloons, but still quite a few people on the field. Usually about 100,000 or so bodies on the launch field.
 
Great pic!

(found Nemo...)
:mrgreen:
 
Its suprising how little energy they use to get so high. It reminds me of that guy who went right out there almost into space and pulled a release cord and let go.

On we go to astro free fall diving.
 
spinningmagnets said:
WOW !! awesome pic. The only place that had more hot air this week was...Washington DC
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Would be more awesome being the photographer.
 
Awesome enough to make you not mind spending all your money on.[attachment=0]Balloons over Corrales NM.jpg[/attachment

Today we chased, old school, like we did 20 years ago when we knew nobody with a balloon. Just go downwind to where they will be landing, and start catching them as the land. Lot of wind today, so they all were landing fast, and were real glad to have the help. Piling weight on the basket once they land really helps em stop dragging.
 
Have you got any night shots? Baloons would look beautifull lit up with leds and stuff. Would make it alot more expensive.
 
From saturday morning. Dawn patrol is a group of balloons that take off 1 hour befor dawn, and with proper aircraft lights hanging below the basket, fly till it gets light enough to see where to land. Most balloons can fly about an hour and a half, so they have enough fuel to last till it's light, and you can see the power lines. The balloon burned has two ways to burn, a blue flame for heat, or a poorly oxygenated flame that makes more light than heat, causing the 7 story tall balloon to become a giant lantern. At night, we do balloon glows, where we light up the balloon but are careful not to actually take off, and keep the thing tied to a truck. Occasionaly a pilot will screw up and go flying, truck and all. :roll: View attachment Dawn patrol 1.jpgView attachment Dawn patrol 2.jpg
 
Other fun stuff happens later when we return to the launch field, while mass consumption of food and beverages is happening. Pin collectors try to get pilots to give them pins with the balloons logo on them. The traditional method involves the recipient's underwear, and being pinned by the opposite sex.View attachment Pin enthusiast.jpg
 
dogman said:
, and being pinned by the opposite sex.
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OMG hes got his hand down her top, BTW thank you for the night pictures, it looks very peacefull and floaty or whatever. 8)
 
Told ya ballooning was fun, especially for pilots, who do most of the pinning. The lady is my crew chief, who's been involved in ballooning for 30 years. Back in the 70"s the tradition was to pin girls on thier bra, and men on thier undershorts. Nowdays, it's a lot more politically correct, pins are often placed by the spouse of the recipient. or just handed to the person. But my crew chief is still an old school balloonist, who will do anything for a pin, almost. Fiesta organizers have tried hard to squelch some of the old rituals. Crews used to flash each other etc. But it's a family thing now so the raunchy stuff is nearly gone now. But the pins are still collected and traded by crewpeople and spectators. Trading cards are huge too, you need thousands of them a day if you are going to hand them out at fiesta.

The pin ceremony is part of the complicated ritual for first timers, some times called virgins, sometimes called victims if the landing is rough. Often if you help a balloon pilot a lot, like crewing for him, or pulling the truck out of a ditch, you earn a pin from that balloon. Reallly nice pilots will give crew uniform shirts to crew. My Darth Vader shirt is very very exclusive, hugely collectible, and given to only a few people vs the pin that is actually licenced and sold like any other collectable, like a concert t shirt. Events like fiesta will partly fund the event through sales of really popular pins, hats, etc.
 
All sorts of unusuall things can happen at fiesta. Several years back, I got to fly Mr and Mrs Santa Claus.View attachment Dogman and Santa.jpg

Finally got the pic the right size. The balloon pix are shot at high resolution. After the flight, a few days later, the hotel tells me I have a package. It turned out to be a six pack of champagne. A french brand I had never heard of, retailing at about $100 a bottle. I do belive in Santa! 8) Ballooning is a lot about giving others happiness. With my type of pilots licence you can't charge for rides, but sometimes the karmic circle just completes anyway. Very often you fly somebody who has dreamed of a balloon flight for a lifetime, and making that wish come true is priceless.
 
Nicwe pics!
Those sure bring back memories!
I've always wanted to get out to NM for the Balloon fest. I grew up in Plano, which used to be rather known for it's Ballooning as well, and as a teenager had a chance to crew for a couple balloonsat the festivles. And even younger, as a kid if as balloon came down near us, we would go over and help fold it. Fond memories.
 
Was tempted to go to Plano this year for thier rally, and crew Darth Vader, but he was in China anyway. Here's a pic of one of our favorite balloons, from the Warstiener beer sponsor. Helped him land the balloon by piling on after he got on the ground.View attachment Warstiener beer balloon.jpg

Pics from today, what we pilots call "sporting landings". This balloon almost got down clear of the tree, but kissed it, and shredded his balloon. Looks like about 5 grand of damage minimum.View attachment Tree, 1.jpgView attachment Tree, 2.jpgView attachment Tree, 3.jpg

Nobody hurt in the landings where I was, the wind was 10 mph so sporting, not life threatening. Over at the field though, where balloons were flying low to compete by throwing a bean bag at a target, a pilot hit a sponsor tent, knocking out the second pilot who fell about 25 feet. Both pilots ok, but actual injuries weren't reported yet. KOAT channel 7 in albuquerque has footage of the event on thier news website if you want to see it. So far, no fatalities yet this year. Notice the use of the word yet,,,,,.
 
Yeah, the pilot on that case was a known , er, well I won't actually say it on the internet. One of the factors involved on that one was that the guy was very short, and lightweight, and tall heavy people have an easier time of it when it comes to letting the air out of the balloon to land. You pull a rope, but as a fast landing bounces the basket along the ground, the rope pulls back, and may even pull the pilot out of the basket.

We do some serious studying of every accident, why it happened, etc every year at safety seminars. An even worse one from Arizona often starts the lecture. Some illegally homemade basket parts were part of that one's cause, and the resulting fire left the relatives burying half bodies. Quite a picture,,, this could be YOU! :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

Fortunately , though the bad ones are very bad, a balloon ride is pretty safe, statistically much much much safer than for instance, riding your bike. The balloonists in the most danger are riding in the truck chasing the balloon.

Todays pic of the day. This wonderfully big landing field is the last one left to the south of the Fiesta launch field, as the houses in the background filled in all the old landings in a gravel pit. Wallmart bought the land and was going to build a few years ago. The city replied, " not without a building permit" And now it is city property. we call it Sam's landing.View attachment Sam's landing.jpg
 
NICE WORK DOGMAN, BY the way MR. DOGMAN do you know that you resemble one of the guys on (HEE-HAW) I think it was the barber that always spoke by using the last letter of a word as the first letter of a word and using the first letter as the last letter of the word really funny guy. This is a compliment . I can tell you enjoy your work. GOOD DAY "BLUESTREAK" :D :D :mrgreen:
 
When I'm flying and tell the crew turn left to find me, they know to turn right. :lol: :roll:

There was a character in Homer Price books I read as a child, that constantly reversed his words, saying, for instance, sign stop instead of stop sign.

It's brain damage,,,, Don't work with Pvc glue, contact cement, laquer for years.
 
Nice pics there dogman really like the lit up balloooons at night very cool...Always wanted to have a go in a Balloooon until i saw one on the nightly news up North of OZ (in Darwin) carrying tourist crash...well...more like drop out of the sky killed everyone on board instantly... :shock:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1291&dat=19890814&id=a8EPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fY0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6878,4659792


KiM
 
The bad stuff allways makes the news, not the millions of happy flights. I love it though, have allways been addicted to heights. My wife says I'm not happy unless I'm pissing my pants. My most memorable flight ever was here at fiesta a few years ago. Only a few balloons had the skill to even get launched in the wind. I ended up near downtown where there is no place to land, and a balloon a block away killed people trying to land. I stuck it of course, and when I got out and kissed the ground the passengers, on their first flight ever were amazed to find out I was crapping my pants. :shock: I had them thinking everything was hunky dory till I got out and started thanking god for sparing us. 8) A great deal of the right stuff is not freaking out till it's over. When I fly I'm so focused I feel like my eyes are lazers.

Darth Vader balloon is back from china now, so off to crew him. :D 8) It will be fun, setting up the balloon with a hundred storm troopers in costume keeping a few thousand people back out of our way. Kinda like being in the circus crewing the most popular balloon at the rally.
 
dogman said:
I had them thinking everything was hunky dory till I got out and started thanking god for sparing us. 8) .
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LMAO way to instil confidence in the passengers there DogMan...make sure you getz some pics of the Darth Vader ballooooon too ...happy flying :)

KiM

p.s keep your eyez peeled for X-Wing Fighters when your up in the Darth Vader balloooon too :p
 
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