All things ballooning
Flying the Cambridge Valley During Ice Breaker 2009
Our balloon and team were invited to participate in the Annual Ice Breaker Festival which takes place the first couple weeks in February in a couple of small eastern Washington County hamlets in New York. The event is co sponsored by the Rice Mansion B&B in Cambridge and they put together the ballooning part of the Festival as well as put on a very nice after flight breakfast for the balloon crews.
This was our first year to be a part of the flying aspect as we crewed for a team 2 years ago. It seemed like a natural fit as over the past 2 years I have flown around 20 flights and logged near 22 hours of time flying the Cambridge Valley although not one of those flights were during the winter. The Valley offers some of the best flying in New York and the people who live within that area all love to see the balloons at whatever time of year they are around.
Saturday morning came early with a 4:45am wake up and we departed our home for the 40 minute ride to Cambridge. Along the way we picked up Ken Hughes in Greenwich and pulled up to the Rice Mansion at about 6:20am. After greeting the other 2 pilots(BJ Sullivan & Jonathan Blackburn) we headed out to the Cambridge School where we had received permission to launch from the School Superintendent.
Winds on the surface were L&V and winds at 3,000 were 230 @ 12 so we had wonderful direction and knew that a good flight was going to made. "Carried Away" launched a couple minutes past sunrise and we started to drift slowly over to where BJ and Jonathan were inflating. When we saw them begin to stand the balloon up I decided to gain a little altitude and start a slow flight over the Village of Cambridge.
We kept slow and allowed BJ to catch up to us and floated close to each other for about 10 minutes. BJ then decided to land and change out passengers. I stayed about 50 ft above the field to wait on them and then watched as they once again launched to fly along with us. I could see that 2 of my passengers were starting to feel the affects of the cold and I decided to land and change passengers once we cleared the airport. At this point Ken & Dave Hughes(The Twin Towers) jumped in for the remainder of the flight. BJ again changed passengers out as well and away we both went for the final leg of our flight.
The best part was yet to come as I knew that we were heading right towards the home of our good friends who own the Lake Lauderdale Campground in Cambridge which is our primary and only other launch site in this area. We made our approach above the field across the road from their home and we able to do a little skip through the snow and land directly on the road about 100 yards from their house.
As ugly as that photo is, she never closed the throat and I was easily able to put a little heat into her to keep her stable until we decided to drop her on the dry pavement. The flight was amazing and the company was even more so.
Thanks goes to Christine from the Rice Mansion, Jonathan Blackburn as well as those wonderful people who come along with us and are our friends: Ken Hughes, Dave Hughes & Kim, our VIP passengers Tim and Stacy Brophy, Joy, Doug & Arik Gordon & Alex Rich, my youngest daughter Allison for waking up and coming along and of course the most important person in my life, Ellen, my wife.To come out and brave the cold, 3 degrees at launch, for our balloon team means the world to me and shows why we do this, FOR THE FUN OF IT ALL! Ellen and I are honored to have you all.
THE TWIN TOWERS!
This was our first year to be a part of the flying aspect as we crewed for a team 2 years ago. It seemed like a natural fit as over the past 2 years I have flown around 20 flights and logged near 22 hours of time flying the Cambridge Valley although not one of those flights were during the winter. The Valley offers some of the best flying in New York and the people who live within that area all love to see the balloons at whatever time of year they are around.
Saturday morning came early with a 4:45am wake up and we departed our home for the 40 minute ride to Cambridge. Along the way we picked up Ken Hughes in Greenwich and pulled up to the Rice Mansion at about 6:20am. After greeting the other 2 pilots(BJ Sullivan & Jonathan Blackburn) we headed out to the Cambridge School where we had received permission to launch from the School Superintendent.
Winds on the surface were L&V and winds at 3,000 were 230 @ 12 so we had wonderful direction and knew that a good flight was going to made. "Carried Away" launched a couple minutes past sunrise and we started to drift slowly over to where BJ and Jonathan were inflating. When we saw them begin to stand the balloon up I decided to gain a little altitude and start a slow flight over the Village of Cambridge.
We kept slow and allowed BJ to catch up to us and floated close to each other for about 10 minutes. BJ then decided to land and change out passengers. I stayed about 50 ft above the field to wait on them and then watched as they once again launched to fly along with us. I could see that 2 of my passengers were starting to feel the affects of the cold and I decided to land and change passengers once we cleared the airport. At this point Ken & Dave Hughes(The Twin Towers) jumped in for the remainder of the flight. BJ again changed passengers out as well and away we both went for the final leg of our flight.
The best part was yet to come as I knew that we were heading right towards the home of our good friends who own the Lake Lauderdale Campground in Cambridge which is our primary and only other launch site in this area. We made our approach above the field across the road from their home and we able to do a little skip through the snow and land directly on the road about 100 yards from their house.
As ugly as that photo is, she never closed the throat and I was easily able to put a little heat into her to keep her stable until we decided to drop her on the dry pavement. The flight was amazing and the company was even more so.
Thanks goes to Christine from the Rice Mansion, Jonathan Blackburn as well as those wonderful people who come along with us and are our friends: Ken Hughes, Dave Hughes & Kim, our VIP passengers Tim and Stacy Brophy, Joy, Doug & Arik Gordon & Alex Rich, my youngest daughter Allison for waking up and coming along and of course the most important person in my life, Ellen, my wife.To come out and brave the cold, 3 degrees at launch, for our balloon team means the world to me and shows why we do this, FOR THE FUN OF IT ALL! Ellen and I are honored to have you all.
THE TWIN TOWERS!
Comment
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Comment by Mike Hernandez on February 9, 2009 at 7:32am - 1 hour and 15 minutes.
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Comment by Mark Pluta on February 9, 2009 at 7:23am -
Looks like you had a nice flight! How long were you up and BJ up for?
I myself had a nice flight down at Russ's as he gave me an 1 1/4 hour towards my commercial. Same thing down there, a toasty 2 above at liftoff. Winds L&V below 350', even dead calm in some areas. Amazing site to see! I can definitely see the appeal of flying in the Winter!!
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