Vertically Challenged

Inspiration

2010-01-30T16:56:00.003+11:00

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

2009-07-09T09:50:00.003+10:00

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

2008-09-23T02:22:00.004+10:00

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

2008-09-19T20:16:00.006+10:00

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

2008-09-19T20:16:00.005+10:00

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.

Going, going.....gone

2008-09-19T20:16:00.002+10:00

Well the lack of blog posts are due to the fact that we have been flying and sleeping and not much else.

After all the canceled flights and a single flight back on Wednesday, Thursday finally turned it on with a full day of flights.

The AM flight on Thursday was a full five tasks. Our results for those were slightly better than they felt from the basket and in the end we had a healthy 3800 points from the possible 5000 including a task win for me with a 1.35m result.

The PM flight saw another three markers on the table at briefing. Again, conditions were challenging and the field was split with half attempting the two hesitation waltz tasks first while the others opted to try the fly-in part of the flight first.

I picked up two great hesitation waltz results, both around the 7m mark for 989 and 988 points for each. The fly-in part of the task did not work for me but the 418 points was still better than nothing.

At the end of the day we were in 13th place, up from 65th after day 1.

Friday morning and we had another four tasks to fly.

Unfortunately nothing really went to plan today and I am not looking forward to seeing the results.

The first task was pilot declared goal which I missed by about 150m - not good when the first 20 places are generally within 10m of the target.

This had me set up too far to the right for the next hesitation waltz goal which I thne missed by 600m. Again pretty depressing when you can see the pile of markers around the target from the other competitors.

The third task was a fly in to the field for a minimum distance double drop. There was complicated little scoring area and the job was to drop two markers as close together as you can but with each in a separate box marked on the field.

I saw it off in the distance somewhere but never go closer than about 4km. Fortunately I think only about 10 people did.

The final task was an elbow where we had to cross a road, fly for 15 minutes then achieve the greatest change in direction we could after flying for another 15 minutes. Flying right back on yourself or 180 degrees change in direction is best.

We had a cunning plan based on all the winds going the wrong direction I had already found during the morning.

It did not work. We achieved about 56 degrees change in direction and have heard of plenty of others who got the 180 degrees.

Right now it is time to get some sleep and hope that we get the last two flights in this competition before the weather turns to crap again. It is already quite windy outside so we will just have to wait and see if we get any more flying.

Competition has started

2008-09-17T18:14:00.008+10:00

Finally we are off and flying.

Despite the high winds I was talking about before the briefing, the event director David Levin sent us out for two tasks with the expectation that surface winds would remain reasonable until about 0830.

As this is an observer less competition there is no scope for pilot declared goals like we would normally have. As such all targets are selected by the director and in the case of this flight we had two hesitation waltz tasks with three goals available for each.

The goals all have a Marker Scoring Area (MSA) set that you can drop your marker in for a measured result. If you are outside the MSA your result is the 3D distance as calculated from your GPS logger.

All balloons launched from the main common launch point. Winds right in the surface were slow but quickly picked up speed as you climbed much more than 100 feet or so.

Approaching the first goal, the MSA was a soccer field (Goal 704). I was located a little to far to the left for a good approach so opted for one of the second two targets (705 & 706) where I could keep the approach nice and low. A small shift in the winds had me fighting to get to either of the targets which were located about 190m apart.

In the end I flew pretty well right down the middle of the two for a GPS scored result. Not really what I wanted while watching markers pile up on the other targets.

The screen capture from my tablet shows it and the photo at the top of this post is it in reality with goal 706 in the foreground and 705 behind it.

Once clear of task one, I climbed into the faster upper winds to set up task two.

The first available target was rushing up and was off to the right of my track. A quick descent to ground level put me into a wind direction that took me right to the goal for an approximately 8m drop.

Was it a good morning? Not really results wise but bloody good to be flying after all this time. The full track log is shown below with goals 721, 722 & 730 making up task 2.

Austria 2008 Flight 1 - 17th August AM

Wednesday Morning

2008-09-17T13:20:00.004+10:00

Time for some live bloging.

We have just arrived at the briefing tent on day 4 of the competition. It is 0521 and the briefing starts at 0530.

During the drive down the hill we watched the trees thrash about and wondered if it could really be calm in the valley.

It is calmer but not what I would expect to be flyable right now. It will be interesting to see what happens, if anything in these conditions.

As a team we are having fun. I have never traveled so far or paid so much to play Yahtze but such is ballooning.

Pardon the crappy picture, it is from my web cam but shows the crowd of bored pilots :)

Austria = rain

2008-09-15T19:50:00.002+10:00

Right now there is lot of things I could say about Austria and ballooning but none of them are nice so I am going to try and explain what is happening here as politely as I can.

I would love to say that the photo of Edwin to the left was from today's flight but it was actually from the practice week.

We are now at day two of the competition and have yet to make a flight. Two SMS messages from the event director, one at about 4am canceling the morning briefing and another at 9.30am canceling the afternoon briefing have given us the day off to enjoy the area, all be it under a layer of cloud and rain.

Day one of the competition was also washed out by rain. We arrived for the morning briefing at 0530 with light rain falling on the windscreen of out van. Two markers and a task sheet were waiting for us with the flight to be two hesitation waltzes. Due to the rain we were put on hold for 45 minutes but finally the flight was canceled.

After a long morning of drinking coffee and hanging out we had a group photo with all of the teams and officials, probably about 500 people in total and taken by the most bizarre photographer I have ever met. His large format camera was poised on top of a massive tripod that required a ladder and much fiddling to set up.

To his credit he kept the whole crowd in place and entertained with his balancing act on the ladder and repeated calls for the crowd to "looooook to meeeeeeee!"

The afternoon flight was also put on hold multiple times as we waited for showers to pass the area. Eventually with many balloons half set up on the field the black flag was raised as more rain arrived. Interestingly two fiesta balloons were wandering into sight further up the valley and heading in the wrong direction for the goals that had been set.

The reasons for cancelling were pretty obvious. Despite some light rain, the low cloud base and massive change in direction would have put the field of 100 balloons into a dangerous situation, looking for the right direction in cloud. Not fun at all.

To entertain ourselves we got an invite to the team USA dinner and had lots of fun chatting to them all while Al Nells chatted on about taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the competition. I have to admit I like their enthusiasm but intend on only letting them have places 2 and 3 at the end of the week.

So here we are back to this morning and more wind and rain. As I type this Andrew is Googling for a go kart track or paint ball so we can go and do something energetic before we go nuts.

Keeping busy

2008-09-13T21:46:00.002+10:00

Ok, as I seem to be having problems finding time to blog right now, I am going to point you to Andrews blog for more words and photos....

I will lift my game, but for now Andrew is doing better while I get ready for the competition.

Practice Friday

2008-09-12T19:53:00.003+10:00

We did another practice flight today. The organisers put ran a briefing and set two goal this morning. It was a great lesson in how the valley flows and changes as the morning develops.

We flew in from about 3.5km north west of the launch site and from the moment I was in the air it was obvious we were in the wrong side of the valley flow. I had set up near the center of the valley and as such had good speed and direction to a any other place than the actual goal I was trying to get to.

With that lesson learnt, I kept working at it despite being over time. Interestingly, the second goal proved to have the same issue for pretty well all of the other balloons. As the morning wore on everything in the valley stopped and went to waffle leaving only the gradient wind at altitude of any real use.

Weather wise it seems like we are in for another wonderful event in Austria with an amazing week of practice followed by a week of rain and wind during the actual competition. We are expecting it to turn bad on Saturday at this time but hoping to be proven wrong.

I am taking photos but so far the access to internet has been below average and with all the running around getting ready I have not downloaded any yet.

Also the link to the Worlds site for results etc. is now on the right or use this link.

Practice Time

2008-09-12T19:49:00.003+10:00

After a few days cruising around Austria in a 3 series BMW it is now down to serious work for the World Championship.

We arrived in Hofkirchen on Wednesday afternoon and had a wonderful afternoon watching about 50 or so balloons fly out of the Schillieten Castle, the location of the Worlds back in 1987.

A quick trip Hartburg train station had our team swell to three with the arrival of Yosh.

Thursday morning was my first practice flight, launching from the Schillieten and flying down into the valley and lake at Stubenburg. Winds here have been very light and variable. There is great options for steering but you need to be patient and I think more importantly, into the sky early and working with what ever looks to be the fastest winds.

Camilla arrived on Thursday morning and it was off for another flight that evening.

This time I launched from the common launch point for the Worlds to have a look at that valley. I picked two goals and with a lot of work managed to score well on both.

An interesting thing is that I am flying this even solo for the duration. As such all of these practice flights are solo so I can get used to the performance of the balloon and my own company. I am loving the space in the basket and having the freedom to talk to myself with out anyone having to know that I do....

2008 World Championship - Austria

2008-09-07T15:20:00.003+10:00

Well folks, it is that ime of the year again when I pack my bags and balloon and head to the other side of the world for the Ballooning world Championship.

2008 has us in Austria, about half way between Vienna and Graz. You can find it on google maps right here....

View Larger Map

The team this year is Andrew Roberston, Yosh Shigyo and Camilla Sorensen. I am keeping it compact and simple. With all crew as pilots (or nearly in the case of Yosh) it shoukd be a nice effecient team with everyone knowing what is going on.

I am not sure how I will go for updates during the event but will see what we can do to keep the information flowing.

Right now I have about 28 hours of movies and back cramps to deal with so see you on the other side of these flights.

The landing

2008-08-04T00:27:00.003+10:00

Well the story has gone to air on 60 minutes and here for those who missed it is the final part of the story showing the balloon landing.

I will have to try and get the full scene from Glenn and Heather and cut that together some time because there should be more to it than was used on the show.

Anyhow, it shows most of the action including the tree that I was using to slow us down a little (well that is what I am saying after the fact...) and some of the final drag once we made it into the clay pan, then back out the other side.

The interesting thing was that a few hundred meters past that tree, the ground dropped about 60 feet into the clay pan I was aiming for. At the time we were doing somewhere between 15 and 30 knots. 32knots was the number I last saw on the GPS at about 100 feet.

Truth be told I wanted to just clear the tree and the little cliff and touch down on the near side of the clay pan. With the balloon so lightly loaded (you can see how empty it is in the shots) if I had started a climb to get over the tree we would have been off into the sticks again before I got it on the deck.

Once it became apparent that we were going to skim the ridge and had lined up the tree, there was little choice but to hang on and just go through it and make sure that we flew over the cliff rather than drag down it.

The rebound threw us up a bit higher than I hoped and while venting the whole way we overshot the first half of the clay pan before touch down with the Lite Vent fully open.

The final drag was about 200m with sticks, bushes and rocks going everywhere.

Great fun.

I expect the full story will be available on the 60 minutes website in a day or two and I have a copy here that I will probably put on line in the near future with fingers crossed that Channel nines lawyers don't come after me :)

It's a long way down...

2008-07-24T21:39:00.008+10:00

With the clock running down we finally got the break we had been looking for.

As always happens, last week we thought that Thursday would be the day and guess what? It was.

Truth be told, tomorrow would have been better but the flight is in the bag and there was no option to wait another day.

Assessment of the met on Tuesday night had us decide that the 25,000 foot flight was going to end in tears with a fast landing in a potentially remote area. Not being able to retrieve the balloon or damaging it would put paid to the main flight to 39,000 feet so a Cessna 207 was booked for Wednesday so Glen, Heather and Greg could jump their buns off all day.

I had a great day flying around them in the R44 chopper shooting video and even got to have a play on the controls. At the end of the day I hitched a ride in the 207 jump plane from Curtain Springs to Ayers Rock and with in minutes of take off had the controls and flew all the way in to the circuit.

The guys got some amazing shots over Mount Connor but unfortunately Australian Geographic have first bid on them so we can't publish anything until it is all released.

All in all a great day of aviation.

After a late group get together Wednesday night, it was into bed before the alarms started going off at 0250 when the alarms started going off.

While not totally calm on the surface, it was enough to give us a shot. The upper winds were still not strong enough and the direction also was not great but again, it was within our minimums for a flight attempt. A chilly -53 deg. C and 80 knots was on order for the top end of the flight.

Glenn, Heather, John and myself sat in chairs pre-breathing O2 for an hour while the crew inflated the balloon. It was soon obvious that the ground wind was picking up at the nearly empty 400 bounced around on the launch rope.

Once our hour was up it was into the basket and soon away for the flight. It was a good hour before sunrise as we slipped into the dark sky with hardly a line of light on the horizon.

I was flying the balloon while John chatted to ATC for out clearances. I kept the climb rate at a pretty solid 800 to 1000 feet per minute and in no time the temperature was dropping as we cruised past 24,000 feet.

Around this time the only normally aspirated pilot light failed but the two on O2 feed burned quite nicely.

At just under 31,000 feet we had a total flame out and some quick and practiced hits with the striker had the main burner re-light and the pilot lights running again and we were on our way.

By 34,000 feet I was tweaking everything on the burners to keep the happy and one tweak too much had another total flame out. Again, re-light was not too much of a problem.

In the end we aborted the climb at over 37,000 feet indicated. A really rough adjustment from the logged data indicates that it might have been as high as 38,800 feet but none of that can be confirmed until the record is actually ratified.

The landing was as wild as expected with around 32knots down to about 500 feet before easing off to 16-17 knots on the surface. Not a lot of fun in a lightly loaded 400 I can tell you.

The good news is that it was filmed from two helicopters and from what I have seen it looked every bit as exciting from outside as it looked from my end on the burner and vent. Expect some Youtube video as soon as we are allowed to play with it.

As for the Jumpers, well that is their part of the story and is owned by 60 minutes so I can't really say much else at this time. Look out for it and some spectacular vision of the whole project on Sunday night in a weeks time (3rd of August I think).

The total flight time was 2 hours, 18 minutes, for a distance of 76.9Nm. Peak speed was about 92 Knots. Altitude is still to be confirmed but is probably in excess of 38,000 feet. Maximum climb rate was 1161 ft/min and a the fastest descent rate was 1575 ft/min. All in all great stuff.

Groundhog day...

2008-07-22T13:05:00.004+10:00

The weather is still kicking out butt out here at Uluru/Curtian Springs.

Every morning we get up at 3am, kick around in the freezing cold for a bit then go back to bed because it is either too windy, too cloudy or both. It is getting a little depressing to say the least.

Thursday is our cut off day as we loose our chopper pilot that afternoon and other members of the team all have commitments to get back to civilisation for as well.

Despite bad surface conditions, the jetstream has also prevented a successful flight from Glenn and Heathers perspective so it is not all the balloons fault.

The good news is that despite being down to the last two days, conditions are improving and Thursday is looking the best from all angles. Depending on what we get in the morning we may just go straight for the high flight.

Yesterday we had a run in with the park rangers while trying to scam our way into Uluru National Park with a pass donated by a departing tourist. They want $25 per head to look at a bit of rock!!! The passes are not transferable but you have to buy a three day pass despite most people only going for the one day.

At the gate we got the third degree over where the pass was purchased, which car we were in a few days back, how many people were in the car, where was our receipt, was it sold by a man or a woman etc, etc.

As a group of six likely looking suspects we failed the lie detector test by fumbling and pointing at each other while making up the worst possible story that made no sense what so ever and had us ejected on our ear.

We could have paid the money but with two professional photographers in the truck, poor light and only an hour to do a walk we decided that $150 was a bit over the top.

In no time at all we were back at the resort with our tails between our legs to buy some beer. We then headed out to the closest sand dune look out we could find and took in the view for free while laughing about the gate keeper and her little inquisition.

Right now we are trying to organise a plane or chopper for the guys to jump out of so they can get more vision over the desert.

Fist flight - 12,000 feet.

2008-07-19T12:47:00.002+10:00

After last nights excitement, it was all too early at 0345 when the alarm went off.

John, myself and the crew started weather checks at 0430 and had the team assembled and vehicles rolling out of the shed at 0530. Once on the launch site there was all the useual preparations for a balloon flight with the added fun of layers of gear, wires, parachutes, bail out bottles and oxygen masks.

With the ski goggles on and radio ear piece in place, the world faded into the background a little with every noise, breath and even vision filtered more than normal.

After a few awkward moments clambering into the basket, the five of us were on board. Two pilots and three wing suit jumpers.

ATC at Alice were working John hard on the radios and I was playing burner monkey and got the fun of flying a lightly loaded and massive balloon.

The initial climb was pretty easy although it did not feel as light as I thought it would. In no time at all we were sitting on 800 to 1000 feet per minute so it was actually performing very well.

Passing through 5500 feet we started the exit procedure for the jumpers and by 8000 feet all three were outside on the jump platform. Still climbing at around 1000 feet per minute we had four minutes to the jump altitude of 12,000 feet.

Practice runs in the shed had shown we needed just over a minute for switch over to the bail out O2 bottles for the jumpers then they would be ready to go.

Jump clearance was obtained by John and the disconnection process started. We rounded out at 12,500 feet and initiated the descent. Disconnection was completed and at 800 feet/min decent speed I gave Glenn, Heather and Greg the thumbs up while hanging on the vent line.

The guys disappeared from view in moments and after directing the crew in the general direction we focused on our next challenge - flying this beast back down with only two people on board.

The good news was that it did it easily and was actually a real pleasure to fly. We maintained a solid 800 feet per minute for most of the descent with one burn at about 5000 feet to fill out the very soft envelope. A slightly longer burn at about 1000 feet slowed us up to 200 feet/minute and had me back on the vent again.

We rounded out 50 feet of the ground and flew into a nice open piece of dirt for a text book landing, dragging about 10 meters.

All in all the flight was successful with lots learned and tested by both the Jumpers and the balloon crew. Unfortunately the weather is messing with us a little bit and we have put all flights on hold for a few days as surface conditions are a little too windy for safe balloon flights.

A day of preparations

2008-07-17T21:44:00.004+10:00

After arrival in Alice on Wednesday lunchtime, it was straight into checking gear, assembling the balloon basket and a team meeting to cover the plan for the following days.

Despite original plans to do the first 10,000ft flight the following morning, it became apparent that more work was needed to ensure that the first dress rehearsal had every bit of gear in place and all flight crew were rested. As such the flight was postponed until Friday morning giving us all of today to go over every last, nut bolt and connection.

Just to get everyone in the mood, Glenn, Heather and Greg went for a ride in Cessna 210 to 11,000 feet for a quick wing suit jump into a small airstrip just north of Alice Springs called Bond Springs.

For the jumpers this was a full gear jump while the rest of us watched from the ground.

A full twelve hours latter and we left the balloon gear at the shed and headed home for dinner.

One of the funniest parts in all this so far is that Glenn's repeated patter with the media is that some people are genetically pre-disposed to adventure or risk taking activities. In short, it has become a team joke that we all have a medical excuse for being trouble makers.

There was no better example of this than tonight. On arrival back at the apartments we were chastised by the complex manager because one of the team drove the landcruiser out the in diveway at some point during the day - seriously reckless behavior. It was not helped by the fact that he could probably hear us all snickering as he walked off after breaking this seriously important bit of news.

Not more that 40 minutes later, upon opening the oven to extract some tasty garlic bread, a cloud of smoke set off the fire alarm in our room. As you do, we stood on chairs, waved tea towels and generally laughed at the noise and interruption to the team dinner.

After a few moments it became apparent that the alarm was not going to turn off. While opening the front door to the apartment to let the smoke out, I noticed that the alarm was also sounding in the hallway. A quick look left and right revealed a number of confused faces peering down the corridor looking to see who was causing all the commotion.

In a flash, the commandant of the complex appeared and instantly demanded "What have you done now?" Again he was met with grinning faces, most of which were still sitting at the table eating dinner to relaxing sound of the fire klaxon.

He was not impressed and informed us that the fire brigade were on their way and that there was no way of shutting it off until they responded to the call. Bugger. He then asked us to evacuate the building!!! We opted to retire to the balcony and giggled like kids while eating dinner and listening to the approaching sirens.

On arrival the axe wielding fireman paused briefly for a photo before realising that we had not followed proper evacuation procedure and then scolded us for not assembling at the proper fire point.

The poor guy was not more than two steps out the door before someone suggested that it was all the result of genetics resulting in peels of laugher.

Anyhow, it is time for bed. Everything looks good for the morning so with some luck we will have achieved the first jump and be on our way towards Ayers Rock tomorrow afternoon for the 25,000 foot flight.

Furthest Flight

2008-07-15T08:22:00.007+10:00

Well, finally something worthy of a blog post.

As of tomorrow morning (Wednesday 16th July) I am on my way to Alice Springs to participate in a record attempt.

The project is part of the Base Climb series of records for Glenn Singleman and Heather Swan. The goal is to set a distance record using wing suites. For my part, I will be one of the two pilots flying them to 39,000 feet so they can start their flight in the jet stream.

The high altitude winds will give them tailwind in excess of 200km/h and when combined with the forward speed of their suits should give them speeds over the ground in excess of 400 km/h for a good portion of the jump.

For my part in this, it will also be an Australian altitude record for balloons. While not quite up there for world records, it is still an excessively high flight with plenty of technical challenges and risks.

The plan is for three flights. The first to 10,000 feet for media and basic non oxygen exit practice and systems tests. The second flight is to 24,000 feet to avoid class A airspace but allow oxygen system tests and fuel burn calculations with the flight load as well as more vision recording for the media.

The final flight will see us push to 39,000 feet and right into the stratosphere. Temperatures should be around -56 degrees celsius and our speed should be around 130 miles per hour if the jet stream is working as expected for us. Vision from this jump will be limited as the jumpers will be maximising their performance and helmet cameras etc. will mess up their aerodynamics.

Suspended cameras and basket mounted gear should get the exit provided we can keep the working at that altitude and temperature.

After Glenn and Heather exit the basket we will commense our descent and despite the low loading of the 400,000 cubic foot balloon, we should reach vertical speeds in excess of 2000 feet/minute due to the thin air.

As we reach lower altitudes this descent will slow down and we will be fighting solar heating to get the balloon back to the ground. This balloon would normally carry 20-22 people so will be a bit different to fly with only two of us left on board.

Landing such a large balloon while lightly loaded will present it's own set of challenges but where we are flying will have lots of open space.

Glen and Heather have a blog and various websites that you can follow. With some luck I will get photos and things up here as well if time and connections to the net are available.

60 Minutes will be covering the jump so look out for all the action soon after on a TV near you. Here is the lead in story that 60 minutes ran a while back.

Up, up and Away

Furthest Flight
Glenn and Heather dot com
Base Climb
Glenn and Heathers Blog

Um, I'm back.....

2008-02-23T18:13:00.004+11:00

Believe it or not we made it around Tasman Island and into some building breeze for a blast up Storm Bay, past the Iron Pot and into the Dewent River.

We managed to pass a number of yachts that got becalmed in Strom bay and then held off some others under a two sail reach to the finish line.

In the end it was a very exciting days sail. That last post was written at about 7am from memory and we finished the race just after 4pm that afternoon.

Our final result was a win in PHS division 2.

This is no mean feat. The whole race is divided up into divisions and to win our category is somewhat of a major thing. We were pretty chuffed and partied accordingly.

Crossing the line and tying up amongst all the colour and people is enough to erase any of the hardship of the race and chase the weariness from your bones. By the time we finished I had been working solidly (we all had really) since about 3am and then partied on in the docks and Customs House until about 3am again.

There was still enough adrenaline to keep me going but with New Years eve around the corner I had to keep some go juice for later.

In all the excitement I forgot all about this blog and failed to tell the rest of the world - except for the 50 or so people I drunk dialled from Constitution Dock.

I have put up some of the various photos from the race onto Picasa web.

So what was next?

Well after the race I had a holiday in Tassie with a good friend then it was back to the grind stone at work and that is where I have been ever since!

The kite surfing is going well right up until a sprained ankle last night. I am so hooked it is not funny. I could easily become a kite surfing bum and just cruise the worlds best kitting spots. Ballooning is fun but this is great fun!

I have been dancing my heart out and doing aerials and all sorts of crazy stuff with my little dance partner Charlie. There is plans to do a routine for the Ceroc ball this year so I will be working on that starting in May. It was demoed the other weekend at the Hunter Valley and looks so nice and smooth.

The Hunter Valley was another dance camp thing with two and a half days of workshops and dance parties at Cypress Lakes resort and Tamburlaine winery. I managed about 28 hours dancing in a 42 hour period which was not a bad effort.

Next weekend I am off to Kenya to do some maintenance on a fleet of our balloons in the Masai Mara. I have not been to Kenya for about five years now so I am really looking forward to getting back over there. Expect some good pictures from that little trip!

Becalmed

2007-12-30T10:46:00.000+11:00

Well, we have not yet rounded Tasman Island and we have been becalmed before entering the dreaded Derwent river.

For the second time this race we have the lightweight "Drifter" head sail up. This sail was made at the Kavanagh Balloons factory from balloon cloth and is a very light weight number 1 head sail for use in under 4 knots of true breeze.

It is slowly pulling us along at about 1 knot of boat speed when we get the occasional zephyr or breeze.

With some luck we will get a sea breeze start to fill in but we will be working against the out going tide once into Storm Bay and the Derwent. The tide is due to turn in the next 1.5 hours and the few boats in out division ahead of us will cop it on the nose helping to park them for longer as we catch up....well that is the plan if you can call it that.

Yesterday afternoons predicted front arrived and turned the nice calm and rolling sea under the 15 knot Northerly to white maelstrom of wind swept waves and over 30 knots of wind from the south east. We were ready but were expecting a slightly more moderate change and as such were caught with the wrong head sail on deck. As the change came in we dropped the spinnaker and hoisted the number 1 head sail for all of 10 minutes before it became obvious we were in for more wind.

As the wind built we changed down to the number 2 with a clockwork head sail peel. Unfortunately this was still not enough and with a rushed change into full wet weather gear and safety harnesses it was back onto the foredeck to peel to the number 3.

By now it was really blowing a gale and we were in large sea and getting pounded. While three of us worked on the foredeck, the rest of the crew were working to get two reefs into the main.
A solid 14 hours of hard on the nose sailing ensued with a change back to the number 2 and then number 1 earlier this morning before it glassed out on us.

Meanwhile the tension is high as we wait for this to all unfold. Cold beer, a steak and a hot shower await us in Hobart but it is painfully far away right now.

Mid Race

2007-12-27T23:00:00.000+11:00

This may be my only mid race post so this is what is happening so far...

We are currently about 3 days into the race and are now screaming down the east coast of Tasmania. We have had every sort of condition so far from a fast afternoon of spinnaker runs after leaving Sydney Harbour to hard on the nose during and back to a fast 24 hours of spinnaker work.

A calm period before entering Bass Strait was followed by the most fantastic crossing of the Strait. We have switched spinnakers a few times now but have held a good 8 to 12 knots of boat speed for some 200 miles.

Currently we are well placed to win our division but it is still early days.

As I type this we are awaiting a change from the south east to head us. This will put an end to the fast trip south but the angle will work well for the final run to Tasman Island then into Storm Bay.

Yee Haaaa!

Sydney to Hobart race

2007-12-25T15:15:00.000+11:00

Wow, this has really snuck up on me. It is Christmas day and I am about to walk out the door to head down to the CYC for the 2007 Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

By this time tomorrow we will be two and a half hours into the race. the start is at 1pm on Boxing Day so tonight we are having dinner as a team and staying on the yacht.

Dad and I will be part of the same team that sailed Namadgi, a 44 foot Bavaria to a PHS division win in the Sydney to Gold Coast race.

The weather is looking good for us at this time so fingers crossed for a good race this year.

Anyone interested can track the yachts on the website linked above.

Have a great Christmas and happy New Year - with some luck mine will be spent celebrating down at Constitution dock in Hobart!

Next adventures

2007-11-29T00:16:00.000+11:00

So I am back from Japan and have even had some sleep. Pity it probably won't be enough to get me through the next month or two.

This weekend I have got what I am expecting to be a fantastic workshop with Jordan Frisbee & Tatiana Mollmann, two of the best West Coast Swing dancers from the USA.

Check out this video from one of their recent competition wins and you might have an idea of why I am looking forward to it.

Along with a bit of dancing I am also now locked in to do the Rolex Sydney to Hobart on Namadgi.

Over the coming weeks I have some training to do and race preparation. I am a late entry for the team but after doing the Sydney to Gold Coast race a few months back I am sure I can jump back into the team and contribute.

While I am looking forward to the actual race, the party and New Years celebrations in Hobart will be just that bit more fun as one of the race crew.

Aftershocks

2007-11-26T21:02:00.000+11:00

With the last flights flown, the results published, the balloon cleaned and ready for shipping it was time to party.

The Awards party was fun as always with good food, beer and a lot of worn out but jolly pilots and crews regaling each other with tales of what if, if only and so close...

Results wise, the event was won by Takeo Mizukami from Japan, 2nd was David Bereford from the UK and 3rd was Nick Donner, USA.

I managed to slide into 10th palce and also took my Japan Grand Prix team from 15th to 7th. I was also ranked 5th on grand prix points for the event so I am pretty happy with that.

The real party was back at the Twin ring hotel in room 336, also known as the British Embassy. A combination of embassy rules and public decency prevent me from publishing photos so words will have to suffice.

Picture a small hotel room with anywhere from 20 to 40 people drinking, talking and generally making merry. This is the Embassy. It is an institution that is hosted by an unruly bunch of officials and scoring team members.

Huge amounts of beer, rum, gin and other poisons are consumed. It is an event tradition and at the Motegi event in particular quite messy at times with the party spilling out into the hall. If you are on the third floor anywhere near the embassy, don't expect to sleep.

This year they had a mirror ball wine bottle hanging from the ceiling that had to remain spinning at all times and an alarm clock that chimed the Muslim call to prayer at the push of a button - There was much searching for mecca done during the evening but alas I am not sure if anyone ever found the correct direction.

The high lite for me was loosing Yosh to an observers room where he slept while we drank. At some time he awoke and vanished. At nearly 2am I could not find him or my van and I presumed he had taken off to our house some 30 minutes drive away for his own bed.

While I knew I could just crash on a floor at the hotel, we needed a fast getaway in the morning and it was going to get complicated.

Just after we had commandeered a car and a suitably sober driver Yosh magically appeared having just done an emergency run to the nearest 7 Eleven with a bunch of observers who had the munchies.

We made it home soon after and had a good laugh about the mess we would have been in had I driven off in the other car.

This morning I was not feeling the best and I promise never to mix beer, sake, vodka, rum and some sweet schnapps sort of thing ever again.

Motegi is over.

2007-11-25T15:46:00.000+11:00

As always the last day or so of a competition is total chaos combined with sleep deprivation.

Yesterday afternoon had two tasks, PDG and FIN. The PDG had a 200m radius scoring area around any selected goal.

The winds had everyone at altitude looking for speed to get to the goals. I chose a good launch site and good PDG goal but flew like an idiot and messed up both approaches ending up with 160m and about 200m. Nothing like the points I needed.

The final flight was this morning. Three markers were waiting for us at the briefing. The flight was a JDG, FON, FON. All three tasks had limited scoring areas with the final two FIN goals limited to 200m of the selected goal.

Again were were looking for speed and direction at about 3000 feet. On the way into the JDG there was a fair bit of traffic. I was the first to make an approach and ended up drifting past the target about 15m off to the east and at about 50 feet up. A particularly limp wristed throw saw me end up at 5.22m when it should have been much closer.

I then had the pleasure of watching balloon after balloon follow me in and get closer. I think I ended up in 14th place but luckily walked away with about 800 points.

The two fly on goals were the next challenge. I had picked my first one out in the valley further to the east and made the climb back to 2700 feet for a good track to it. Conditions were almost identical to yesterday in the valley with a good northerly breeze on the surface and lighter winds above that for a few hundred feet.

I lined up the intersection then flew straight down the road towards the target following Nick Donner. I watched Nick throw about 40cm and the pressure was on. It was going to be one of those mornings where the 200m scoring area was the least of the problems.

I kept a nice tight line into the goal and threw 53cm from 10 feet above ground level.

My last fly on was on the same line and after a short climb back to 1000 feet for some more speed and a kick to the left, I again followed nick down the road into the goal. This drop was 1.31m and Nick beat me again with less than 60cm.

I have heard some very good results for the last two tasks so it will be interesting to see how many points I can get.

I also know at least two people just above me in the top ten did really badly so we are sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for the final results to be posted. Fingers crossed I made it back into the top ten!

We have the awards and farewell party tonight then it is off to the airport to drop the balloon off then fly on home.

UPDATE: Final results are out. I finished in 10th place which means some cash which is always good fun and a slightly less dented ego than I had before.

Another Utsonomia morning

2007-11-24T12:22:00.001+11:00

First of all here is the plot from the disaster yesterday afternoon. It looks pretty but it was not at the time.

I have also found another little technical detail in the rules as a result of this flight. It seems I have got zero points for the maximum distance because I did not drop the marker at all.

Because I landed after the scoring period it is a zero rather than group B result. I should have known this and it makes sense now but it is a stupid technicality. I am not game to see how many points it cost me.

Ignore the above rubbish...I do get a group B result and have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote that. I did know what i was doing holding onto the marker and it was some one else who convinced me otherwise after the fact.

Motegi Flight 6 - PM

MXD, HWZ - Flight from nowhere to nowhere..

So, to this mornings flight. Four markers were waiting for us with the tasks being a Fly In, PDG, FON and FON.

The surface winds were from the north with upper winds from the south west and west at height. The surface winds were expected to washout by about 9am.

Most of the pack seemed to head south to do the fly in while I took a launch site to the north with an approach at low level flying down the river. It was exactly the same conditions as the key grab flight before the Worlds here last year.

I think the northern option worked best with good results for most of us who launched in the same area. The guys coming in from the south had more work to do and I don't think anyone got closer than four of us that came in from the north. I dropped about 7m and was right next to Owen Keown with Fujita probably the winner on the flight with about a meter.

For the PDG we could choose two goals. I put one to the south in case I could continue down the river and one off to the east. The southern one was not looking good so I climbed up to 5000 feet and headed off to the east.

The northerly was still flowing down the valley and I lined up on the PDG very easily. Unfortunately I did not fly it all that well and ended up with a 15m drop.

Keeping at low level and on the same track the first fly on was another easy goal flown badly fro 29.8m. The final fly on things were starting to come together and a pathetic throw buggered up a nice approach. The final result was 4.88m

I have heard some very good results for the PDG, FON, FON so we will see how it all works out.

Two more flights to go....

Motegi Flight 7 - AM
FIN, PDG, FON,FON - Flight from NW to SW and everything in between.

Hero to Zero

2007-11-23T19:46:00.000+11:00

Some days you just have to be put back in your place.

After a good morning I had a spring in my step, my confidence was high. Life and flying were good.

This afternoon I got hit in the nuts.

The flight had two tasks, a maximum distance within a scoring area and a Hesitation waltz using any of the goals in the scoring area for the maximum distance. The scoring area for the hesitation waltz was the entire competition map and the tasks could be flown in any order.

The winds called for another hight flight - right to the 6000ft ceiling. The would take us to the east enough to drop in and use the north easterly wind on the surface to run down through the scoring area and hopefully pick off one of the hesitation waltz goals too.

After the initial climb, I was not all that happy with my position in the pack and it was time to something heroic or settle for the bottom half of the pack.

I was also concerned because I was expecting the wind on the surface to turn more to the north or even fill in from the west like the upper winds.

I lined up one of the northern most HWZ goals and made a descent to the surface. The surface winds had increased significantly and we were now doing 20km/h form the north east still. I passed my first option about 400 to the west and decided that I could do better on one of the goals further south and increase my maximum distance result too.

I climbed back to 6000 feet only to find that the upper wind had now swung to the south west and I was flying back along my surface track and not getting far enough to the east to do any good.

With time ticking down towards sunset I made a very fast descent which will no doubt have people talking. The surface winds were the same as before but now I was 300m further west and with no hope of even seeing thee scoring area or any of the goals for the hesitation waltz.

In the end I flew past my original HWZ goal at about 700m and dropped the marker on a sand bank in the river right on the end of the time limit. The maximum distance is a no result because we never made it into the scoring area to drop a marker.

Bugger eh? Well we are off to do a night glow and drink some beer to commiserate this afternoon and celebrate the memory of Masashi and the win this morning.

Utsonomia is not in Italy

2007-11-23T14:43:00.000+11:00

This mornings flight was held out at Utsonomia. We were greeted with five markers on the table and a combination of crazed grins and head scratching from the pilots.

The tasks were to be a MND (Minimum distance), JDG, FON JDG, FON. The Minimum distance was also to be the Masashi Memorial task. I left the briefing wondering if I could get the double having won the memorial flight in Saga a few weeks back.

Conditions were perfect at the riverside launch site and the green flag was raised at 0655. Most balloons were launching by about half way through the 30 minute launch period.

A climb to about 3300ft gave a good track back over the north of the field before descending back to the river for a straight in approach. There was a fair bit of traffic around but I managed to stay clear of the masses and cruised in about 2 feet of the ground for a 44cm drop and a win on the task. Adam has kindly uploaded a video of the drop to Aunty Monkey.

The game this morning was always going to be time and fuel so I got off to the first JDG as fast as i could. I opted for a slightly higher drop to conserve time and fuel and took the 22m result knowing it would score ok. It did and was already on the notice board here as 4th place and 924 points.

I chose the first Fly on well towards the next JDG to keep me moving in that direction. Unfortunately the winds started to ease up and I ran out of time, having to drop at about 2.6km from my goal.

The bonus of this mistake was that it put me well ahead of the field towards the next JDG which I am pretty sure I have also won at 6.5km or so. The next nearest balloon would have been a km or so behind me.

The final fly on also worked out reasonably well with a last minute change of goal selection working out well and an 83m result in the last seconds of the scoring period.

I am a very happy boy and waiting to see where it moves me over all in the results.

Fright crancelled...

2007-11-22T18:37:00.000+11:00

The afternoon was shaping up to be a beauty with three markers on the table.

Winds were still strong and from the north/north west but we were hoping they would ease.

The planned flight was a PDG, FON and FIN with the FIN able to be flown out of sequence so you mix the order to your advantage.

Just before the start of the 1500-1600 the launch period the PDG and FON were cancelled by SMS and the launch period was reset to 1545-1600 for just the FIN task.

With all the normal crazy driving and finding launch sites we ended up wedged in a field with one American, three Brits and Mizukami San from Japan. It was going to be very tight in the windy inflation.

Just as we were all about to start the fans another message came through cancelling the flight in total. Time to pack it all up and go find a beer or three.

Results are up from the morning. My 8m on the PDG only paid 693 points, the second task was actually third place and 952 points - two pilots crept over to the other hesitation waltz goal and did well there.

An interesting thing with the scoring kicked in on the Hesitation waltz. Because there were three of us very close to goal(s) but everyone else was out near the median result, the scores jumped from my 952 down to the mid 500's almost instantly. This will really hit people hard because there are three of us that made a 400 point break on the entire field - a rare advantage to get.

The fly on was also only good for 620 points but at least it is above the median.

Motegi murder

2007-11-22T13:46:00.000+11:00

This morning was freezing. When it is this cold you have to hug your observer...it is in the rules.

A cold and cruel wind was blowing in from the north west, making pilots and crews shiver as we waited for the green flag at the Twin Ring common launch site.

One of the cool things that has been done this year is the distribution of pi-ball data and other messages via email to our phones. It is fantastic. There is an echo of phone going off and then pilots all head down in their phones checking the latest data.

The flight for the morning was a PDG followed by a Hesitation Waltz then Fly on.

The winds were showing 30knots (60km/h) at about 1000 feet but each subsequent wind reading showed it easing to a mere 25knots :)

At about 0710, the phone went of again informing us the launch period would start at 0720.

A last minute check of the winds and we were under way. There really was not much choice to be made with the PDG. Most pilots if not all had chosen the same goal and it was getting busy around it with balloons and markers going everywhere. The approach was a little challenging with the balloon going from about 30km/h into a slow valley wind at 90 degrees to the previous direction.

Watching the balloons ahead, most were mucking up the approach so I decided to make a higher drop and just fly straight at the target. It paid off with an 8.4m drop. This looked like about 7th place when we went back to measure but we are all very close and the median will be down the road a fair way.

On the way into the PDG I had found a narrow layer of wind that would take me to the western most goal of the Hezitation Waltz. The eastern most goal did not look achievable at all and even the western one was going to be hard to get to.

As soon as I dropped the PDG marker I climbed to the exact altitude I had recorded before and then stayed in the narrow band all the way to the goal. It paid off. Many pilots looked like they were hunting for it and were slowly slipping off to the east of the goal.

Another high drop at about 40km/h had the marker slide into the base ball field where the target was. As far as I can tell it was the only marker to get in the field and be checked by the measuring team. The distance looked like about 40m but I was not really checking as I was getting buffeted by mechanical turbulence from the high winds over the mountains.

There were a few special shapes going on out there as people got whacked dropping into valleys or hitting the wind shear.

I had chosen a fly on goal well down the track and had plenty of time to line up for it. Things keept changing and in the end I had real problems getting down to the surface for the approach. Every time I descended I was in very bad turbulence and when only 200 feet of the ground over houses and power lines I was unable to drive the balloon as low as I needed. There was a lot of burning and venting going on to get through the shear but it was too late. I slipped off to the side and dropped about 160m from the FON goal.

Even the landing had more shenanigans with turbulence. I flew out into a nice open area in the hope of getting it a bit easier and still got a huge shear only 100 feet of the surface and accelerated wildly during the last part of the approach. I lined up a dirt road and did a huge drag landing in the rice paddy beside the track and ended up dragging the basket up on to the track for a very easy pack up and retrieve.

So today was pretty good. It will be interesting to see the scores because most people took much earlier fly on goals but I don't think they would have been all that easy to get to.

Fingers crossed the winds settle down for the afternoon flight.

Motegi Flight 3 - AM
PGD, HWZ, FON - Flight from NW to SE

Flight 1 & 2 tracks

2007-11-22T13:44:00.001+11:00

Motegi Flight 1 - AM
JDG, JDG, PDG, FON - Flight from NW to SW

Detail of the two JDG goals in flight one. You can see where I went around in circles for half an hour trying to get down to the second JDG....

Motegi Flight 2 - PM
FIN, WDN - Flight from West to East.
Here you can see how I missed everything :) The kick to the north you can see at the end of my flight is what we were expecting for the entire flight but only people taking off 5 minutes later than me got :(

Haga hell

2007-11-21T20:51:00.000+11:00

Flight two is done and dusted.

For the afternoon we were out in Haga where the winds are fickle and the frustration can be high. For the task we had a fly in followed by a watership down.

The game today was to time your approach to the fly in so that you did not arrive before the hare balloon that was going to launch for the watership down. Once you dropped the first marker for the fly in you then had to chase the hare balloon and drop a marker at the target laid out where they landed.

It is a fun sequence of tasks and one I have not seen for some time.

As happens in Haga the winds were shifting the whole time as we looked for a launch site. It was predicted to swing around to the west and indeed did about 15 minutes into the launch period. A quick relocation and some more pi-balls had us in a position I was happy with for the fly in.

While we were still sorting out land owner permission the hare balloon launched from the fly in goal and we briefly saw it from just over 2 km away before it dropped down onto the surface again. The race was on. We had to get airborne early enough to see where the hare landed and be able to get to his landing spot before the winds all changed again near sunset.

In 15 minutes we had everything out of the truck and were airborne. Unfortunately we were also flying south of where I wanted to be.

We passed by the Fly In goal 800m to the south then a further 400m to the south of the Hare balloon.

Looking back we could see the other balloons that took off a bit further back and only 5 minutes later got a better shift back to the left and had a clean run at both goals. I will be in the bottom few results for both of the tasks this afternoon.

Bugger.

So, that is day one. We have a welcome party with the Mayor tonight and a chance to dull the pain with quality Japanese beer so we are relaxed and ready for the morning!

A picture says so much more and as such I have also prepared some screen captures from the map showing my flights. They are on my other Tablet PC so will upload them later on when I get more time.

Motegi madness Day 1

2007-11-21T14:41:00.000+11:00

Woohoo, we have been ankle deep in mud, sliding up and down hills - getting pushed around the sky with 40km/h wind shears in the mountains.

This is Motegi and why I love it.

The first flight of the competition was from the Twin Ring race track. Four tasks were set, JDG, JDG, PDG and FON.

The two Judge declared goals were to the south east of the common launch point. After launch we had to climb to 4500ft to get far enough over to the east to make an approach to the first goal.

There was a very fast layer of wind at about 2000ft from the east making for an interesting change in direction while in the climb or descent.

My first drop was about 230m and right on the edge of an out of bounds area.

The second JDG had people drifting around in circles in the valley. With only 1800m to cover between the goals it was too close to climb high and drop form height - the combination of speeds involved made it very difficult to achieve. I think some people did but others also lost their markers in the forest trying to do it. I took about 850m in the end as a safe result.

The PDG was again chosen prior to launch and we were given the option of choosing two goals. I got to within 400m of my first option but was at 4500ft and doing 40km/h. It was all too close to descend or drop safely. I flew onto option two but again was on the edge of the window and ended up with a high drop into a swamp area where we could not recover the marker.

The result should be estimated as it was seen by the observer. I think it is about 600m.

The final fly on task was again messed up by me with another big climb required to get over to the goal. Another muffed approach saw a drop of about 420m.

All in all not a good start but I have heard lots of other horror stories along with the rare good result.

As always in Motegi, just sit back and wait for the results....it is going to be a great week.

From Saga to Motegi

2007-11-20T16:15:00.000+11:00

Saga finished all to soon. The final resultwas 8th place which was sort ofok but not really. Then it was back to Australia for a week of work before jumping back on a plane and off to the north of Japan for the Tochigi Balloon Fiesta.

I was lucky enough on the flight home to get the leg from Singapore to Sydney on the new Airbus A380. At first it was a real novelty. It felt bigger, the isles were a little wider, the seats were too. There even seemed to be a little more leg room and the in seat video screens were about twice the size you normally see in cattle class.

By half way in to the flight the entertainment had crashed twice and the seat was no more comfortable than any other.

At the Sydney end of the flight I wanted to run screaming from the airport and into the warm embrace of my bed but it seems that while the runways and aero-bridges have been upgraded, the baggage handling has not.

In moments the singe carousel was jammed with all of the priority baggage which was no doubt owned by all people held up in customs. Eventually things started to clear up but it was a full 40 minutes before I got my bag and out the door.

Anyhow, that was a week ago! Since then I have been working like crazy, kite surfing, been invited (and accepted) to do the Syney to Hobart race, dancing etc....

Now I am in Motegi, or more correctly Tochigi Prefecture and the town of Haga. The weather is decidedly cold although it should be good for flying for most of the week to come.

We had a practice flight this morning and have just had the master briefing.

The competition starts in the morning. With some luck results will be published on the website:
http://www.exem-balloon.com/tochigi2007hp/

Saga '07 competition flight 6

2007-11-04T12:07:00.000+11:00

The last competition flight has been flown. Today we had another mass launch for the crowd with only two tasks set.

A PDG then JDG with a 200m limited scoring area.

We had to use the upper winds to get to the JDG and speeds were in the range of 40km/h above 1000 feet. As such everything came rushing up pretty quick and the whole flight was over in 26 minutes. For some reason I did not have time to take any photos today...

I was not able to correct enough for my PDG and ended up with a 300m result after releasing the marker at 2000ft.

The approach into the JDG was from the same height and while I was trying to descend, balloons below me prevented a safe fast descent into the goal. In the end I had to release the marker from over 1000 feet and hope I had my calculations right to keep it in the limited scoring area of 200m.

I think the result was about 90 to 100m and looked like it was only one of about 25 markers close enough to get a score.

All in all it will be interesting to see if I can hang onto a top 10 spot for a little bit of prize money. If not it does not matter.

The high light for me has been winning the Masashi Kakuda Memorial Cup yesterday morning. I considered Masashi a great friend and even mentor in some ways so it is a great honour to win that flight and be the first to have my name on his trophy.

It also looks like I might be invited to join a team for the final round of the Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi in a few weeks time so that will be fun to see if I can get them some more points along the way.

This afternoon will be the key grab but already the winds are picking up so I am not hopeful for another flight. It will be time to go drinking and enjoy the company of some fellow balloon nuts from around the world!

Saga '07, Saturday Arvo

2007-11-03T19:36:00.000+11:00

Well, surprise, surprise. Another cancellation due to high winds.

Tonight we have the Sanyamanchi party which is basically a bit of drinking, some food stalls and chance to watch the local dance groups jump around and have fun.

I have always thought that the night was more about trying to dull the foreign pilots with plum sake one the night before the last competition flight - you never see the Japanese pilots there, they are always tucked up in bed resting.

Still no results up from this morning so the tension is growing....how did I go??? What do I have to pull out of the hat tomorrow?

I got lots of great photos during the flight this morning so they should be uploaded to flickr in a little while.

Saga '07 competition flight 5

2007-11-03T13:47:00.000+11:00

This morning dawned calm with blue skys. Saga has turned on it's best weather for the weekend when the big crowds come to the banks of the Kase river.

Results from yesterday show that it was a missed opportunity with most people near the top messing things up. Going into today's flight I am in 11th place, 800 points from the leader and only 500 points from second place. It is very tight at the top and things will change again soon.

There was a brief moment of excitement when I saw four markers on the table - we have not flown a quad task in Saga for years. If there is one disappointment here it is the lack of tasks that are often set, when the location and weather would allow many more.

The excitement was short lived. It was still three tasks. Pilot Declared Goal, Judge Declared Goal and a Maximum Distance Double Drop. The XDD requiring the extra marker.

Sadly the opportunity for another task or two was missed - why the first marker of the XDD was not a FON I do not know, even the last one for that matter to make it five tasks from four markers. Oh well.

The PDG was also set as a memorial to Masashi Kakuda. I would love to win this task and good goal selection may have made it a reality.

The flight into the PDG got very congested with three of us fighting for position. In the end I won out and dropped closest on that goal with 2.2m. I have not heard better yet so fingers crossed for the winning result.

The JDG presented some challenge and in the end I took the safe option of dropping from height rather than trying to bomb all the way onto the surface. The winds were starting their change and I did not want to risk drifting off. The drop was 18.9m but on this task it was not good enough - scores are already up and it looks like 665 points..

The XDD was to be flown inside a box 2km wide by 1km deep. I approached the north east corner of the box and entered about 100m further south than the ideal location. It was then an almost straight flight to the diagonally opposite corner. Again, the exit point was not ideal but with the available winds it was not to bad. The best result would have been 2225m and my result will be 1770m. I think there will be a few people with no results.

Saga '07, Friday Arvo

2007-11-02T17:44:00.000+11:00

The flight was cancelled again this afternoon due to high winds.

It is bit of a bummer because we now only have three competition flights left and with the afternoons looking like this, it probably means only 2 flights in reality.

It seems like this morning will be interesting in the results with some very mixed bags out there by the sounds of it. The "No Result" for the fly in looks to have paid 383 points as less than half the field made it in, so while still not good, it is not the end of the world.

Onto the lighter side of life...

One of the fun things about coming to Japan is the difference in culture. Saga has had a mega shopping centre open on the out skirts of town since I was here last year.

Now I have seen these before near Narita and Motegi so in it's self it is nothing new but is quite the novelty none the less. Yesterday while exploring I found a barber shop like none I have ever seen before.

For 1000 yen (about $9.30 Australian) you could get a hair cut in ten minutes. Obviously the price is very good but that was not what drew me in, it was the actual shop that was the interesting part.

This place was lit up like an operating theatre with six individually sealed glass booths with a very funky chair in the middle of the open space. On one wall was a series of shelves with a TV screen and what appeared to be a vacuum hose on a flexible arm.

At the entrance to the shop was a vending machine where you put in your 1000 yen note and get a ticket. The barber takes you to your booth and sits you down. After a few hand signals common to all hairdressers around the world we were under way.

Now the thing about this is that as a guy who mostly gets his hair cut with clippers, no matter how good the bib and how little circulation you have left from the paper towel wrapped around your neck, hair gets into everything. Enter the vacuum cleaner!

As this dude is clipping away at my locks, he is hoovering at the same time. When we are finished he gives my head a good ruffle and vacuum at the same time and hey presto, not a single sliver of hair out of place, down my neck or on my shirt.

Brilliant stuff. No need for a shower straight after, no need to change the sheets if you forget to shower before bed that night. I am sure it will never catch on back in OZ but it is a bloody great idea in my books.

Saga '07 competition flight 4

2007-11-02T13:05:00.000+11:00

The good news first. After the first 7 tasks I am in 5th place and only 200 points from 2nd place and 600 from first. This is a good place to be.

The weather was fine again this morning. Unfortunately my flying was not. No Photos today either - it was all too busy.

The mornings flight was to be a Pilot Declared Goal, Fly In and another Pilot Declared Goal.

While only three tasks, the trick was always going to be the selection of the first and third goals as they had to be chosen before take off with the final goal being between 6 and 9 kilometers from the launch point.

The winds were generally from the north with some westerly component near the surface and even some southerly at times. It was very fluky and there was a lot of head scratching going on.

After choosing a launch site I got off to an early start with the intention being to use the higher and in theory more reliable winds to get into all the goals before it all changed. I was near the front of the pack and happy with that position.

At only 1.6km to a suitable PDG I had little time to correct and ended up at nearly 2000ft and still to far left of the goal. A quick calculation and I dropped the marker in to a rice field about 320m from the goal. Not a good result but as close as I could get from where I was.

The Fly In to the field was another limited scoring area and again I was approaching from high, sitting on about 3000ft to get a good run in. The surface winds were picking up from the south so I had to fly past the goal before descending into the lower winds and flying back to the north for the drop.

As can happen I got a little greedy and hung onto the marker in an attempt to make a correction as I was looking like being a few hundred meters from the goal again. I was also skirting the edge of the scoring area so a drop would have been risky as I was still around 1000feet up and had just watched a marker slide out of the scoring area right near me. It did not pay off as I did a big arc around the northern end of the scoring area and never made it back in. No result for that task.

It was then back up to 3000 feet again to see if I could get to the last goal that was chosen at the start of the flight. Sticking with the upper wind plan seem to pay off and I flew due south to the final PDG. Again, with a high approach and winds nearly 180 different on the surface it was hard to position the balloon exactly but eventually I got it down in more or less the right spot. As I flew towards the goal just above ground height, what little westerly had been there evaporated and I ended up 133m off to the west.

So, the last task may get some points but I don't expect much. There were lots of balloons hanging around fighting to get to something but you never know how they did until the results hit the wall. The same can be said for the first PDG. There will be some good ones but it was so fluky that you just never know.

The Fly In was may disaster for the day. I had the joy of watching balloon after balloon correct their approach after my mistake. Now I just have to hope that more than a hand full missed so I get some points.

I am off to find a decent coffee and some lunch...

Saga '07, Thursday Arvo

2007-11-01T18:56:00.001+11:00

Strong winds caused the cancellation of this afternoons flight. Currently it is still overcast and blowing a good 15knots at ground level.

Rumour is that the morning will be fine though.

Some more results are up from the flight this morning. Task 5 (2.25m) was good for second place and 999 points while Task 6 (3.85m) was good for 6th place and 988 points.

A few quick calculations puts me in 6th place overall and about 600 points behind the leader and only 250 points from second place.

It is looking very tight at the top as always.

Saga 2007, Competition flight 3

2007-11-01T12:35:00.000+11:00

An overcast morning here in Saga but no threat of rain. Light winds were blowing from the west, north west taking balloons in the direction of the Saga Airport and Metabaru ATC area. As such only two tasks were called, Pilot Declared Goal and Fly On.

It took me a while to decide how I wanted to fly these tasks and ended up waiting towards the end of the launch period to watch the first balloons launch and see what they did. It paid off with a good PDG selection that was towards the maximum distance, making it easy to fly to with lots of time to work the various winds. I had a few problems identifying the intersection with so many white Hi-ace vans and people waving at balloons but got a visual fix early enough and cruised in for a 2.23m gravity drop from about 70 feet up.

Yosh can be seen here relaxing next to the marker as I am obviously making life too easy for him.

On the way in the the PDG I had selected a fly on a little further south of track based on the directions I had seen on the way into the first goal. I climbed to 600 feet expecting to be right on track but needed more right. Fortunately by 1200 ft I had found what I needed and hung in until quite close to the goal before a fast descent into the lower winds. I again had to make a slightly higher approach than I wanted but was able to steer directly over the goal for another 3.85m drop.

All in all it was a very good morning that will score at the top of the pack.

Some results were up from yesterday. Task 1 was 972 points, Task 2 was 1000 points and task 3 as expected was only 264 points. No one scored on the afternoon flight so I think we all get 500 points for that.

The good weather is set to continue. lets hope I keep nailing targets like today!

Saga '07 Competition flight 2

2007-10-31T19:57:00.001+11:00

There are still no results up from this mornings flight and the results from this afternoon will have no effect on the over all results.

The afternoon flight was a fly in to the field with a limited scoring area. The winds were much the same as they are on most afternoon flights, that is from the south and tending more west with height.

As far as I can tell, no one achieved a result! Not long after I took off it became apparent that things were changing and with a large area on the approach path that had to be cleared by 500 ft, all the balloons started spearing off to the east at a much lower altitude than expected.

When I landed it was looking like all the balloons had been caught in the same way and were all going to pass to the south of the field by a long way.

So, rumour is that no one made it in and the only shift for some will be penalties if they still broke any rules - PZ infringement for example.

The highlight of the flight was taking lots of kids for a little flight when we landed. They came from everywhere and we spent about half an hour giving them little rides.

Saga '07 Competition flight 1

2007-10-31T13:44:00.000+11:00

Saga Competition flight 1
Wednesday 31st October 2007

Three tasks were called to open the 23rd Pacific Championship this morning in Saga. As predicted the weather was fantastic with a clear sky and light surface winds. All tasks were gravity marker drops.

Task 1 was a Pilot Declared goal, Task 2 was a Fly on and the final task was a Judge Declared Goal.

The total flight distance was about 11.6km and I was in the air for 1.7 hours. The general flight direction was to the south east with most pilots flying around the 800ft mark to give them a direct track to the JDG with the intention of picking up the other two goals on the way in.

I messed up my approach slightly on the PDF and ended up with a high drop resulting in about 42m, not the opening drop I would have liked but from 500 feet and doing 18km/h it was not to bad.

The Fly on was more like what I ordered with a nice slow and low approach for a 3.4m drop. It has got to be worth some points if not very close to the winning result.

The Judge declared goal showed again why Saga winds are famous for messing with pilots heads. Most of the pack ended up struggling for enough left (Northerly) to get down to the final goal. A very light and slow surface wind started to move balloons in the right direction. In setting up to use this breeze I over shot slightly but was still in a good spot for the expected sea breeze effect as the morning went on.

Unfortunately and against my expectations, the breeze turned to more from the North and I ended up sliding off to the side by about 540m and had to watch the majority of the pack drift straight over the goal. I had expected the breeze to some more out of the south east but it was not to be.

So we are off and running, we have some points on the board and it will be a lucky dip to see where the PDG scores. If I get over 300 points for the JDG then I will be surprised.

Saga practice flight

2007-10-30T14:15:00.000+11:00

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.

Japanese efficiency

2007-10-30T14:09:00.000+11:00

Some quick observations from a far away land.

Japanese efficiency is not what it used to be. Even the land of the rising sun is being shackled and tamed by bureaucracy.

To anyone who has visited Japan before would be aware that they are in some ways the masters of procedure, rubber stamps and ten people doing the work of one. I honestly feel that only in India have they been surpassed in these areas. The great thing has however been that the Japanese were kept in check by a sense of honor and duty, a need to please and at the end of the day, actually make stuff happen rather than hinder it. The red tape was a mask that was always politely removed when it became obvious it was actually a problem.

It seems that unless a miracle happens in the morning, the red tape is fixed in place for the moment on one subject. Unfortunately it is one close to my heart at this minute and that is fuel tanks.

The powers to be have ruled that only Japanese manufactured and approved tanks can be filled. For me this would have been very handy to know about last week as I have now freighted three tanks of exactly the right size and capacity for my little basket to Japan only to be told I can't use them.

This is compounded by the fact that the Japanese tanks are crap. They are too small and I don't like the valve configuration. To get the same amount of fuel in my basket I will need to carry five of the little buggers and that is just physically impossible. Sigh....

So fingers crossed that after tomorrows practice flight I will know how long my duration will be with these tanks and more importantly, enough people will have problems that it is sorted out as it always would have been in the good old Japan that I have come to love over the years.

Other than that, I am here, my gear is here, my crew Yosh is here and the forecast is looking good for a week of flying.

Oh bugger...this post will now be out of date because the free Internet seems to be down at the competition HQ.

Back from outa space

2007-10-25T21:35:00.000+10:00

Looks like I have been a bit slack with this old blog here but the good news is I am still alive and the adventure continues.

It is that time of year again and time to head over to Japan for a bit of competition ballooning. Just for a change I am attending Saga for the pacific championship and then Motegi for the Tochigi Championship.

It will be an interesting year for two reasons. Firstly it is the year after the World Championship was held in Motegi and secondly, for Motegi at least, it will be the organising committees fist year without Masashi running the show at all.

I am left with mixed feelings about the whole thing. Had Masashi not passed away last year I may have been tempted to have a year off and put all my focus on the 2008 Worlds in Austria. These trips to Japan are expensive in time as much as anything but they do provide the only training at this level available to me. With the effort of Masahi's team in Motegi over the years, I feel it is critical to support the event and in particular show Honda that their continued support of ballooning is appreciated.

So, the end result is that I am going, I am excited and I plan to win (as always...)

My balloon is already on it's way and with some luck will be waiting for me at Fukuoka on Monday morning. My good friend Yosh will be meeting me at the airport so we can go and clear it from Customs first thing in the morning.

In other life matters since my last post, a quick update on what has been going on...

I have been going nuts with my Ceroc dancing. Not that I am a competitive bastard but I ended up doing the Ceroc Championships a few weeks back. I entered in two events, Dance with a stranger and Girls Blindfold. It was great fun! In DWAS you have no idea about the music or who you are dancing with. Every 40 seconds or so you swap dance partners and keep on dancing. The whole idea is to freestyle your way through the songs as smoothly as you can while making the most of the music and your partner.

There were two rounds of heats to get the 35+ couples down to the 6 finalists (6 guys and 6 girls that is). I made it through to the final but that was it. Still, I was very happy having never participated in a dance champs before and not really being prepared as I would have like to have been.

The girls blindfold was good fun and my dance partner Charlie and I only had a few weeks to prepare after deciding to do it. This was a little different in that you at least knew who you were dancing with and could set up some moves but you still have no idea about the music and just have to interpret it on the night. The catch is that the girl has a blindfold on so it is all about you ability to lead the girl and for the girl, her ability to follow. This is bit of a fun event and we didn't make the final but again had a hell of a lot of fun.

The next big thing is Kite Surfing. Thanks to a mate from dancing, I have been learning to Kite Surf and have just bought my first rig. Having done just about every sport with a board on my feet, I have got up to speed reasonably fast over two weekends of learning and am able to get up and going with few problems. Now I just need to finesse the kite control and practice, practice, practice. Having my own kite will help too because I won't be so worried about trashing it.

So that is it for now. I will try and get some links happening for the balloon events and will probably next talk from Singapore Airport....which reminds me!

My trip to Japan is with Singapore Airlines and is via Singapore. I am not sure about the flight out of Sydney but I know the return flight will be on the new Airbus A380. That is very cool as they only just did the first ever commercial flight with the A380 today.

Singapore/Sydney is the first route for this massive and new aircraft. As an aviation buff it would be a bit like getting onto a 747 within the first week of it entering service back in January 1970.

Little less talk, litte more action please...

2007-09-04T16:15:00.000+10:00

Well there has not been much action here for a while because, in my real world there has not been much action to write about...

After all of my fun and games with the Nationals and Sailing it has been head down bum up here at work and not much else has happened.

The weather for flying has been generally poor and the few days I had allocated for some commercial flying have turned out to be windy, wet or both.

Last weekend I finally got to go and play and had two interesting flights.

Saturday we had a large corporate group from Canon to fly up in the Hunter Valley. It consisted of journos and photographers from all over the place on a junket to test out and review the new EOS40D digital SLR. It was an interesting mix of people and they were having way to much fun. The toys they were playing with were absolutely fantastic and I could hardly hear myself think while the shutters clicked away for the entire flight.

I worked out I had about $30,000 worth of cameras and lenses in the basket between the 10 passengers. I was really glad that when I pulled my camera out it was a Canon too. I might have been lynched if it was anything else.

After the flight we got to hang around while they printed out the best shots on a fancy new Pixma printer - the results were fantastic and fast for an inkjet printer spitting out high quality A3 sheets.

As much as I enjoy meeting new people on commercial flights, this group were wonderful in that they entertained themselves, had lots of interesting stories and were busy telling them to anyone who would listen.

The next flight on Sunday was interesting for different reasons.

With the visit of the great errorist* Gerorge dubbya Bush and the rest of the APEC gang, Sydney is in lock down. The entire Sydney basin has been declared a restricted zone for aviation and special flight authorisations are required.

All this has been in place for months with people expecting to operate in the area having a registered operator number and needing to file flight plans etc. The really cool bit is that on the day of your flight you need to get a special authorisation code from the defense force.

If you can't quote the flight authorisation code and registered operator number when contacted in flight, you will end up getting escorted out of the zone by and FA/18 fighter or Blackhawk helicopter.

Now I don't know the last time someone tried to escort a balloon anywhere, other than the tragic events in Belarus, but I was really hoping they would give it a go. I am annoyed enough about the waste of money and time that this little APEC party is costing us that I was ready to be martyred to show how stupid this whole situation is.

My passengers were amused at the whole concept, then a little concerned that we may get shot at and finally bitterly disappointed when we didn't see a single bit of military hardware for the entire flight. You can't win.

Next weekend will be more interesting because they APEC crowd will actually be in town so with some luck we will get a decent air show for all our tax payers dollars being spent on fortifications and dinner parties for the various world leaders.

* follow the link for a definition - language may offend but we are talking about an offensive individual.

Words of wisdom...

2007-08-06T16:01:00.000+10:00

Just read a couple of wise words that suddenly made me realise something about someone I know, that I probably knew deep down but can only now accept as fact....And no, I have not been drinking.

"A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person."

On a lighter note and from the same barrel of wise words;

"Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night"

Winners are grinners..

2007-08-01T17:24:00.000+10:00

Back to the real world after 2 days 11 hours and 15minutes of fun.

One word to describe the race. Fun. The weather for the sail could not have been much better. We spent most of the time under spinnaker blasting along at between 7 and 9 knots with a few slow periods of lighter air that bought our average speed for the 384 mile race back to 6.5 knots. This is fast for our boat as it is a cruiser not a light weight racer.

The start with 72 boats was fantastic. We were all under spinnaker on port tack in Sydney harbour, the bright yellow Kavanagh Balloons branded kite flying along with all the big names in Australian racing. A quick gybe just after sow'n'pigs reef got us out of the heads and then a gybe back to port to head up to coast. From there until midnight we were running with the Kav kite until wind speeds got up over 30knots and we pulled it down before it broke something. Maximum boat speed was 12.2 knots on the first night.

Sunday morning and the breeze had eased slightly and the Kav kite went back up until we pulled a swift little gybe and set a bigger and lighter kite around 10am. During the day we passed a few whales and even got to see a large humpback breech a few times. No photos - too busy racing!

We held the big kite all day in lighter winds. That night the light weight kite suffered a small tear during a gybe and soon blew out leaving us with the kite torn in two pieces.

A quick drop of the damaged sail and the heavier Kav kite went back up with little fuss and we were under way.

Lighter winds on Monday morning made for a few tense moments as boats we had passed or been holding off started to creep up around us. It kept everyone focussed and made for some jovial exchanges at change of watch as to who had done a better job keeping boat speed and course. We also got to see more whales and a few dolphins.

Sunrise on Monday morning

By sunset Monday we were at Byron Bay and the winds were back up above 20knots and the boat humming along in the high 7 to 8 knot range again. We were visited by some more dolphins having a play in our bow wave.

We had calculated we needed a run rate of 5.6knots to beat UBS Wild Thing but it was all depending on the finish time for Stampede as to whether we would get 1st or 2nd.

After rounding Point Danger we gybed back to port for the line, passing behind Tartan who we had been in close contact with all day. Soon after the sea breeze flipped to the westerly and we were able to drop out kite and hoist the number 2 head sail for a reach into the finish line. In the change of direction and our timing of the gybe we ended up in front of Tartan and they followed us over the line about 200m behind and in 4th place.

For us, we had done enough to finish in first place on corrected time and in doing so had some very sporty boats behind us. Wild Thing had finished 15 hours ahead but with the performance handy cap system that put them 3 hours behind us on corrected time.

Not bad for my first big ocean race. The skipper summed it up perfectly. "We are out to have fun and winning is the best sort of fun."

We pulled into a berth at the Southport Yacht club at about 2am and could hear the party at the club going strong. A quick change from full race gear into the appropriate onshore sailing gear and we were in there drinking Bundy and Coke from jugs like the rest and best of them. A little after 4.30 am it was time to sleep for a few hours before breakfast and the presentation.

The talk at a yacht club after a race is as bad or worse than a ballooning championship. Lots of hand signals describing manoeuvres, rules and tactics. Back slapping for a job well done and commiserations over wrong decisions. The biggest difference is the drinking - I am yet to see rum and coke being sold by the jug at a balloon meet. It might get more people into ballooning if we did...

There is also the uniform. You have to look salty and wind/sun burned with the right shirt (name of your boat or a famous race is mandatory) and beer or rum in hand (a jug is good for extra or instant friends).

A great quote overheard while sitting below decks at the yacht club: "Oh thats Namadgi.....we were beaten by that? Oh no!"

Highlights for me have to be helming for about 8 hours in the race, at speed and under spinnaker. Overtaking a few boats while on the helm only to have the crew ooh and ahh at the whales! Getting the met right and seeing it all unfold more or less as I expected. Getting to share a race with dad, that was cool. Winning but I suppose that is a little obvious.

It was a great honour to sail and share in the win with Rick (Skipper), Gath (Nav), Jack, Brad Susan and dad. Thanks for having me along for the ride.

Balina nearing Sunset

Dad & Susan near North Solitary Island

Me on the helm during happy hour

Audi Sydney to Gold Coast Race

2007-07-26T19:38:00.000+10:00

40 hours to go until the Audi Sydney to Gold Coast yacht race.

Things have been very busy since getting back from the Nationals. Dealing with the post event depression that falls like a fog after a week of great flying has been no fun but work has made sure I didn't have time to think about it too much. Second place still stings a little but I have the bonus of at least knowing I am off to Austria in September 2008 for the Worlds without having to worry about second round invitations etc...

So this weekend it off to the Gold Coast. This will be my first ocean race with dad on Namadgi. It will be fun and an interesting way to spend time together outside of work. We have done lots of sailing together but only one race and that was with him as a guest on my regular boat, not his.

The other fun thing will be that my regular skipper, Mark Harding, is also in the race but on another Yacht, Zen. They will be a lot quicker than us and worth watching out for on the yacht tracker.

The weather is looking great with a spinnaker start in Sydney and light to moderate west to south west winds for the entire race. Just to add to the pressure, our fearless leader Rick, seems to have put dad and I in it when interviewed for the race website. You can read the article here and see what I mean....Very flattering but bloody hell, what a load of bollocks.

Not sure I will be able to update this form the deep blue sea so see you all when I get back.

Ben Lee on Rove

2007-07-22T22:18:00.001+10:00

Who said that Tv advertising doesn't work?

I was just watching ROVE interview Ben Lee while in New York. Ben Lee related a funny story about the cops cancelling their permit to shoot a video clip after only one take. Apparently it was something about naked skate boarders as part of the video.

He mentioned that some one had leaked the video to youtube and I did what every geek watching Tv with a laptop on their knees did - browsed straight to youtube to find it.

When I got there it had been viewed 38 times and had one comment. By the time I had watched the video and put a comment on it had been viewed 222 times and I was comment 98. A few moments later and it was over 200 comments and is still climbing.

Got to love the net for immediate action and reaction (and naked people on youtube). Anyhow, looking forward to the new album.

Bye Bye Moto...

2007-07-22T13:37:00.000+10:00

I am back in Finland and loving it. Well a slight exageraton, not in Finland so much as Nokia land.

I love my gadgets but they have to work well or they just irritate me to the point of throwing them through the wall. In the past six years I have bounced from a Sony/Ericsson phone to a Motorolla. Both of them have been fee give always from Vodafone and both have been the worst phones I have ever had to deal with. The ads say "hello moto", I say bye bye!

In frustration I lashed out and bought a new Nokia 6300. I am in love again. It just works, the functions and buttons are where you expect to find them and it is just a little bit slimmer and younger than the phone it is replacing....

I am so shallow some times, but some things are worth upgrading.

$15 well spent??? Jury is still out.

2007-07-20T23:30:00.000+10:00

Forgive me father, it has been six months since my last cinema outing.

Crazy stuff, my last trip to the movies was to see Blood Diamond about a week before I split with Miss T back in February. Six months! I don't know what is weirder, that I have been single for six months or I have not gone to the movies in that time?

Tonight I had the urge to get some mindless entertainment on the big screen and the plasma was not going to cut it.

I went for the most mindless thing that I could think of. The one film that I would not go to on a date or would ever expect to see with any self respecting lady. Transformers.

Yep, Transformers. A movie based on a bunch of Hasbro toys. Robots that turn into cars that turn back into robots and blow stuff/each other up.

Why did I do this? Was it $15 well spent? I am still figuring that out. Some times I was laughing out loud - always sad when sitting by yourself in a dark room full of teenagers but none the less a good gauge of value for money. Other times I was chin in hand waiting for the robots to stop shooting for a moment so something funny could be said.

The special effects were as advertised, spectacular in their mostly seamless integration with the live action. From a totally geeky perspective the texturing and lighting were amazing and there were a few moments that managed to suspend disbelief as much as huge robots blowing stuff up can do..

The movie was relentless. The action hardly paused so you could take a breath. In some ways it reminded me of the Speilberg/Cruise version of War of the Worlds with equal amounts of non stop action but a lot less fear and trauma. Speilberg was involved in this one too so what can I say.

An interesting thing out of all this is that I might have a new silver screen crush. My mate Steve did a very funny write up of movie babes a while back and I had to agree that the perfectly imperfect Keira Knightly has had my heart for some time. Tonight it was Megan Fox that sure quickened the pulse...Sorry Keira.

Anyhow, back to the point of this post...if you are a pre-pubescent, toy loving kid or feeling like a sad wannabe CG animator with nothing else on a Friday night but drool over other peoples work, then this movie is for you. If not, save your money and just google Megan Fox...

I've been every where man..

2007-07-18T22:37:00.000+10:00

Time to pack all the toys away after the Nationals and clean off the laptops.

A quick look at the log file for the car computer came up with this track file for our week of competition. It may not look like we went far but those tracks in green actually total just over 926km of retrieve driving in just 6 days of competition.

A totally useless bit of information but at least explains why we seemed to be filling the car up every two days!

I will get the flight logs up soon so you can see where we flew - go on, tell me your excited?

2007 Nationals photos

2007-07-14T18:27:00.000+10:00

Photos from the 2007 Nationals are up on Aunty Monkey.

If you don't know about Aunty Monkey and you like balloons then get over there and sign up, otherwise if you just want to see the photos go and have a look.

We did the key grab this morning and made a fast pass just to one side of the pole. No one got it but it was great fun and nice and fast. Slept the rest of the day in preparation for a big night tonight at the Awards dinner.

UPDATE: Just found this cool slide show widget on Aunty Monkey

All over red rover..

2007-07-13T17:39:00.001+10:00

The last flight has been cancelled due to high winds. The means that the flight this morning was it for the 2007 National Championship.

Looks like I am off to Austria in 2008!

I managed to pull in the points on Edwin and have unofficially finished in 2nd place about 230 points ahead of him. Paul pulled a few more points out on me as expected with a good morning and finished in first place.

It has been a fantastic week if not a little too short for my liking. Four days of competition is just enough to get warmed up, six days would be perfect.

Am I happy, to be honest not really. I never come to these things to come second. Losing the title after four years feels a bit sad too. We had a good number of challenges to over come and in the end to get past those and still hang in the top three should make me happy. Ask me in a weeks time I suppose.

Paul is a fantastic competitor and it was his week. Well done to him and his team - we are always pushing each other and that is half the fun, knowing we can't give each other an inch and this if we do then the game is over.

Benalla Flight 7

2007-07-13T17:09:00.000+10:00

Friday morning, last competition day.

After the rain and wind yesterday, this was the last day in the chase. We were confirmed in third place and about 200 points behind 2nd and 683 points to first place.

With Paul and Edwin ahead of me it was going to require a special flight from me to get back those points.

Three tasks were called, pilot declared goal, fly in and fly on. The distances on the task sheet indicated that the flight was to be a fast one with just about the full stretch of the map from corner to corner likely to be needed.

The cold breeze on the back of our necks and the pilot balloons scooting over the horizon had us wondering if it was going to be possible to get off the ground, let alone get to the goals.

In the end a great launch site was found and surface wind actually eased a little. We had picked the flight perfectly and with just under 15km to run to the first goal we had lots of time to relax and get settled.

The PDG result was about 10m, the Fly in was about 6m and the final fly on was 23m. On most days a good result, but on a day when I was chasing Paul and Edwin, it was questionable if it was enough.

Paul was right there beside me the whole way so I know I had not caught him but I had no idea how Edwin went.

Afternoon cancelled too..

2007-07-12T15:47:00.000+10:00

No afternoon flight today. The rain had mostly stopped and with some signs of convection and instability the flight was cancelled.

It is a difficult thing. We don't want to be sent off in stupid conditions but at the same time, right now I want as many tasks as we can get. For me it was acceptable for a flight. If out for a jolly I would have considered it, for some in the competition it probably wasn't. Such is life.

Interestingly, one balloon not in the competition was seen scooting along for a flight in the distance - I suppose we will hear from them if it was a good call or not.

It looks like we have three flights left so with some luck that is still 10 more tasks but more likely to be 7 based on the trend of 3 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. Here is hoping for 10!

The rain got us...

2007-07-12T10:13:00.001+10:00

The flight this morning has been cancelled due to low cloud and light rain. Bummer.

Fingers are crossed that the cloud lifts enough for a flight this afternoon. We were hoping to get off to the cinema but none of the session times fit in before the afternoon briefing.

Team spirits are high but we would rather be flying at this point rather than sitting on the ground.

Rain rain go away..

2007-07-12T06:08:00.000+10:00

Day 4 of the competition and it is raining. We are on hold right now for the morning flight and waiting to see if the light drizzle out side clears.

I am really hoping for a flight and a dozen markers as we are now in third place and 683 points behind first. Yesterday really hurt us.

Benalla flight 6

2007-07-11T18:10:00.000+10:00

After the adventures this morning, it was time for another single afternoon task.

The director called for a Gordon Bennett Memorial with the Benalla airfield as the scoring area. Variable winds again made launch site choice a challenge.

We ended up with a climb to about 5500 ft to get the required direction. With a lot of leaning to the left we ended up getting the marker down about 200m from the target and inside the scoring area.

Interesting is a recurring theme here, but with about a third of the field not getting results and such a large scoring area there are people spread everywhere and the results will be well, interesting.

I am pretty sure after this mornings stuff ups I am back down the pack by a few places but the weather looks good for flying all the way through the week so there is time to catch up again.

Benalla flight 5

2007-07-11T17:59:00.000+10:00

Another great day for flying in Benalla. Not a really great day for me....

The morning flight was originally going to be a four part flight but very light and variable winds caused a change of tasks. In the end we had a three part flight with Pilot Declared goal, and two fly on goals.

The wind started shifting while we were still 700m from the first goal and in the end it was about 300m. Not what we had ordered for the morning.

With the second goal being a fly on we were able to adjust the shifting winds but ran out of time on the approach. Unfortunately the three time keepers in the team - Me as number one, and everyone else, forgot about the 9:30 close of scoring period and we dropped too late making a 39m drop a no result. Really not happy with that but only realised it after the flight...

The final goal is what it was supposed to be with another fly on, good goal selection and a 1.88m result which with some luck will have won that task.

For the rest of the field there have been some horror stories as well as some good results so it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Benalla flight 3 & 4

2007-07-10T19:20:00.000+10:00

Today was a good day. We started in 4^th place and have finished in first place after the morning and probably will still be there after the afternoon.

The morning flight was another three part task with Fly in, Hesitation waltz and then fly on.

We got third place for the Fly in but a total of 986 points from the 1000 because it was close enough to the winning result. The last two tasks were average in terms of performance but fortunately better than those at the pointy end of the field, pushing us up to top spot with just under 200 points buffer to second place. Fourth place is not about 500 points behind so the gap is starting to form.

This afternoon was a Hare and Hounds task which was perfect for the light conditions. The hare balloon did a great job of making an achievable goal for the field and the results will show that with some luck. I am not sure where we stand exactly but again I am sure we did better than those we needed to better than.

We are off for dinner and lawn bowling tonight for a bit of a social event which will be a great way to unwind.

UPDATE: as of 9:55pm we are in first place still and have extended our lead to about 420 points. Going to sleep like a lamb ;-)

Benalla flight 2

2007-07-10T19:19:00.001+10:00

The afternoon flight got off to a poor start. We were sent out to Goorambat to use the common launch point #2 for a pilot declared goal and fly on task. Unfortunately with all the rain, the oval was too soft to drive on and the task had to be changed.

The tasks were scrubbed and instead a Fly in was called, sending us all out into the country side to find our own wet patches to launch from.

It got interesting because all the met indicated that there should be an easterly to use at height but during the climb out we found a hard right turn that was not expected. This was at 4600ft. Everyone who found it balked and descended to about 3800ft which was about the best direction to the goal but was going to put those of us who launched to the east, well east of the goal.

In the end I calculated that I was going to be in the bottom half of the field if I stayed where I was and that I was going to miss the goal by about 1800m. Not good. I decided to put in a big climb and see what happened up high. It worked. The right hand turn was about 1000ft thick but it quickly came back around to the left and had us back on track.

I was really hoping that the other pilots down low would not see what I had done until it was too late for them. In the end it had to be obvious it was working for me and they started charging up behind me. At 6500ft I then had the challenge of timing the descent which even in a racer like the EX-65 was going to take 4 minutes. We were doing 24km/h so this is about 1200m of ground distance traveled while in the descent so getting the timing right is critical.

In the end I had to opt for a high drop from 5500 feet where if the marker is lost it is a no result. It was a high risk option but paid off with a result of about 260m which should be in the top five for the afternoon.

Great fun and good to have day one under our belts. Time for a sleep and do it all again in the morning.

Benalla flight 1 results

2007-07-10T19:18:00.001+10:00

Result from the morning are in and we are in 3^rd place. It is a little better than I expected but that is how it all washes out. The great thing is that we are withing about 200 points of the lead so we are off to a great start and well in touch at this very early stage.

Cows that love you too much..

2007-07-10T19:17:00.001+10:00

Another funny story from this morning. I got molested by a cow! I have met lots of cows while ballooning and I really think they are cute in the way that only a bovine can get away with - it is all in the eyes. It is a little perverse to think that dinner is cute but there you go, I love my food.

Anyway, while measuring a marker today I got visited by a young steer that was obviously used to people or so young that he did not recognize me as the man who ate his mum at the pub last night.

Normally no matter how much I have wanted to pat the nice cows, they have smelt the HP special steak sauce on my shirt and run a mile. This little dude came right up and licked me, used me as a scratching post and followed me around the field like a long lost friend.

It was great, I got to pat a young cow and yes they are a soft and fluffy as they look. With my cow encounter complete, I don't have to visit the petting zoo at the easter show next year.

Benalla flight 1

2007-07-10T19:16:00.001+10:00

The Nationals are under way. After one practice flight and a few days of 4WD adventure driving around the competition area, the rain has stopped and the sky is clear.

There is lots of water still standing on the fields and roads so high ground is the place to land if you can find it.

Flight one was a judge declared goal followed by two fly on goals. The launch from the Benalla airfield and was a little windy, providing lots of excitement for crews and spectators. We had the added challenge of the Honda having a moment of battery problems and would not start. Fortunately we realized this before I launched and we were able to perform probably a world first balloon assisted clutch start.

I got the balloon off the ground and dragged the car forward across the launch field, when we had enough speed, Steve popped the clutch and with the car started I popped the quick release and we were both off.

Wind speeds from 200 ft up were around 40 to 50 km/h so we were rushing towards the North west corner of the map. I enjoy fast flights and the pressure of quick decision making so it was all good.

Results were not fantastic but should see us in the top of the pack. 36M on the JDG (3^rd as far as I can tell), the fly on tasks were a bit average with 78m and 123m respectively for tasks 2 and 3.

As always it is time to just see how that sits with the rest of the field on what for most would have been a challenging morning.

Weather looks ok for the afternoon so fingers crossed we will be out there again soon.

The new toy - Motion Tablet PC

2007-07-10T19:09:00.000+10:00

For this event I have been very lucky to secure sponsorship from Motion Computing with a LE1600 Tablet PC.

As many would already know I have been using a laptop in the basket for doing all my navigation work for some time and in 2004 for the Worlds bought another brand of convertible Tablet PC to use at the Worlds in Mildura.

It has done OK but there were a number of things that could have been better and all the better bits have been found in the the Motion Tablet.

The Motion LE1600 is a slate format Tablet PC which means that has no keyboard and is specifically designed to be incredibly light and mobile. It also has a spectacular battery life. I have used it today for the two flights including briefings, de-briefings, post flight retrieve and measuring of markers as well as downloading photos and doing these blog entries. It is still going on the one charge. They advertise about 8.5 hours life and it has to be getting close to that in actual usage time so far considering it first got turned on at 6am and it is now 9:20pm

Other cool things are the View Anywhere Display (VAD), just the size and weight (or lack of), and a really cool mounting system that makes putting it into the basket amazingly easy.

The display uses a transflective TFT technology that actually uses reflected sun light to brighten the display making it bright and crisp even in full sunlight and reducing power consumption. After using normal laptop displays for years I would never go back after this for any outdoor work.

The unit has a 12.1 inch screen but is so clear and easy to use that for once size does not mater. This is a big call because it has replaced a 14.1 inch screen in the basket which is a large amount of map area in theory. The reality is that it is so clear that by zooming out a little more I can see as much as before and it is actually clearer to look at.

Motion also have some really cool mounting options for their tablets too. I have used the simplest option which is basically a plastic clip that the whole computer just slips into. So easy it is not funny.

Anyhow, the more I use it the more I love it. It is by far my favorite piece of kit ever and for me that is a big call. It is easy to carry around, fast to use and more than powerful enough for the job.

Benalla 1.0

2007-07-10T19:00:00.000+10:00

I have now got my wireless Internet account up and running here in Benalla so the blog is on! Hope you enjoy my antics at the 2007 Australian National Championship.

Posts will probably go up once per day and there is a bit of a back log here to start with.

The road to Benalla

2007-07-07T11:37:00.000+10:00

We have arrived and the whole team is here and ready to go.

The trip down was a day later than originally planned but poor weather down here would have prevented any practice flying so a more relaxed departure was easier all around. As happens when driving for about eight hours by myself, I get bored. This photo was a small self entertainment challenge I set myself to show off some of the gadgets set up in the retrieve car.

It was poring rain most of last night so we opted for a sleep in – I am glad we didn't bother getting up, it is grey and windy with water everywhere!.

An amazing thing is how green everything is. It has become the norm that from just south of Sydney, all the fields quickly turn to golden brown grass and sun bleached dirt. Now there is green green grass as far as they eye can see. It is like another country.

Busy few weeks..

2007-07-03T23:25:00.000+10:00

Well the count down is now on. It is almost my last day at work before the drive to Benalla for the National championship. I have just got back form probably my last night of dancing for a week or two which is a little sad. To all my dancing friends, have fun at the ball!

With some luck I will be on the road on Thursday and in Benalla for a few days of relaxation and preparation for the event. I could tell you all what I will be doing but that may be giving away secrets on the eve of the title defense!

What I can say is that I have a fantastic sponsor to add to my already fantastic self sponsorship - Motion Computing have come on board with a LE1600 tablet PC. More on this little beast in another post but suffice to say that is without a doubt the best dedicated tablet PC I have seen (other than the slightly newer LE1700) and I can't wait to use it in competition.

As if all that was not exciting enough, I have also locked in to do the Audi Sydney to Gold Coast yacht race a few weeks after the Nationals. Last weekend we had a day of maintenance, training and the final part of the Category 1 inspection on Namadgi to do. It was a great chance to meet the rest of the crew and go though some of the emergency stuff like setting tri-sails and storm jibs.

I have also just had confirmation of my entry for the 2007 Tochigi HAB International Championship in Japan. This is basically the Motegi event that I love so much. I think I will also get a confirmation for Saga in the near future too which will be great.

So there we have it. Never a dull moment.

I believe I will have access to the net from my little cabin in Benalla so watch this space for updates on the competition as it unfolds. Things won't really get started until next Monday but I should be able to set the scene once I arrive and start setting up.

Water births..

2007-06-26T09:30:00.000+10:00

To quote from Wikipedia,

"Water birth is a method of giving birth in a bathtub or pool full of warm water. Proponents believe this method has many benefits for both mother and infant, and is a safe alternative to standard types of delivery. Critics cite the introduction of an unnecessary risk factor to infants."

For balloons I have to say that I agree with the critics.

With the Australian National championship fast approaching, my dear Dad has come up against a most predictable problem. You see, in the same way that an electricians house is never rewired, or the plumbers house is the last to have new pipes, the balloon manufacture is often the last in queue for his new balloon.

So here we are with down to the last few days to get the test inflation done on Phils new 77 so that CASA can process the Certificate of Airworthiness before the Nationals. A deepening low of the east coast of Australia is lashing us with wind and rain and will do so for a few days yet.

What do you do? The one thing we tell all our customers not to do - put a balloon (a brand new balloon!) up in the rain. Trust me kids do not try this at home, it is not fun and we would never, ever do it with your new balloon.

So have a good laugh at us. Wet like drowned rats. We weighed the balloon before it got wet and again afterwards purely for science. An extra 90kg of water was added to the balloon once back in the bag.

Ironically, this is the second time in as many days that I have had to deal with a wet balloon. I got rained on in a 350 on Sunday while we were packing up. Before that it had been the best part of 10 years since I got really wet ballooning, I plan to make it another 10 years before I do it again.

I have more photos but Blogger seems to be having problems uploading them..check back soon to see just what happens in the rain.

Check mail...Doh!...Check mail...Doh!...

2007-06-20T15:15:00.000+10:00

Doh! Webcentra l has finally fallen over and let me down.

Along with no doubt many other businesses in Australia who use this normally fast and reliable web hosting company I have been tearing my hair out since their email system went down yesterday.

I can get webmail some times but normal POP access has failed. Apologies for delays in replying to emails - it is not my fault, I may never have got the initial question.

On the other hand, the silence is bliss.

Home sweet home

2007-06-17T17:39:00.001+10:00

A final update to the Byron trip. I got home to find that the roof was still on my house after a some wild weather down here in Sydney.

My last flight in the glider last Friday was great fun. I even got to do the landing which felt great. I have probably done a few thousand approaches and landings in balloons but none at 70knots.

A link to the manufacturers web page for the ASK 21 mi will give you more info about this cool little self launching glider. All I have to do now is find the 300k to buy one!

Bus mans holiday

2007-06-15T13:53:00.000+10:00

Ahhh, a bus mans holiday in Byron Bay.

I have just had the most amazing week of flying in the Byron Bay area of NSW. I drove up last weekend just after Sydney and the Hunter region got hammered by some storms and flooding, into the most perfect week of weather you could have hoped for.

I have been training Nic in the ever reliable “Tweetie” (VH-SOK). This long suffering balloon has probably had almost as many student hours in it as it has by me personally and at 14 years and now 480 hours it just keeps going. Two up we have been averaging about 0.6 liters/min, which is pretty damn good in my books. Considering this balloon was the test batch for our new Duralife fabric way back in 1994 I am wondering if it will ever wear out.

All up we have done a total of 9.2 hours of instruction in 7 flights. All have been over a wide range of conditions and also included Nic's first solo.

A highlight of the week has been the start of some gliding lessons. Unfortunately with the focus being on balloon training I have not had the time to focus on the gliding but I have had two instructional flights in an ASK21 mi and will have another this afternoon. This little baby is a fantastic little motor glider that has a tiny radial engine an prop that folds away behind the cockpit. It is fully acrobatic and a real pleasure to fly.

No landings yet but I am getting it around the circuit and lined up on final which feels great. On my second flight I got to weave in and out of the top of a little cumulus cloud – it felt like I was zipping in and out of a mountain!

I am going to have to come up to focus on the gliding for a few weeks some time, it is so much fun.

Back to the real world soon which is on one hand a bit sad because the people up here have been great to hang out with and despite flying so much, I have been feeling the most relaxed I have felt for a while.

Next stop, the Nationals. I can't wait.

Thomas and I getting ready for a flight in the ASK21 motor glider.

The view towards Mt. Warning as we approached cloud base in the glider. Just an amazing place to be flying balloons and gliders.

Me and Nic after she nailed a landing on top of a hill one afternoon. Great spot to land.

Nic and Matt Scaife on an afternoon flight near Byron. Here we are only about 1km in from the coast (out of shot on the left!) This was the second training flight and the grin just got bigger as the week went on.

A town like...

2007-06-06T19:56:00.000+10:00

Just back form a few days in Alice Springs. Bloody cold and windy! Last time I was up there (1995 or 1996?)it was January and 44 degrees in the shade. This time is was a maximum of about 10 or 12 degrees....

Had the pleasure of screaming along in a 260 with about an 8kt launch, 20+ knots at about 200 feet and greasing into a landing at something in between. Kept reasonably busy at that speed in a half hour hop so no photos which is a bugger as it was a very nice flight and my first in that area.

Went for a drive out to Simpsons Gap for a walk and look at something other than balloons. Simpsons gap is a prominent water hole in the west MacDonell ranges about 20km west of Alice Springs and is home to the endangered black footed rock wallabies. Amazing colours in the rocks, sand and flora.

Anyhow, back to the real world for a few days before my week in Byron Bay learning to fly gliders and teaching Nic to fly balloons. It is all training for the Nationals, honest!

Biggest toy wins

2007-05-18T23:32:00.001+10:00

Last weekend was my first Sydney flight in the 350. What a hoot! I have done plenty of city flying before but most of it has been in 210's so this was a bit of a step up.

I have to say I just love these big balloons, even in difficult areas like a city.

Mayuni and Yosh came along for the morning, Mayumi was dwarfed when she jumped into the pilots compartment after landing. Big passenger balloons just don't exist in Japan so it was a real novelty for them to see one this big.

The future isn't what it used to be.

2007-05-15T09:44:00.000+10:00

Trawling the net again and found this very interesting talk by science fiction writer Charlie Stross.

This is the transcript of a talk he gave in Germany in early May. The comments at the end of the transcript are almost as interesting as the talk itself. It is not a short read but I liked it.

Sorry

2007-05-10T00:20:00.000+10:00

I know I should be in bed right now, sleeping like a baby and preparing for the new day (which has now already arrived...) but I can't and I find myself trawling the web instead.

In my travels, I found this site. Sorry Everybody

It is not a new site, indeed it was set up after the last US elections way back in 2004 where Bush Jnr. got back in with some dubious vote counting in Florida.

It was interesting to find this at a time where our government has just rolled out a pre-election budget tailor made to keep the masses happy. Even over here we are hearing the grinding of cogs as the USA election machine starts to roll in the lead up towards their 2008 election.

Anyhow, the pictures in this site made my day. They made me smile and that is important in any day.

It made me think about the importance of the right to vote and also about how dangerous the recent changes to our laws for getting enrolled to vote are. The Federal Government has passed extraordinary legislation that will close the rolls for new voters at 8pm on the very night the election is officially called. Is it just me or is that crazy?

The key thing here is to check you are on the roll and that your information is up to date right now! Go to the Australian Electoral Commission website and sort it out or you will miss out on your chance to vote!

For more information on the changes to the legislation, check out this post on the GetUP! website.

PS: sorry to get political in the middle of a light hearted blog but some things push my buttons - or maybe I need a good sleep.

Binalong video

2007-05-08T07:51:00.000+10:00

Editing video is one of those things that I enjoy, but never seem to find the time to do. Even with fast computers it is never fast enough.

There are probably some people out there shaking their heads and saying "I remember when..." and all I can say is that yes, I have never edited real film but I have had time in an edit suite on Umatic tape and later with Betacam, and I do know how good we have it with non-linear editing these days having even played with the very first generation of the Media 100 suite back in the day.....But I am all for instant gratification and computers are still not fast enough.

Anyhow, that is my rant on technology. I threw this together last night from some random shots taken during Yosh's first training flight. It is a little bit special because Mt. Bobra is the highest point in the area around Binalong and it is fun scooting along the side of it.

1st Binalong trip for 2007

2007-05-06T12:26:00.000+10:00

Autumn weather in Binalong is just the best. Right now it is warm and sunny and the winds are light. Just enough cool air on the surface for a nice inversion without your toes turning to blocks of ice as they will in another months time.

I have been teaching Yosh to fly which has been a real pleasure. He has a natural ability and despite some funny language moments, he is fast to grasp what is going on and has great control on the burners. Two hours and 40 minutes into his training and all is going very well. Mayumi did a little 10 minute hop as well today just to make sure she had not forgotten how to fly.

The RC plane has had a hammering too including two little excursions into the local gum trees due to a case of "dumb thumb" when I zigged when i should have zagged. Amazing that no real damage was done and after both incidents I was off and flying again after the judicial application of some high speed tape!

Viewing pleasure..

2007-05-01T23:16:00.000+10:00

You have to have the right tools to do a job well. I spend way to much time in front of a computer and seemed to be forever pushing tool boxes and palettes around the screen to try and see my work.

Today I got a new toy! 22 inches of LCD goodness. It is sooooo nice. If you were reading this on my screen, it would be one long line of text that just seems to go on for ever...

Well, a slight exaggeration but you get the idea. All the experts say a large screen is more productive - I will be able to confirm or deny this in a few weeks. In the mean time it just looks big and impressive. I give it a week before one turns up on Dads workstation just across the office.

The knee is well and truly on the mend and has been tested with two long nights of dancing Ceroc. Yosh and Mayumi even came along for a class on Monday night which was really good fun. Yosh is keen to keep learning so we will have to find him classes all over Australia as he travels around.

The big test for the knee is tomorrow night when we hit the climbing wall again.....lets see what I can break this time.

When graphic artists get bored.

2007-04-28T21:51:00.000+10:00

I just love these images. Some of them are very clever and are the very reason I love working with Photoshop.

The cow and the panda bears are probably my favorites.

Visitors

2007-04-28T13:22:00.000+10:00

My friends Yosh and Mayumi have arrived in Australia and are hanging around between Sydney and Canberra for the next five or so weeks before jumping off to other parts of Australia before 12 months working in New Zealand.

Both are from Saga in Japan and Yosh has been crewing for me in Saga and Motegi for the past few years. Mayumi is a balloon pilot and did her training here in Australia and was crewing with Andrews team in the 2006 Worlds in Motegi.

Unfortunately sunny Sydney is not living up to its name but I am sure they will get some good weather soon enough.

We have lots of flying planned over the coming weeks as Yosh is keen to get his license which will be fun.

Ouch! all fall down.

2007-04-25T21:52:00.000+10:00

It is a rude thing for your body to remind you that it is older than your brain.

You see I have enjoyed rock climbing among other adventure activities for many many years. In recent times I have not done any climbing because, well because life gets in the way some times doesn't it?

Among other things that I have sworn to get back into, climbing is one of them. I really enjoy it, physically is it a great activity and mentally it is a challenge.

Before hitting the real rocks though, there is hours in the climbing gym getting the strength back into fingers and other body parts not normally used while sitting at a computer or turning a balloon burner on and off.

With what I thought was a good warm up and gentle start back on the wall, Andrew and I started to find out that while the old feeling was there and the technique side of things was still good, the flexibility and strength still had a ways to go.

About an hour and bit in I did what all idiots do in these situations, I hurt something. The something was my knee that made a great popping sound and then felt a bit weak. Not a problem, shake it out and keep climbing - there are girls watching and this is only a easy/medium rated climb - can't give up until you get to the top or they will stop watching!

Two climbs later I had to admit defeat. The girls had moved on and there was an injury there for sure. It was only going to get worse if I kept going. It was fine all afternoon until a spell of inactivity resulted in a leg that did not want to support weight or was much fun to walk on.

I am guessing I have done some mild damage to the medial collateral ligament which after an evening of elevation is starting to feel better. I suppose I will see how it is in the morning.

It has until next Wednesday to get better because that is my next night at the climbing gym...

Runaway Alarm clock

2007-04-18T09:01:00.000+10:00

I have got to get me a Clocky.....crazy for a balloon pilot but I just hate getting out of a warm bed.

Woohooooo

2007-04-17T21:45:00.000+10:00

Just got this photo from my little leap out of "Mike". Thanks to Melissa who sent the picture into the Canberra Times who then tracked me down to see what it was all about - I don't think they could understand that I did not really need a reason.

I mean look at the picture - it's good, clean fun.

The only problem with a little stunt like this is that you have to do it twice because someone always misses the shot first time.

A real bummer that, I hated having to do it again.

I could make all sorts of jokes about leaving another manufacturers balloon in such a way but that could be considered rude so I won't and haven't, no matter how much this read like I am....

Balloon Fiesta Australia 2007

2007-04-16T23:12:00.000+10:00

Balloons, Balloons and more balloons. The Balloon Fiesta Australia (AKA Canberra Balloon fiesta) has come and gone in a flash. The compact four day version of the event was a huge success if not a bit too short for me. The flying was fun in a 240 with ten of my newest and best friends every morning (twenty on each of the weekend flights as we were doing hops).

Highlights included the night glow "spectacular" where I got to tether the Prime Television 240 before the start of the main show, get it packed away and then wander around and enjoy the main show. Truth be told, one of the Dawn Drifters Crew, Nicola did the glow once I got it standing up which was a good effort as we bounced around in the last of the days breeze.

Years of being on the burners during a nigh glow makes you a bit jaded as it is all the hard work with out the flight. It is rare for a pilot to get to actually watch this sort of thing as a spectator and I have to say it was really good fun to gauge the public reaction - they loved it and so did I.

I snapped this great shot of parliament house on Sunday morning. What do you reckon the chances of getting one of the Pentagon like this? I also got to play media slut with a crew from Lonely Planet and should get some notice before the segment goes to air in about seven weeks on SBS. Watch this space for the details.

As always there was the chance to be a kid again as we raced go-karts and I even did a few abseils out of a tethered Mike the Monster special shape. Hope to see some photos of that some time.

Another high was watching Lost in Translation. Fantastic film and very funny, particularly if you have ever been to Japan. Still makes me laugh thinking about it.

I had so much fun this year that my fingers crossed for the full ten days next year! A special thanks to my crew on the commercial flights Ian and Nicola - you made it easy and fun all at the same time.

PS: no fuel dramas on the way home and my wallet even made back with me ;-)

Wallet Part 2

2007-04-11T21:22:00.000+10:00

Good news. Really good people are out there in the wild.

As previously mentioned, I entrusted my wallet to some total strangers on Monday. On Monday night I got an email from them asking where to send it back. That was fantastic.

On Tuesday morning I got a phone call because a family member of theirs lives in Sydney and was coming back home at lunch time on Tuesday. It could not have worked out better. A not so short drive from one side of Sydney to the other and my wallet was back in my hip pocket where it feels oh so right.

A romantic dinner for one on the beach and the long drive home and the Easter adventure was over.

Only one day to go then the drive down to Canberra for the festival and four days of bouncing passengers through the air. Looking forward to it as always.

Griffith 2007 - A lot of people to thank..

2007-04-09T22:50:00.000+10:00

Warning: this post may be too long for some so come back in a few days for the pretty pictures.

Easter at Griffith. The only thing that come close is Easter at Leeton. The good news is we get to do both on alternate years and it was Griffith for 2007.

This weekend was special for a number of reasons. Not only was the whole gang there (so many Galbraiths, a few Barrows and too many others to mention by name) but the weather mostly behaved it's self and all things flying worked well and yet again returned to earth.

My most recent student pilot did her last solo on Friday morning with a running intermediate where I hopped out as we dragged down a field. The next day she did her check flight and then won the Hare and Hounds while on the solo - very good effort considering she was so focused on the check ride that she did not even know there was a Hare to follow!

Well done Camilla, have fun with that certificate when it turns up in the post.

With one down, it was onto number two student for the weekend. A few more great flights from Gretta including a nice and windy afternoon launch with running take off. Too much fun even if we did get the Honda stuck on a rice field levy bank in the dark. Thanks to John Wallington and crew for the winch to safety.

The remote control plane survived a number of flights (and heavy landings) and it is every bit as much fun as I had hoped. Even a tree could not keep it out of the air for long.

The high point though was the last flight where a Skydiver offered the best swap for a drop yet. A ride in a high performance RV8, single engine, two seater sports plane. This little puppy has fantastic visibility with a bubble cockpit and is rated for +6/-3 G's so it is good for aerobatics although a little too fast for full blown competition.

Poor Gretta got bumped from the student seat in the balloon as I pushed us up to 5000'ft in the ever reliable "Tweety" to drop our skydiver out. In his words, we could not have punched the smile off his face when he landed - skydivers just love balloon jumps.

It was then a a quick trip back to the airport for the ride in the RV8 after the typical Griffith landing at 20km/h. Adam (the pilot and skydiver) indicated that you could take off in the RV8 like any other plane but it just felt wrong - instead I got the full works with us screaming down the runway a few feet of the deck until we hit 140 knots at the far piano keys and a gentle pull back on the stick launched us to a few thousand feet at what felt like about 60 degrees.

A few loops and rolls later I was not sure if I would have been better with breakfast first or not but it was a hoot. A dive down to the runway for a missed approach a few feet of the deck at 200knots was fantastic fun. His phone number is now locked into my phone for future reference as I think we both got a blast from the mornings adventures. Thanks to Adam for a memorable flight in a special little plane.

All this fun comes at a price and if there is such a thing as Karma then this was it with teeth.

With the weekend over and time to get back to work, I had the long drive home ahead of me. Over tired and in need of a sleep I pulled over in the middle of no where for a few hours kip. When I woke up and started driving again, the fuel light was on....don't remember seeing that before, don't remember even looking at the gauge before. oh oh.

How far is the next town I wonder. Damn I must have been tired. As the "30km to Temora" sign rolled by, the car ran out of fuel. The last litre of fuel in the inflator fan got me another few kilometers down the road but that was it. Hitching from a broken down car was pretty easy and in fact the second car picked me up for the drive to town. A can of fuel later and it was a hell of a lot more cars driving past before I got a ride going back towards the thirsty car.

They were the best people I could have hoped to meet, they were from near Leeton and Griffith and loved seeing the balloons at this time of year. I did what anyone else would (should?) do in the situation, I pulled out my wallet and gave them a card so they could call or email me to have a flight with me some time.

I then did what you should not do and put the wallet on the rear seat of their car rather than in my pocket.

We finally got to my car, they waited to make sure it would start and then disappeared over the horizon in the opposite direction to me. Soon after I realized there was a problem. I had five dollars worth of fuel in the tank and about 500km to drive with only another eight dollars in 5cent pieces scattered through the car. They had my email address but I only had their first names. The thought of canceling all those cards and things you have in a wallet turned me grey.

I got a tank of fuel sorted thanks to a very trusting petrol station owner (The BP in Temora gets my vote for best servo ever!) and was on my way home hoping like mad that my rescuers, Peter and Jacqui were every bit as nice as I felt they were - having known them all of 15 minutes.

As I was pondering the fate of my wallet, I saw a bunch of guys with a car on a jack and a thumb sticking out in an all all too familiar way. I pulled over to offer any help I could that was not financial or fuel related.

They had a shredded tyre and needed a wheel brace as they did not have one. They had spent an hour trying to get someone to stop (it was dark now and they were on the motorway). By luck I had packed my trusty 4 way folding tyre brace which had them underway in about five minutes. They were relieved, I felt good, there was hope that the world may balance out again.

I got home and gingerly fired up the email just in case the fairy tail could happen and there it was. A wonderful email asking what address would be best to send my wallet to. You have no idea how well I am about to sleep. Thanks to Peter and Jacqui for a great end to a great weekend. See you soon and hope you like heights.

2007-04-04T22:41:00.000+10:00

Easter is here and the bunny has already been to visit. A new toy has arrived just in time for the long weekend in Griffith.

For the past few years thanks to Justin Galbraith, we have spent the start of the ballooning season flying, dogfighting and crashing remote control planes between balloon flights. In reality, there is more crashing than flying from me but it damn good fun. Justin is a master of all things RC from planes to Helicopters, balloons and cars. He almost needs as second vehicle to truck all his gadgets around the country side.

Anyhow, this year I have upgraded to the F27B Stryker. An electric, charge and fly plane that will do 80km/h out of the box and is fully aerobatic. It can be seriously tweaked for much more speed and a quick search of youtube has turned up lots of videos of this very popular little plane converted into a crazy speed beast.

Warning: Most of the videos like the one linked above contain sad audio tracks and salutes to Top Gun.

Fingers crossed for good weather and lots of flying of all sorts and I promise not to hum Danger Zone ever again.....

Rubber band games

2007-03-25T00:18:00.000+11:00

Have been a bit slack on the old blog lately. Lots going on though.

We just had the State Election, billed as the race between Dumb and Dumber. Dumb retained power so expect more public transport problems and decaying public infrastructure. Can't say the alternative looked much better but such is politics.

Took a trip down to Benalla a few weeks ago to see where the National Championships are going to be in July. Had two great flights of about 2 hours each which is great for this time of year. Met one grumpy farmer with locked gates and found more locked gates again on the second flight. It was all bit of a shock as I have not had any of those challenges for some time. Fingers crossed things area bit smoother during the Nationals...It will be a long week with carry outs after every flight.

One of my best mates Pete has become a dad! Well done to Pete and Cath.

I have also started flying a 260 over western Sydney on weekends for a bit of extra fun. Work is also flat out which is always a good thing, and I have nearly reached the end of writing a whole new Flight Manual as well as a Maintenance manual update.

Way too much staring at computer screens with the manual writing which makes finding the following all the sadder.

So, if a the average rubber band diameter is 38mm and has a range of about 5.5m, how far will a 10m rubber band go? Simple, ask some crazy Japanese tv show....

Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta

2007-03-06T22:52:00.000+11:00

There are some things about Sydney that are hard to beat. Yacht racing on the harbour is one of them.

I have the great pleasure of racing an Elan 40 called Poets Day, with a bunch of guys every now and again. We don't get out as often as we should which is a shame because the crew and the boat seem quite competitive in our class.

Last weekend was the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta. In total some 277 yachts took to the harbour to dodge the ferries and each other while racing for a new Audi A4 from the sponsor. I still have not got to the bottom of how that was going to be given away considering there were 21 different divisions racing on 7 different course areas.

We were in PHS Division 2 which basically means we are in for hard racing with handicaps based on previous performance. While fast, we are not as fast as some but that is the boats fault... By comparison IRC Division 1 is the glory race with all the big, fast and very expensive dedicated race boats that are handicapped based on a set of measurement rules and predicted performance. Well thats the simple version.

In either case, you end up with close racing and the main person to beat is yourself because it is really your handicap you are sailing against. The other boats are just there to get in the way and make it look exciting.

Anyhow, Saturday was perfect. The sun was out, the wind was a nice 12 knot Nor Easter for Race 1 and a good 20knots for the 2nd race.

I got to run the bow as the foredeck monkey which basically means setting, jybing and dropping spinnakers as well as setting and changing head sails. All very energetic stuff and a bit wetter than I am used to. Normally I run the pit and trim headsail (down the back of the boat in a nice dry cockpit). It was a fun change and always good to keep on top of all the different jobs.

Race one was really a warm up for us as we had not all raced together and in the end we were 5th on corrected time. Technically it all went well, we just needed to push a bit harder in the second race.

Race two was more like it for the boat with closer to 20knots of breeze. We made a good change down to the number 3 headsail just before the start which made for perfect trim in the strengthening breeze. The fun thing in strong breezes though are the spinnaker legs. We had two to sail in each race and they ran half the length of the harbour with a jybe about half of the way down the leg. At the top mark it was a classic bear away set with a port pole and we were off like a shot out of a gun.

I just had time to catch my breath, gulp down some water and move the headsail over to the port side ready for the next windward leg before it was time for the jybe.

Now jybing a spinnaker is where it can get ugly. The whole team has to work in time and the foredeck team needs to get the job done in a few brief moments before tonnes of wind power rip it all out of our hands. When it works to plan it is a sweet thing. When it goes wrong there is a good chance of injury and lots of swearing. Good news was, every jybe we did was good.

Even better, every spinnaker drop was good - another critical moment in a race and a great place to make time if you can drop later than the other guys and still get around the mark clean.

In the end, it was a great race giving us 3rd over the line and 2nd on corrected time. At the end of day 1 we were in 3rd place.

The sad news was that this was a two day event with a total of four races and not every one had leave passes for the two days of racing.

Being a single guy, I was ready for as much racing as was available! So on Sunday I was all depressed knowing that we should have been on the water and kicking some butt and figuring out how to split an Audi A4 8 ways.

As fate would have it, Sunday was also calm. The races had a two hour time limit and all most all races were abandoned with no one likely to get around the course in time.

The end result? A podium finish for us, some good bruises and my first rope burn in many years on the water. Can't wait to do it again.

PS: Sorry no really good action photos - the camera gets put away at the 5 minute gun...The above pictures are all pre-start which is why everyone looks so relaxed.

Old skool fun'n'games

2007-02-26T17:24:00.000+11:00

This video probably shows the best use of a balloon burner when the pilot is too drunk to fly.

It was also a good way to test pilot light reliability in wet and windy conditions.

Not much else to say other than I probably should not mention Justin's name.

For more of Justin's ballooning videos, search for growingupisoptional on youtube.

Car parks and drop lines

2007-02-26T08:53:00.000+11:00

I just spent the weekend down in Canberra doing some private instruction for a friend. She is very close to getting her private pilots certificate and we just need a few more flights to get it finished.

Unfortunately the weather only gave us one flight on the Saturday morning but it was good to get another hour done and a good excuse for me to get out of Sydney for the weekend.

The interesting thing though was that this was a city flight and the landing was in a car park - not really an issue, indeed two other balloons landed in the same car park that morning. We very successfully used a drop line to make sure we got in, talked about what was going on and how to control your crew and fly the balloon, the risks and times to try it and when not to. All very important stuff and a great experience for the student.

What was interesting was in the flight debrief, there is no box to tick for handling line use. It appears that there is no need to know how to use one or as an instructor, no need to talk about it. Very odd. Even weirder that I have never noticed this before with other students.....Anyhow, now I have a question to pass onto the ABF Operations/training manager.

Relaxation in far north Queensland

2007-02-19T17:21:00.000+11:00

So what is a guy to do when the wind kicks in and the flight is canceled on the field as it was today? Go shooting of course!

But Back to the cancellation for a moment. You probably read in my previous post how great the weather is up here and how they don't normally miss but a few flights per year. Well I got one today. After waiting for a rain storm that never really made it over the ridge, we decided that it was not going to get us and it was time to go. Half way through the inflation (6 balloons for Hot Air and 4 for Raging Thunder) we got whacked by a 90 degree wind change and an increase in speed on the surface that made sure we were not flying. The panorama shows it all once it had settled down. We had been about to start the hot inflation just moments before. It all looks calm in the picture but when balloons this big start flogging about, it too exciting even for me.

Anyhow, so after getting down to cairns it was time to go shooting with a friend of John Medlock's (my very generous host and another one of Hot Air's pilots). The fun thing here is that I have not done much shooting for years and I have never played with hand guns - they just don't exist out side of the police, gun clubs and armed robbers in Australia.

We started off with a laser sighted 22 semi automatic which was light and easy to handle. We followed this with a 9mm semi Auto which again felt very light, had open sights and in my untrained hands seemed deadly accurate.

It was time for bigger metal. Out came a Ruger 357 magnum with a laser sight. It feels heavy and deadly. The others felt like toys by comparison. Being a revolver it spits flame and smoke as it bucks in your hand. It is also very loud even with hearing protection. The rounds must be expensive as you only get 3 shots with this one.

Then the grand daddy. The Smith and Wesson 44 magnum, again with laser sight. Bigger again and heavier still. This gun was made famous by Clint Eastwood in the Dirty Harry movies (without the laser sight). The dude must have wrists of steel to fire it single handed - well done Hollywood. I have a couple of dry fires to get the feel before loading it up with the full six rounds. It is now heavier still and the potential of this hand canon sits heavy too.

The kick is not much more than the 357 but the noise is immense and the weight requires two hands to get a good aim.

In the end I am pretty chuffed, every shot of about 30 in total over all the guns are within the 8, 9 and bulls eye rings so my eyes still work and hand is reasonably steady. I think I may look into joining a pistol club in Sydney when I get home - it was good fun in a sad macho way.

I used to shoot 22 prone competition about the time I finished school and did ok at it too. The focus and the relaxation to do it well was almost like meditation. I was surprised at how that same feeling came back today. Right up until the 44 went BANG! Then I just grinned like an idiot for a bit, cocked it and squeezed again.

Note: having just re-read this and looked at the photos I see a scary resemblance to David Hicks as portrayed in the Australian media....heres hoping I don't get a one way ticket to Guantanamo Bay for looking like a seditious gun nut...

PS: All this fun took place at CRM Gunsportrs, 293 Draper St, Cairns, Qld 4870
Phone : 07 4031 4440 - and ask for Tony

Year of the Pig

2007-02-17T22:37:00.000+11:00

It is the year of the pig (DingHai) and the Chinese are partying hard here in Australia.

I have come to Cairns for a week and a half to fly passengers for Hot Air, in what has to the largest passenger operation here in Australia if not the world. Chinese new year brings huge numbers of tourists into this area for a few crazy weeks of adventure activities and shopping on top of the already steady stream of tourists coming out to see the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree rain forest.

The flying takes place up on the tablelands at Mareeba, about a 60km drive over the range from Cairns. Up here the weather is generally kind for 340 days a year and pilots go to work on a roster like any other 9-5 job. Hot Air and Raging Thunder both regularly have 3 or more 350's or 400's or 450's out for double hops. Right now it is more like 6 or 7 for Hot Air which is why I am here. I probably can't go into detail on numbers but if you work backwards from the above with each balloon getting through between 30 and 40 passengers per morning you can get the idea of just how big these businesses are.

I have to say it is quite good fun and even challenging getting two half hour hops into a valley that will easily be 45minutes wide if you are not smart about your flight. The guys up here are absolute professionals at all levels and it great fun when a bunch of these big balloons all use the same field for our change over and then all land in a smaller one for the final landing - every one within a minute or two of the perfect half our hop.

Right now it is very hot and muggy which is best cured by lounging in a pool when not flying. Quite a nice way to spend a break from my day job at the factory and a great chance to keep in touch with how our big balloons are put work day in day out.

The Skywalker Project

2007-01-30T19:18:00.001+11:00

So I obviously don't have enough going on right now and have started another project at work because enough people have finally asked and it is one I have always wanted to do.

The Skywalker as I am calling it for now (Hi to all the Lawyers that work for George Lucas...) is also known as a Cloud hopper. This is a single person balloon designed to be light weight, fun to fly, easy to transport, fun to fly, perfect for people with no friends but wanting to attract friends and of course fun to fly.

So far I have done the initial design work on the envelopes that we will offer. As of now they are 25, 31 and 35,000 cu.ft models based on the B type Kavanagh shape. They are 24 gore envelopes with a reduction in panel 1 and 2 so there is only 12 rigging points. The first design images are shown above.

Take a step back in time..

Before this all started up, many many years ago I made a really rough little toy from scrap fabric. This envelope known as "Luke" was a 21 also based on the B type shape but with a full 24 gores and straight cut panels - it has no bulge in the gores and is not anything like the production models I am now working on.

It was drawn and cut in about the same day and sewn together over a few more days between everything else that goes on in the factory. It was flown over a very old T&C bottom end lent to us by Kiff Saunders.

We made it so we could take some video of Smart Vents opening and closing for a court case that also happened in the deep dark past. It was also used for looking at new innovations in deflation systems that have not been stolen yet. Honestly, I have moved on..

Anyhow, lots of folks have requested photos of the 21 so here they are. Unfortunately there are not many pictures as a) it was never certified and as such has only ever been tethered here at the factory and once in Leeton back in 2004 and b) the whole point was to take pictures and video from it and as such it was never the star of the show. There are however a few classics of me next to a 350 or 400 (I could look it up but...) at the factory as well as Tem having a play in Leeton.

When looking at the above photos I can not stress enough, it was not ever done as a production balloon and had none of our normal attention to detail in the patterns or design and as such has all those nice wrinkles and stress lines at the mouth. The colours are literally are as they came out of the scrap bin. Despite all that, it flew really well.

Sky Orchestra wrap up

2007-01-14T13:27:00.000+11:00

So back to the real world for a few days at least. The Sky orchestra flights are over and we did pretty well with the weather - 5 flights out of 6 scheduled days. Not bad for a Sydney summer which is normally hot and windy.

I had some fun on the second last flight having finally got around to sorting out my suspended camera rig. It is probably a bit vain taking pictures of myself while flying but hey, worth doing just so I could get the following image after I fell out of the basket! The photos were taken with my 350D mounted in a plastic tool box and suspended on two lines from the envelope. I can raise or lower the camera and also bring it back to the basket if I want.

It was great the way that everyone was working as a team after only a few flights and by the last morning if you were not touching envelopes then you were working hard to get back to the pack. The last flight provided a box so we were able to cruise out over Parramatta, climb up and come back to the park. Some people landed back in Parramatta Park, others of us kept going for a bit longer.

All the feedback has been that it was a great success so I guess we will see if we get an invite to do it again next year.

Steve an Di Ireland did a fantastic job on the organisation side along with the team from Sydney Festival. All we had to do was turn up and fly which was great. The tracks from my flights are on the following map of Sydney showing the suburbs we flew over.

It looks like I am off to Melbourne for a promotional flight for a radio station on Thursday and then the 26th of January will see us out at Parramatta Park for Australia Day. Nothing like city flying to keep you sharp (or scared).