October 1, 2010 Albuquerque Aloft

Every year on the day before the Balloon Fest, a number of pilots launch their balloons from selected schools throughout the Albuquerque and Rio Rancho area.  It gives teachers, parents and students (mostly elementary) a chance to see the Balloons up close and talk with the pilots and crew.  (Isn’t that the greatest!!)

Mike Liberti and his family were flying from the Maggie Cordova Elementary School so at 6 AM, many of us carpooled and met him there to help.  It also gave many of us our first crewing experience and a balloon ride – :-)))).

The pilot testing his propane burner:

Our group:

 

The sun rising:

The balloons rising:

And rising:

 

They are up and away – oh my!!

In the above picture, Mike is in the blue balloon and his son in the other.  And some of his passengers are his crew – :-)):

 

And even more:

 

When the balloons were off, we all piled in the trucks and became the chase crew.  (Folks, this is so exciting, I have no words to describe it except a hundred and more, oh mys!!!!).

Mike touched down here and Bob and Trisha jumped out and Carol and I jumped in and off we went.  No words can describe this, except WOW!, AWESOME! OH MY!, Breathlessness, and more!

When we hopped on, all the folks below held onto the Balloon until Mike explained everything to us, what to hold, where to stand, different parts of the basket/balloon and when we took off, he kept us informed every step of the way – THANK YOU MIKE!

The views from the Balloon:

 

We came down between two houses and hung on until the chase crew arrived.  And then the work began – taking down the balloon and wrapping, taking apart the basket and storing.  Here we are after the air is out of the balloon.

All I can say is Exhilarating!! and Magical….

I am so glad that Judy, Luke, and Mike prepared us – it helped so much – THANK YOU….

We spent the rest of the day napping, chatting with our neighbors, another great Happy Hour, and early to bed – the official opening is tomorrow – :-)))).

We did make some phone calls and found out our pilot may not be in until Sunday.  We did call him and left a message so we will show up tomorrow morning at T-10 unless we hear from him.