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The Lake '08

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The Lake '08

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The Lake '08

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Justin Galbraith replied to the discussion The Lake '08 1 day ago
Justin Galbraith replied to the discussion The Lake '08 1 day ago
Justin Galbraith replied to the discussion The Lake '08 Jul 3
Justin Galbraith replied to the discussion The Lake '08 Jul 3
Justin Galbraith added a video: The Lake
The Lake
Jul 2
Justin Galbraith replied to the discussion The Lake '08 Jul 2
Justin Galbraith replied to the discussion The Lake '08 Jul 2
Angus Peart and commented on the photo 20 Gores all ready to go Jul 2

Profile

City, Country:
Adelaide, Australia
About Me:
As a kid all our holidays were ballooning holidays. Not that this was a problem but I never really had the bug. I didn't have any great desire to learn to fly. Maybe I just didn't set my goals high enough but I was just happy to wait for my drivers license so I could retrieve. I love retrieving, I'm think I'm pretty good at it.
Don't really remember much about this time though.

Life got busy when I got a job and after leaving home never saw a balloon for 10 years. Then met a guy at work who had bought one and went retrieving for him, with my wife Barbara and new puppy sasha (balloon retrieve dog).
That was the first bite.

Found it very hard to get my license even though my father is an instructor and has a balloon, but being 1100kilometers away was problematic. Got my license in 2000 and after going to an event and learning of a balloon for sale we purchased Toystory a Kavanagh C-65 and possibly the best looking balloon in the world. ;-) That was it, I was bitten.

After living on crackers for a few years, while paying it off we were even able to afford to fly it. ;-) My wife was working in the outback so things were slow as we always do ballooning together.
Did enough flying however to get to my three milestones, first was 50 hours so I could fly at events by myself without a minder pilot, second was 75hrs so I could get my instructors rating, and third was 100hrs so I could fly other peoples balloons for instructing and be on their insurance.

I prefer to fly low, drift through the trees, scrape the top of the Canberra museum, and scratch the stubble in the paddock low. I only go to 1500ft if there is breeze for a box. 5000ft for a student flight is a combination of scary (what if we run out of things to talk about!!!) but mostly boredom for me. ;-)

Favorite flights are ones in which I have Barbara with me, followed by a good river/lake dip. I have a love hate relationship with cloudhoppers and skychariots. I love to fly them but I hate the fact that I don't have one ;-)

Here I have to thank Adam and Steve. Adam For letting me fly the WOFYL envelope attached to his wheelie bin, a cloud hopper and Steve's Sky Chariot. I have as much fun tethering the sky chariot and putting 300 kids though it as I do going for a fly. I know "sick".

I also like RC toys and got an RC balloon for the Worlds in Australia 2004, thanks to Sean for providing the envelope to go with my basket. So now Angus and I terrorise night glows all over the country with our RC balloons.
I am also a "sick" individual according to Adam as I actually like night glows.

My favorite events are Leeton/Griffith at Easter particularly the street parade ;-)
Renmark because at 250kms away its the closest event I can go too.
The Lake, because I like instructing and mucking around.
And finally Cave Hill Creek, because it's the kind of place you can go to and have shit weather and not really care. ;-)

So where am I in the world of ballooning at the moment. Well I am trying to put back as much as I have got out of it. So I instruct for the fun of it, do night glows and tether Adams envelope so i can let as many people as possible experience ballooning. But mostly I have fun.

Oh and i still really like to retrieve, and if you have a cool retrieve vehicle I'll volunteer to drive it. P.s How do you turn the traction control off??

Justin Galbraith's Photos

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Justin Galbraith's Blog

I'll be a Monkeys Aunty!!!!!!

check this video out from the history channel. Monkey Balloon Race - What Were They Thinking? Monkeys have been around for a long time. So have hot air balloons. So have adorable costumes. It was only a matter of time until someone decided to combine all three, forcing the little monkeys to wear costumes of various countries and sending them off into the wild blue yonder. Do the monkeys ever land or do they just sail away forever? The clip leaves it up to you, the viewer, to decide. http://www… Continue

Posted on July 1st, 2008 at 10:27pm — 6 Comments (Add)

New wives balloon crewing duties

Three commercial balloon pilots, sitting together bragging about how they had told their new wives what their balloon crewing duties were: Terry had married an English girl, and bragged that he had told her that in addition to retrieve driving, she had to do all the navigating by herself and refueling too. He said that it took a couple of flights before he saw any results, but on the third flight he landed and she was already there, she then refueled, and everything was done satisfactorily. Ji… Continue

Posted on June 11th, 2008 at 11:08am — 5 Comments (Add)

EASTER BALLOONING EVENT AT LEETON NSW, 8 DAYS TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm excited, would have to be my favorite event. Remember to bring the hot weather toys just in case, so dust off or go and buy a kite, frizbee, and some vortex balls. Easter eggs must be packed as well ;-) Make sure you've got material and balloons maybe even an outfit for the street parade. Super soakers should be the item of the day and plenty of lollies to throw at the crowd. Also glow sticks etc for the night glow. Apparently 21 balloons this year for a good fun event. If you've… Continue

Posted on March 12th, 2008 at 11:51pm — 80 Comments (Add)

Who IS God?

Student Hot air balloon Pilot Falls over door step. Says "Look at the Choo Choo". Wets himself with water pistol. Stays on dry land; and Mumbles to himself. Commercial Hot air Balloon Pilot Runs into buildings. Can recognise a steam locomotive three time out of five. Is not issued with guns. Can stay afloat with a Mae West; and Talks to walls. Competition Hot air balloon Pilot Demolishes chimney when leaping small hut. Is run over by steam locomotives. Can handle a gun.… Continue

Posted on February 18th, 2008 at 10:29pm — 4 Comments (Add)

Advice column

Dear Deirdre,

I've never written to you before, but I really need your advice. I have suspected for some time now that my wife has been cheating on me. The usual signs, phone rings but if I answer, the caller hangs up, etc.

My wife has been going out with "the girls" a lot recently although when I ask their names she always says, "Just some friends from work, you don't know them". I always try to stay awake to look out for her coming home, but usually fall asleep.

Continue

Posted on September 11th, 2007 at 7:05pm — 3 Comments (Add)

Comment Wall (92 comments)

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At 3:39pm on June 26th, 2008, Tony Goodnow said…
Justin-

I finally got over there to get some pictures. The board is a 48" circle cut out of 1/2" plywood, sorry for the US measurements, but me and the metric system don't get along. The entire bottom and the edges are wrapped with a thin suede wallpaper to avoid tearing the balloon.


We have an eye bolt with a big "washer" on it that goes through the hole in the middle and clamps onto the ring on the top of the balloon. The rider is strapped into a modified parachute harness and clipped to the eye bolt.

The hand holds cut into the board give the rider a hand / foot hold during inflation and deflation.

My mom is going to write down some "tips" for the rider but for now what I can remember is that you need to hold your breath on deflation, all that hot air going into your lungs takes your breath away, and have a couple of hefty souls on the crown line pulling like mad to keep the rider from sinking into the balloon as it is coming down. More details to follow when I get them!
At 10:10pm on June 22nd, 2008, Michael Toulson said…
coolies haha
sweet maybe a trade of footage? :)
maybe a little bit of a challenge is in order?
trade footage and use what ever photos from the lake and both make a video, upload it to monkey and let the "Monkey's" decide which is better? little bit of fun
im using mitchs hard drive
At 9:57pm on June 22nd, 2008, Michael Toulson said…
Ouch! acouple dam you must have alot of video.
well i want to video abit and take some pictures. if i can track down a computer that i can offload video to then ill pass on my footage if you want.
11 more sleeps for me :)
At 9:38pm on June 22nd, 2008, Michael Toulson said…
Hey Justin
just wondering how you transfer your video onto your computer?
straight DV cable hookup?
im bring a video camera so just trying to work out what to do.
buy aload tapes or transfer them onto mitchs harddrive
At 9:15pm on June 22nd, 2008, Grace said…
Hello Justin you crazy fruit loop
there will be NO wedgie giving to me Haha.
I may have to wear two pairs of underwear or the wedgies could be crutial.

Awww Mia shes so cute i bet she loves her new ducks! im sure we will have fun with them.
Tell Barbra i said Hi.
see you soon.
Grace.
At 3:49pm on June 22nd, 2008, nigel flynn said…
the mouths not big enough on that 35, so i made it a little bigger!
At 1:20pm on June 20th, 2008, Adam said…
wasn't me.... ask the seated pilot from Echucha :)
At 9:54pm on June 9th, 2008, Marty Miller said…
Hi Justin you going up to the murray for the training event? Im heading there with the family and some fabric and a few gas tanks....Oh and a 4wd and radios...should be fun.
At 4:13pm on June 8th, 2008, Nathan Strong said…
Think I got the pic problem fixed. Check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks!!!
At 3:39pm on June 4th, 2008, Tony Goodnow said…
Justin-
I haven't forgotten about your request for info on the board for flying on top - finally made it out to my Dad's house only to discover it wasn't there - made a couple of calls and located it at my Step-Dad's - he made it and was the pilot on most of it's flights. I'll get out there and get some info for you before too long.
 
 

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