Saturday, September 09, 2006
Reno Hot Air Balloon Races
The "races" start at 5:30 a.m. with the dawn patrol. Having only my PDA to take pictures, I was unable to get the shots of the balloons up in the air firing the burners to light them up in the sky. So, the story picks up with the mass assention at about 7:00 a.m.
Permission is given to cold air inflate and then hot air as ready.
You are just standing in the midst of these huge balloons as they fire up. They lay out on the ground and cold air inflate to get a bit of an envelope opened up and then the basket is tilted so the burners aim into the balloon. They fire the burners a bit at a time until the balloon lifts up and the basket can be set upright.
They just gracefully float up into the sky as they seek the altitude for the wind that is traveling in the direction they wish to travel.
There are some very creative balloons. Here is the one from the dairymen's association. You can't appreciate how big it is. The basket with the pilot and crew is blocked by the leg, but you can see the size of the basket appears to be about the size of the cows nostril from the ground:-)
One of the churches had a balloon of "Christ in the clouds."
After an early morning, both Mona and Tony took a well deserved nap:-) This also is to confirm that Mona was unsuccesful in htiching a balloon ride back to Washington!
Permission is given to cold air inflate and then hot air as ready.
You are just standing in the midst of these huge balloons as they fire up. They lay out on the ground and cold air inflate to get a bit of an envelope opened up and then the basket is tilted so the burners aim into the balloon. They fire the burners a bit at a time until the balloon lifts up and the basket can be set upright.
They just gracefully float up into the sky as they seek the altitude for the wind that is traveling in the direction they wish to travel.
There are some very creative balloons. Here is the one from the dairymen's association. You can't appreciate how big it is. The basket with the pilot and crew is blocked by the leg, but you can see the size of the basket appears to be about the size of the cows nostril from the ground:-)
One of the churches had a balloon of "Christ in the clouds."
After an early morning, both Mona and Tony took a well deserved nap:-) This also is to confirm that Mona was unsuccesful in htiching a balloon ride back to Washington!
# posted by Larry @ 1:02 PM 
