The weather is going to be a boomer this week in Saga!
We just had a great practice flight in typical Saga winds. Light and variable near the surface with good speed up top.
Because our other volunteer crew are not available until tomorrow, we hijacked some spectators from Nagasaki who had come to watch the balloons. I took the guy for a flight from the main launch field then landed after my first practice goal and swapped him for his girlfriend for the next hop.
After another practice goal we landed and they both drove the van while Yosh took over and flew the balloon for half an hour. He had a great time and I think learnt a lot about where he was actually up to in his training.
I gave him a rough flight plan - fly for about half an hour and land anywhere he wanted to that was safe and not crop. It was a solo flight without actually being solo. As the morning went on we edged closer and closer to the sea and his stress levels started to climb as the light and variable winds messed with his approaches.
In the end I took over for the landing as we were starting to run out of options and I really needed the balloon for the coming week :)
Anyhow, we are all ready to compete. Master briefing is this afternoon then it is game on.
