Woohooooo

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

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 ;-)

Griffith 2007 - A lot of people to thank..

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.

Car parks and drop lines

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

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

Sky Orchestra wrap up

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).

Sky Orchestra 2

Art is an interesting thing. To be in the company of people with a vision and the conviction to stand behind it is always enlightening and fun. Sky Orchestra has been one of those nice chances to participate and feel part of the process.

When I put up my first post about it I had read about it and had a concept of what we were expected to do. In reality I had no idea what it would really be like. So far we have had two flights including a very successful first day with the media all in tow as we cruised from Parramatta Park down to the south across the west of Sydney.

The music is surreal and really is just the sort of thing I could imagine messing with your dreams as intended. It is sure messing with our heads while flying! This morning I was over the top of a large apartment block when Patrick Stewart's voice started booming out bits of Shakespeare - I found myself giggling at the thought of lying in bed trying to figure out where the hell it was coming from.

Luke and Dan are really down to earth guys and are loving the opportunity this work has given them. Among the pilots there is a real drive to make it all work the best we can.

As we launched today we all hung together, bobbing up an down like the blobs of goo in a lava lamp for the full length of the field while a hundred or more spectators walked along underneath looking totaly gob smacked! They really looked like slack jawed zombies compelled to follow. Every now and then there would be a body just laying down on the grass, looking up or taking photos. Really great fun.

The flight has been canceled for Monday morning so it is off to work for me but the weather should improve leaving us with another three flights if all goes to plan.

Sky Orchestra

After a huge four days back at work, running around sorting out a blown up phone system and re-organisation of our IT infrastructure it is now time to do some flying if the weather will let us.

Over the next few days (Jan 6th through to the 12th) I will be one of a number of balloons blasting western Sydney with music from above in what is know as the Sky Orchestra.

This is one of the Sydney festival events and is an artwork by Luke Jerram and Dan Jones. The idea is that each balloon will be playing a section of the orchestral piece from loudspeakers hooked up to an MP3 player.

The web page of Luke Jerram also has more info about the whole thing.

The master briefing is later today so I will get more details then as to how it is all going to actually work on the day but it should be fun. The aim will be to stay close together and I suppose hope that the burners don't drown out the music!!

Anyhow, with some luck we will be done by 9am or so and I can get back to work and still be productive for the rest of the day.

I have just spent the last few hours updating all my digital maps for Oziexplorer so I can fly along with the computer knowing where I am, even if I don't. Always a nice thing to have, especially for city flights with airspace challenges.

2007 Australian National Championship

Now here's some news. We are going to have a Nationals.

The last one was held in 2003 to choose the team for the 2004 Worlds in Mildura. I won and have been able to call myself the champ ever since!

Benalla Aerodrome, Victoria

Saturday 7th July 2007 - Sunday 15th July 2007

Talked to Adam the other day and he said something about securing it for 3 Nationals (which is 6 years as they are every 2 years...) Should be interesting to see how that pans out.

As always the ABF executive makes big decisions behind closed doors and none of this seems to get out to the members for comment until the deals are made....what can you do. I know I am too busy to get involved. I will just turn up where ever it is and throw markers.

Should be an interesting event as there are lots of new pilots coming through that are keen for competition. I hope they turn up now it is on offer.