November 16, 2005 - Balloon Ride  Phoenix, Arizona
The convergent next-generation telecommunications equipment company I work for sent me out Phoenix, Arizona for its annual sales conference.  Attendees could sign up for an "activity": golf, desert jeep ride, horseback riding, massage or balloon ride.  Balloon ride?  Oh yeah, I'll be taking the balloon ride. 

We got up early and headed for the outskirts of Phoenix.  One nice thing about the early start was that the lighting was great for photography.  Here they are starting to fill the balloon with air. 

It was a pretty good size balloon.  Had to be, since about ten of us, plus the pilot, were riding in the basket. 
Yours truly. 
There were five balloons in our adventure. 
After they blow cold air into the balloons, they heat it up with the burner in the basket.  I think I heard the pilot say the air in the balloon gets up to around 200 degrees.  Hot air rises, balloon rises.   
The inside of our balloon, as they blow cold air into it. 
One of the two gasoline-powered fans used to blow cold-air into the balloon.  That's the pilot to the right of the fan.  Funny guy.  For example, when asked if there were any parachutes in the basket, he said with a straight face, "Oh yes,  one."
A shot of our burner heating the air inside of the balloon. 
Just about ready for lift-off. 
We are airborne, along with that other balloon. 
Underway, heading southwest, pushed by a light wind. 
Looking aft at our liftoff spot.  The vans and trucks belong to the ground crew. 
The flight was incredibly smooth.  And quiet, except when the pilot ran the burner. 
Floating over the desert.  Luke Air Force Base and suburbs were off our left, and mountains off our right.  Visibility was excellent. 
Facing north. 
The famous Sagauro cactus were all over the place.  The pilot said they can live over 300 years;  they don't grow an arm until 60-80 years old.  We also saw a mule deer. 
 
I pictured myself yanking and banking the Citabria through these mountains.  Someday....
This is looking forward.  Yes, we are lower than the top of that mountain dead ahead.  Balloons can climb pretty quickly when you lean on the heat.  We just lifted right over the top of that mountain. 
We kept climbing up to 2,500 feet.  Balloons can climb a lot higher, but who would want to.  Just like flying the Citabria, the lower you are, the more fun it is. 
 
After a little over an hour, the pilot started looking for a landing site.  Balloons have no directional control -- other than trying different altitudes where the wind direction is different.  I gathered you set down when you find a good spot along your line of travel. 

This open area where they were building a residential community looked promising.  The pilot was on the radio, talking to the other balloons and the ground crew, which was driving frantically to get to where we were going to touch down. 

The ground was a lot more uneven than it looked from the air so we literally did a touch and go.  Then we popped back up to about 100 feet. 

Cruising along at low altitude over the desert. 
 
Again, this is some perfect terrain for flying right on the deck -- deserted, no obstructions to worry about.  Someday ...
We had to make sure we cleared these power lines. 
The landing was exciting.  There was a surface wind of about 10-12 mph.  Not much, right?  How about when your standing in a wicker basket?  The pilot had us get in a crouch with our backs against the basket side, facing to the rear of our advance.  We landed in the desert, bounced a couple of times, then the basket started tilting as the balloon started laying on the ground.  Dust started flying up.  The balloon just kept grinding along the desert, finally the basket tipped all the way over on its side.  We're still moving, laying our our backs, with the two guys above us in their basket partiction.  .  Finally the thing stopped in a cloud of dust! 
 
Here's a picture of the basket.  I was in the partition underneath those two guys.  The pilot is looking on.  He did a great job of getting us down.  You know, any landing you can walk away from is a good one ....  
Yeah, man!
You can see the path our balloon scrapped in the desert. 
In the balloon world, it's traditional to have champagne after a flight.  Very civilized!  It was kind of cool to be sitting out in the desert, drinking champagne and having some breakfast.  The ground crew arrived almost as soon as we touched down. 

Like any other hobby, ballooning has its issues--  finding landing spots can be troublesome and you need a ground crew for support -- but it does have its moments, for sure.  I'll always remember my balloon flight. 

And the Phoenix area is a great place to fly, at least in the cooler months.   

 
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