First Flight of 2009!

January 5th, 2009 | 0 Comments | Uncategorized |

Heather, Savahnna and Holden celebrated bringing in the new year by taking an early morning flight aboard The Pride of Forest hot air balloon on January 3, 2009. Actually Heather and Savahnna received really cool gift certificates in a wire frame hot air balloon shaped gift basket for their birthdays in 2008, but on such a beautiful day, it just seemed right to celebrate the new year as well. So, with a little help from their parents, they arose from their warm beds on this cool morning to meet the Forest Winds hot air balloon team at 7:15 AM. After a quick check of the wind direction and speed, the crew drove out to Goode Station Road to begin the inflation.

The Pride of Forest was slowly brought to life and Heather, Savahnna and Holden climbed aboard.

Ready for take-off!

At take-off, the temperature was about 30°F and the surface winds were calm.

The Pride of Forest

Although the surface winds were calm, there were southerly winds just above the surface that required a quick ascent to 1500′ AGL in order to catch the more desirable westerly winds. So The Pride of Forest quickly ascended to a high altitude from its launch point just off Goode Station Rd in order to catch that westerly wind.

The Pride of Forest continued to climb to about 3000′ AGL and ultimately found a northwesterly wind at about 30 mph. At that speed, the balloon would ultimately cross over Rt. 460 in a very short period of time, so we made the decision to return to a lower altitude to slow things down a little bit.

The Peaks of Otter

Heather, Savahnna and Holden didn’t talk much during the flight (perhaps because it was way too early for teenagers), but they all seemed to be taken in by the thrill of flight. Heather particularly thought flying low over the trees was pretty cool.

Holden, Heather & Savahnna

At one point in the flight we floated slowly over West Manor and the nearby pond. Since nobody was wearing waterproof boots however, we decided not to do a little splash-and-dash.

West Manor

After about an hour and 15 minutes, we began looking for a suitable landing spot. Our flight path however had taken us along a northeasterly tree line that provided no such spot. So The Pride of Forest returned to a higher altitude in order to catch a different wind direction that would move us off the tree line. After a few minutes, a wide open field just off Elkton Farm Rd provided a perfect spot. With an approach speed just over 6 mph, The Pride of Forest came down and made a perfect landing that Holden later commented as “unique.”

With Heather, Savahnna and Holden safely back on the ground, mom (Caryl) and dad (Joe) joined the party for a lively toast to commemorate a wonderful flight.

Cheers!

Forest Winds wishes Heather and Savahnna a very happy birthday!

For more pictures of Heather, Savahnna and Holden’s flight, go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/forestwindsinc/Heather_Savahnna_Holden_Flight_1309#