Hot Air!

Rainbow Ryders did not disappoint.  We woke early, around 3:50am MT, showered and ate then made our way to Rainbow Ryders office.  Signed our forms and were assigned a pilot.  Four groups were going out with three of the four being vans with trailers pulling large balloons and baskets.  The fourth was an F250 pulling a trailer with a small balloon carrying 2-3.  We drove to a park type area.  Dean, our pilot and Air Force retiree with more than 3,000 hours flying balloons, had us stay in the van as he maneuvered the trailer in the lot.  The other three had let their clients out prior to with all four groups being slightly spread out.  Once the basket and balloon was unloaded, we unloaded.  A couple of us volunteered to hold the 90ft long balloon open while super powered fans filled it with cool air for about five minutes following the blasts of hot air.  Dean, our pilot, was a character with constant hot air balloon flying jokes.  He had a crew of two, Elroy and Frank who would trail the balloon while staying run contact via radio for potential landing locations.  After the balloon began to rise Dean casually said "if you see any power lines around let me know because that would be bad", just as we began to rise just slightly high enough to pass a big section of lines, he had a big grin on his face.

Prior to lift off, he aired up a balloon and sent it flying to test the winds.  Once he determined the winds were ok, he fired up his balloon.  All the others had a head start but he still had us going ahead of the others.  Another flying technique was to find the current.  After first climbing fairly high we just sat there.  No current or drift so he said if you see me spitting I'm not being gross I'm checking the winds below.  We then dropped a good bit to find a current.  The balloon drifted lower and lower down to just 20 feet over some rooftops.  Low enough that he said good morning to a gentleman in his back yard with the gentleman responding and we could easily hear.  At that point we began climbing.  Dean said we would likely be anywhere from 1200-1400 for a max altitude which would put us at 7600-7800 feet total.  With the Rio Grande in sight we passed over the largest cottonwood forest in the U.S.

The Rio Grande really stood out amongst the green leaved cottonwoods.  Another of their balloons had descended to the edge of the water just in front of us with another drifting high in the air ahead.  We descended as well to brush the basket against the running water of the river then drifting just feet above the water for a few hundred yards.

Dean fielded lots of questions from among his 11 clients in this basket including us.  Questions like, who do you register balloons with?  How do you become a pilot?  What about the airport and notifications to and from them?  along with others.  He answered each and every one.  The FAA is the association responsible for balloons just like plains.  Pilots must passed and written and flying test to become certified along with 35 hours of piloting a balloon....though Dean said he had 100 before he was comfortable flying solo with passengers.  As stated earlier he's up to 3,000 hours and appears to be the lead guy at this outfit.

I thought there would be a designated landing spot.  One person asked can you land anywhere?  He responded with anywhere you have permission or anywhere they haven't told you no.  The balloon landed on this little corner right next to the highway but it actually had stakes in the ground along the sidewalk so he hit the gas and gained some air to cross the highway at about 50 feet over into what could be called a field I suppose but it was mainly sand with some plant life.  As we began to land we saw a long-eared jack rabbit kick up dust on his way outa there.

Of the eleven clients in the basket, two were from India, one from Germany, one from Korea, one from Missouri, four from Tennessee, two from New Mexico.

Total fly time was 1 hour and 10 minutes not counting the prep, loading, landing etc.  Pretty much 5:30am - 9:30am covered the entire adventure.