Steve Raffaele's Page

January 14, 2008
DHA AX-5 World Record Distance Attempt

This past Monday the Calgary Balloon Club and David Hempleman Adams took a shot at the AX-5 distance record from Morin Alberta. The winds did not materialize and we only ended up flying 107 km landing just south of Coronation.

A combination of high temperatures and slow winds thwarted the attempt early on but David tried milking it for all he could get. We were expecting 60 knots at 9,000 feet but instead had 12 knots and +20 C. It was a nice day and as always we celebrated a safe flight and landing with a bottle of champagne.

Stay tuned as this is no where near over yet...
See Yah!

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September 2007
Drumheller

The Drumheller event was this weekend and we managed to fly two of a possible four flights in the Badlands.

The Friday night and Saturday morning flights were cancelled due to high winds but Saturday afternoon the sky’s cleared and the wind calmed off.

The BBQ hosted by the Travelodge was great and Rosanne even won the best dessert design contest AND the best tasting dessert contest. I wonder if anyone got a picture of her prize winning LTA Tiramisu (sp) before it disappeared.

Saturday evening we took off from the beach and flew to the N.E. I had Elennor M. with me and we happened to land at Craig R's. place. I was the only one that was far enough east to make it into one of Craig's fields. Janice R. was nice enough to have us in and allow us to celebrate the flight in her nice cozy sun room. Craig was too busy bringing the crop in to take part in the party but we did wave at him while he worked the field. Janice had a roast in the smoker that we could smell from miles away ;-) Thanks Craig and Janice! It's always nice when we can "DROP IN".

Saturday evening the Hospitality Suite was rockin' and any desserts that were left over from the BBQ were quickly consumed.

Sunday morning Searle and I did a checkout flight so Searle could take the balloon to Red Deer next weekend. It was a nice flight down the valley landing after launching from the beach again. We landed in a wide open spot on a dirt road just west of the campground. Good luck in the Western Canadians Searle!

It was a great time flying with the other six balloons in Drum again. I'm looking forward to next spring!

Flying...
Steve R. (me)
Searle S.
Connie and Andy S.
Ralph D.
Del M.
Richard C.
Glenn U.
Jack B.

See Yah!