We got to the Rainbow Ryder's balloon office in enough time to sign waivers saying you understand you could die doing this. There were a total of nine people taking the ride plus the pilot. The balloon is divided into three compartments. The section on one end of the basket is for the pilot and what I believe is the propane fuel for the burner and then the rest is divided down the middle to create two passenger compartments. There was a group of five who were together in one compartment and four of us in the other side.
After all of the paper work was taken care of the passengers, pilot and two chase people were all loaded up into a big van that pulled a trailer carrying the balloon. We drove about 15 minutes to a site where the launch was to take place. The pilot said he couldn't take off from where the annual Balloon Fiesta is held because the winds this time of the year would take them over Indian lands and the Indians don't like that. We know a little something about angry Indians. I helped where I could getting the balloon laid out and inflated. There is a lot of pulling and lifting involved and they welcomed my help. We took off without incident and the ride lasted for an hour or a little more. We reached a maximum elevation of 2,000 feet. There were at least five other balloons in the air while we were. Neither Huli or I were ever afraid during the ride. The landing was one of the roughest the pilot said he has had in a long time and the first time the balloon turned over in three weeks. He warned us before we touched down that we were going to turn over since he was monitoring our speed and said we were going 10 miles per hour which he knew would drag the basket over on it's side. We initially touched down by crashing into the side of a mound that was around eight feet tall. We were then drug up the side of the mound and across about three smaller two foot mounds before finally sliding down a mound that was six feet tall before stopping. The last several feet the basket had turned over. My fear was we were not going to be drug down the last hill which would have surely resulted in all of us being dumped out on the ground but finally it slid down the side of the hill before anyone fell out. We were lucky because there were four passengers in the basket older than Huli and I and two of them were probably in their mid 70's.
After landing we got the air out of the balloon and folded it up and put it in a large bag. We then loaded the balloon and basket on the trailer and took off. While folding up the balloon we noticed there were five small holes about an inch in diameter on one section of the balloon that will be repaired before it is used again. We loaded up into the van and drove to a nearby park where we had champagne, orange juice and pastries to celebrate the flight. I am sure there were at least three people on the flight that would not have gone had they known what was involved and how hard the landing was. I would have negotiated a discount had I known how hard I was going to have to work to get this sucker in the air and back into the bag when we were done. Overall it was a great experience and Janet said it was one of her best birthday presents ever.
We went out for breakfast and then went back home and went back to bed after taking the dogs for a walk.
If you are interested a new balloon costs $115,000. The one in the first few pictures is one month old.
This is Janet....Even with the crash landing Jack's gift to me was the most amazing, beautiful, peaceful thing I've experienced in, well, I can't even remember a time more wonderful. Just wanted to add one peculiar thing I noticed during the ride. Couldn't hear any traffic noises, city noises, etc, etc. But what we all noticed was the fact that we could hear dogs barking from all over the place. Weird!
Hope you like the pictures.
Here you can best see how the basket is divided. The pilot stands between the fuel tanks on the left.
This is the Rio Grande River that runs through Albuquerque
Another picture of the Rio Grande and a bike/walking path that runs all the way across the city.
Here is the hill that we finally slid down. For a minute I thought we were going to stop on the edge where the basket would have dumped all of us out.
