Albuquerque Aloft is an event held at participating schools, kicking off the nine-day Balloon Fiesta that begins on Saturday October 6th and lasts through Sunday October 14th. Many pilots sign up to bring ballooning to the school grounds for an up-close look and experience of their sport. We arrived at a playground full of excited elementary school students and their parents.
Our pilot, Neal Smith, put us directly to work. We jumped right in and got our first dose of hands-on experience as crew.
There are specific steps to preparing a balloon for flight. Leather gloves donned (the leather protects the balloon fabric, called the envelope, when handled), we were assigned various tasks by the pilot. This became a group effort, all hands on deck as each step was completed efficiently.
Our pilot directed Michael and me to hold open the mouth of the balloon envelope so that the fan could fill the envelope with cold air.
Meanwhile, at the other end, crew held on to the crown line to steady the balloon as it filled.
Once the balloon was about three quarters full, the pilot stepped inside the basket and aimed the burner and flame inside the envelope. The balloon began to rise as it filled with hot air and the crew manning the crown line helped steady and control the rising balloon. The basket slowly got pulled upright with the pilot on board and the crew's job was to lean on the outside to weight it down. We soon learned the command "Weight on!"
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| holding on to the basket as the balloon continued to inflate upright |
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| balloon card |
What goes up must eventually come down....and so we learned how to deflate the balloon, gather the sides and feed the envelope back into its canvas bag, which also required some stuffing and eventual sitting on the bag to get the entire balloon back inside. The basket was hoisted into the back of the truck together with the fan and balloon in its bag.
We had just experienced crewing for a balloon pilot. I was pleasantly surprised that I could participate in many of the tasks (even though Gail and Jim assured us that there is something for everyone's ability level). Whereas originally I envisioned crewing for perhaps a few days and spending the rest of the time as a spectator enjoying watching the balloon parade on high, this was such an invigorating and exciting experience that we requested more crewing days.
Gail complied and matched us with a pilot who needed a crew for the week. We had just committed to 9 days of 5 AM risings!
(PS - thanks to Boomer crew Boni who shared her photos from the field this morning)