Anniversary High!

June 27th, 2009 | Uncategorized |

Today Judy and Pat celebrated their 44th anniversary, and Forest Winds was there! Also joining the celebration was Robert, who had received a gift certificate for his birthday last year. Judy and Pat drove down from Winchester to visit their daughter, Melanie, in Roanoke. Melanie wanted to do something very special for her parents, so she gave Forest Winds a call and scheduled a hot air balloon ride for today. Everyone got together a precisely 6:00 AM. Ken (pilot) did a quick wind assessment and pretty soon the entire gang was on their way to Thomas Jefferson Elementary School for the inflation. Once there, Ken did another quick wind assessment to confirm wind direction and speed. As it turned out, the wind direction had changed and it looked like New London airport (W90) would provide the most favorable site. So we all got back into the car and headed south to New London. Once there, Lisa and Ed (our incredible ground crew) assembled the balloon and began the inflation.

In about 25 minutes, The Pride of Forest hot air balloon was brought to life, and Judy, Pat, and Robert climbed aboard. On the surface, the winds were calm, the temperature was about 68°F, and the relative humidity was 90%. Lynchburg airport was reporting visibility at 8 miles.

Ready for takeoff!

At 7:23 AM, we were airborne over the south field of New London airport (W90). With a light wind from the north, we slowly climbed out and began to head south, southeast.

Airborne!

Climbout over W90

During the climbout, Judy seemed a little tense and hung on tight, but Pat was busy taking all kinds of pictures and moving about the basket. At one point, Judy turned to Pat and politely asked him to stop moving and shaking the basket. It didn’t take long however before Judy began to relax and feel comfortable with the altitude. The Pride of Forest continued its ascent to almost 3000′ AGL to find more favorable winds to turn us north. As we climbed higher and higher, the haze on the horizon became more pronounced. It was readily apparent that the hot hazy days of summer were here.

Blue skies!

No matter how high we climbed, the winds were obviously not going to change. So we continued our flight to the south, southeast. Much of the terrain to the south looked pretty wooded, so Ken elected to return to the surface and navigate towards open fields between Bethel Church Road and Evington Road.

Judy and Pat

After about 35 minutes from takeoff, we were approaching the open fields off Evington Road that Ken was navigating to. Although the winds were fairly light, they were extremely variable and it didn’t seem like we had any prevailing direction in which to anticipate the landing. Since the fields were wide enough, it seemed like it would be a lot of fun to scoot across the surface and allow Robert to lean out pick some wildflowers off the field. So up and down we went….

Robert

At one point in the flight, the landowner of the property came out to see if everything was all right (since he saw us bobbing along). Of course, everything was just fine. We were just toodling, looking for the perfect spot to set it down and begin the post flight celebration. At 8:15 AM, we were safely on the ground just off Evington Road (New London). With a pull of the vent, The Pride of Forest was quickly deflated and resting on a dry tarp.

Lisa set up a beautiful light food fare right next to the landing point, and with glasses raised high, everyone celebrated a safe and successful flight. It was a perfect setting….and a great way to start the morning!

Cheers!

Forest Winds says Happy Anniversary to Judy and Pat…and Happy Belated Birthday to Robert!

For more pictures of Judy, Pat and Robert’s flight, go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/forestwindsinc/Judy_Pat_Robert_Flight_62709#

 

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