July 2012...here we are

Indigo

Like many other people, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ have changed my interaction with the web and taken me away from this here outlet.

Life has been shortened to 140 characters or smart arse comments of little import on Crackbook.

I think it is time to write again....we will see if I do :)

So what have I done in the last two years since posting here?  Well I still dance and compete and have done okay at Masters/Champions level in the Modern Jive/Ceroc world.  The cabaret routines choreographed and performed by Charlie and myself have placed well and seem to be enjoyed by people.

We have travelled around the country teaching and having fun.

The big news is my engagement to the wonderful Indigo who was not even on my radar when I last posted here!   This is her for those that don't know.

Obviously this is a pretty amazing time and there is more fun stuff to come.

EX-60 test flight

Work wise, it has been nuts with more product development.  I have designed a new racer, the EX-60 which is the little brother to the original EX-65.  It is not only smaller but has a new profile shape.

The biggest thing though is the development of the new Crossfire burner.  The running joke has been that this burner has been in development for over 20 years but it is here now and is everything we had hoped it would be.

Doubles, triples and quads are running out the door and everyone who has flown with them is very excited.

I just did a quick trip to Cairns for the inaugural flight by Raging Thunder with their new Quads and to do a maintenance training course on the new burner for their staff and staff from Hot Air.

Quad Crossfire - done and in production

August will see me tripping off the Battle Creek in Michigan USA for the 2012 World Ballooning Championship where I will crew for Andrew Robertson. It is going to be a fun week on the crew side of the basket so expect lots of photos and fun stories as that all unfolds.

A little training weekend was had up in Canowindra on the 7th and 8th of July with the Australian team. Lots of fun was with task flying and catching up on the social side of flying which has not really been on my agenda in the past year or two.

It was fun to be back flying with friends and not have it feel like work.  With a bit of luck I will even get around to doing some competition myself some day soon!

Inspiration

A penny dropped for me last week. A light switched on.

I am sure there is other cliché that I could use but I will save you the pain.

Over the last two years a change has occurred in my life. My focus has shifted from all things flying towards all things dancing. It is an odd feeling to say the least.

Dance is not something that I ever saw as a part of my life - I got dragged kicking and screaming into it only a handful of years back and once my eyes were opened I found it was something I needed.

Dance definitely gives me my fix of competition and challenge and does so in a more compact and convenient way than flying balloons ever did.

I still love our business and even flying still makes me smile inside once I am doing it but right now I don't ever wake up wishing I could go for a flight. I wake up wishing I could go for a dance instead.

Modern Jive or Ceroc is where I started in the dancing world. It is easy to pick up, very social and fun partner dance that can be done to just about any music.

Since then I have started expanding and playing with West Coast Swing. A more technical dance in some respects but oh so much fun to play with once it starts to click into place.

I am not there yet but every now and then there will be a moment where I get a taste of what it is about and it just blows my mind. It is a smooth and connected dance that is all about lead and follow and playing with the music and your partner.

So, the moment last week was bought about by two very special people. Benji Schwimmer and Kellese Key who were teaching at an event put on by Nuroc Dance Company.

Benji is the winner of So You Think You Can Dance, USA season 2. Kellese is his dance partner and they were out here teaching WCS workshops for a week and doing private lessons.

There were too many moments, laughs and highlights to touch on except to say that I finally can see myself as a dancer and know that this is a part of my life for ever. These guys made that connection for me, made me realise just how important this is to me.

It was amazing to watch them dance, talk and express themselves and the obvious part that dance has played in their lives.

Charlie and I belted out our 2009 Bond routine one last time to get yet another trophy and best of all, the peoples choice award for it. Not a bad way to wrap it up before we start work on this years competitive routine.

As for ballooning stuff, we wrapped up 2009 with our first ever special shape balloon. From go to woe it was my baby to design, certify and test fly.

It was quite a challenge but good fun. Even better fun because it just worked and is still out there working away, doing it's thing with not so much as a phone call or question from the customer.

The only thing I like more than sending a new balloon out the door, is never seeing it again until it has died of old age and the customer rings saying they would like another please!

2009 Aussie Nationals

I don't know why I am starting this up again. I think it is a procrastination thing....

It has been an interesting week for me. This is the first Aussie Ballooning Nationals that I have missed since 1994.

I really needed a break after the Worlds in Austria last year and so, here I am watching the results on the internet and having to admit I am wishing I was there.

It looks like they are having great weather and lots of tasks. Paul is running away with the competition with Edwin close behind. It would have been fun to be in that fight.

Andrew Robertson is flying my racer this week. Giving my balloon away was one sure way of making sure I could not get suckered into going at the last moment.

Having said that I have been dancing like a freak for the past year and have not had any time for ballooning so I would have been under prepared and out of practice. It was probably better to leave it to those more keen.

On the dance front, Charlie and I have won both of the major Aussie modern Jive (Ceroc) comps at advanced level and placed 3rd in NZ.

We also have a routine we choreographed together that has placed 3rd a couple of times now too. Very happy with that result.

With one more major comp to go this year we are working hard to make it a clean sweep before we are bumped up into Masters for the 2010 competitions.

Denied

It has taken a few days to find an internet connection again. Indeed I am now at Vienna airport and waiting to check in for the flight home.

The last flight that I had been hoping for was on then off again.

Unfortunately for a number of us, it was not actually canceled until we were in the air and getting smacked around in turbulence.

The crazy thing was that I was having fun! Sure it was fast and the cut grass fields between all the forest and maize looked awfully small at 30km/h but it slowed down in places and since we were already flying it seemed a shame not to get to throw our markers.

I did have one moment with the balloon bent in half in a wind shear and was wondering if I was going to get smacked into the trees below. Andrew and Camilla said it looked like I was hung on a powerline because it was all lent over so bad.

After passing the launch site and getting the message via SMS that the flight was now canceled, my first landing opportunity was actually at one of the HWZ goals so I landed there and the target officials helped me pack up.

It was a stand up landing on the road and ended any chance of improving on my position of 49th - the median rank, right in the middle of the pack. Not happy Jan!

It was an interesting week, from not being interested in going at all to all pumped up and ready to go. Intrigued and annoyed at not having observers and using loggers only to convinced that logger only competitions are very bland (despite my inability to fly it well).

I have to admit that not having to stuff about finding and measuring markers was nice and made for much easier days BUT it felt like it was somehow lacking. The lack of fly on tasks and the pressure they bring and also the opportunity to correct for your own mistakes with a good fly on selection have me convinced that observers are a good thing.

It will be interesting to see what time and evolution of the new rules brings or if observers will be bought back into the mix as more and more pilots complain about their absence.

I have to thank Andrew, Yosh and Camilla for all their hard work during the week. They got me in the air and back for breakfast, lunch or dinner every day. Kept me smiling when the results were not what I wanted and focused the moment my mind wanted to wander to warmer, sunnier places. Thanks guys, you are legends.

So what is next? I have a few days once I get home to prepare for the Ceroc Australia Championships in Sydney where Charlie and I are in three events including a showase that we have yet to finish rehearsing. Panicing much???

Having won intermediate/advanced at the Ceroc and Modern Jive Champs a few months back, the pressure is on the back it up with another win before we have to move onto advanced for next years round of competitions.

Go, go, go!

PS: photo was stolen from the 2008 Worlds picasa album - not sure who's it is but it pretty well shows what we were doing all week if we flew!

Wish come true

It looks like the weather may have just opened a small window for one last flight.

I am sitting in the briefing tent having just planned my flight and am waiting for the official briefing and roll call to start.

The tasks are a fly in and hesitation waltz. The fly in is to the launch field and the HWZ has five goals .

We are expecting fast winds to arrive on the surface early so we need to get the flight over and done with as quick as we can.

I am expecting the typical close results on the targets so need to fly this really well to move back up the list.

We need another flight

Friday afternoons flight has been canceled due to high winds.

Results are up from the morning flight and it looks like it was as bad as I expected.

From four tasks I managed to get under 1000 points, putting me back to 47th place. If we don't get another flight in the morning that is where it will end.

Not much else to say really.