BATON ROUGE 2005
PENNINGTON CHAMPIONSHIPS
For full-size copies of any pictures, email me at boodayour_drawers@charter.net (remove your_drawers before emailing!)

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Tracks for all flights.
This was my first NABA Championships at the Pennington Complex in Baton Rouge. The Championships are divided into National and Louisiana State divisions. Technically, the National Championships had been going on since Wednesday August 3, but very little actually happened because of the weather. I think there was one flight, Thursday morning the 4th. I was in the Louisiana State championships and just got there Thursday night. There were 40 National competition pilots and 40 State competition pilots. Oddly, you can't do both. Pam wasn't able to make it until Friday evening because of a surprise State inspection of her facility, the LA Ballooning Federation forgot to make my hotel reservation, traffic was horrible and I was late for the first roll call, but it didn't matter because it was too stormy for much to happen. Friday morning we went on a few weather holds until George Richard, the organizer, scrubbed the competition. The ceiling was much too low to do anything. So, we just set up the balloons to entertain the crowd, a rather large one considering it was early on a weekday morning. Although Pam hadn't shown up yet, I had her brother-in-law David and his son Caleb, and a friend of Caleb's, all stalwart crew. I also set up in a "sweet spot" in the middle of all the other balloons, so I had no wind troubles.

These three were downwind of us but, oddly, were having the most wind difficulties. Paul Lassalle's Royal Splendor is on the left; Steve Jones in Pop-a-Bud on the right. In the middle is Zydeco, flown by a very young pilot named Jake Pierce. I'm pretty sure it used to be La Lumiere, which was our balloon Yoda Mike's personal balloon some time ago. He only flies Re/Max now. Neither he nor Eileen or Gary were here for this one.
Looking to the west side. That's some new balloon from Indiana next to us on the left corner. In back, l-r, we have the Louisiana Women's Community College (LWCC) balloon flown by Ryan Richard, George's son; the old B.R. Advocate balloon which George probably dragged out instead of the balloon he's supposed to be flying because a) conditions were wet and b) he's the boss and can do what he likes; Dave Miller's Skybird; and what appears to be the backside of the Children's Miracle Network balloon.
Front to back, Mike Hanson (all the way from Greenwood, MS) in Delta Breeze; Deanna Albaugh in Shadeaux Dancer (she tethered riders for a long time after everyone else set down, what a trooper); Tommy Rachel in Blue Angel and Tom Bolke in Wild Thing.
Caleb took my camera out for this pic. l-r, the new guy from Indiana, Leslie Jeansonne's No Boundaries in back; me in GR with the sun right behind me; then Mike Hanson and the rest of the folks in the last picture, just before we started to set down.

Flight 1. After Friday morning, the weather became very good for flying, even in the late afternoons when thunderstorms normally take over. Friday afternoon the Louisiana State competiton pilots flew, and the National competitors glowed. I flew my sponsor passenger on a quick hare-and-hounds flight.

Looking back at our launch spot right after takeoff. Here we see three other Mississippi pilots standing up; Steve Jones, Mike Hanson and Dean Durr. Pam showed up just before this flight! If you look to the right of Dean's balloon, you can see his white chase van, then Pam's black Saturn Vue, then my chase vehicle and white trailer.
My passenger Missy, a friend of Dr. Hutto, the dentist who was my sponsor. We tried to catch the hare but missed his landing spot and target.
Looking back at Pennington again. Now you can see a lot more balloons, the big Friday afternoon crowd, and the big circular scoring area for the morning competitions. More on that later. Pat Cannon is in his egg-shaped balloon right in front of us. He's a very seasoned pilot and a sort of an authority on commercial and competitive ballooning.
We stayed low after passing the hare's landing area. Look at the weather building around us. We eventually landed with several other balloons on some remote ballfields called "Driller's Diamonds", apparently for the refinery workers. While we were there waiting for our crews to arrive, several things happened. First, a thunderstorm came near and the outflow winds blew us all over. I really had to pull out quick to avoid running into a chainlink fence. Secondly, we heard a loud DDDZZAAPPPP sound in the distance. I had heard this once before back in 1999 in Albuquerque, and I knew it was the sickening sound of someone hitting a power line. We found out later that it was Art Schaeffer, the pilot who shattered both legs in a non-ballooning skydiving accident several years ago. Like us, the outflow winds blew him over. Fortunately he managed to bail out of his balloon before it hit the lines, and except for some scrapes and bruises he's OK. His balloon is another story.
Finally our crews showed up. They were lucky to get in; repairmen were working on the ballfield lights and everything was open. We conducted our first-flight ceremony with Carson Lane and his crew. To the left of me are David, Caleb, and Robert (whom we last saw in nearby Gonzales last year). In front of me on the ground is my passenger, Missy. Everyone else is in Carson's crew. Carson himself wears his trademark white hat with the Mardi Gras band. His wife Martha, in the gold capri pants, stands next to him. The Lanes fly both the Lady Jester and Mardi Gras Magic balloons. They also operate Kustom Kards, and make cards for me and hundreds of other balloonists. They are some of the most partying balloon people I know.

Flight 2. Next (Saturday) morning. Another complex multiple task with an X and a Gordon Bennett Memorial geometric target at the main field, and another target some miles further on towards the Mississippi river. We went out three or four miles and flew in.

Here we fly over some other balloons which launched a bit closer in (in fact, the tight group of three just left of lower center are launching where we launched the next morning). The Pennington field is barely visible behind the big black building on the right.
Robert, my passenger, who crewed for me in Albuquerque in 2002 (he's wearing the shirt and cap from that) and whom I hadn't seen since early 2003, before I even met Pam! He got his first flight back in September 2002. He brought his wife, also named Pam, with him, too. The previous afternoon we had another Robert, who was my passenger at the last Gonzales event a year or so ago. We figured that if he had shown up this morning my crew would have consisted of two Roberts and two Pams.
Downtown Baton Rouge in the distance. To the left is the Mississippi River bridge, and to the right is the famous capitol building where Huey Long was shot.
Heading towards Pennington, just above and to the right of this picture's center. Again, Pat Cannon is right in front of me. I tried to match his moves but that racer is just too quick on the climbs and descents.
Coming in low as we enter the Pennington complex. I just barely missed the vertex of one of the little triangles on the periphery of the big circle, then fumbled my throw at the X. Poor score if any.
Looking back. You had to get one marker inside one of the four little triangles, as close to the center of the circle as possible...but inside the triangle. Then there was another marker for the center X. If you look closely at the tip of the leftmost triangle, my marker is just outside it to the right and down.
And so we proceeded on to the last target...but I don't think anyone found it. Here we see several balloons without the slightest idea where the third target was, wandering around aimlessly as the wind died down. In the foreground is a horse ranch with many nervous horses and probably a very ticked rancher. Behind them are pastures with equally nervous cows. Behind that, to the left, is a very nice little neighborhood called Laurel Lakes. (Laurel keeps popping up. In addition to being the name of Eileen and Gary's adorable 4-year-old daughter, the Foley, AL event from a couple of weeks ago was on Laurel Ave.) That's where I wound up landing with a bunch of other balloons, after coming up dry on the last target. In the distance is the Mississippi river. This is, of course, Cancer Alley, the stretch of the river with lots of petrochemical and nitrogen-based plants and refineries.
The aforementioned herd of nervous cows, with balloons flying over them to land in Laurel Lakes.
We landed in an immaculate front yard, right next to the driveway, all belonging to a very friendly and excited landowner who already had a couple of balloons there. Here Gary Odom deflates while another balloon lies completely deflated and another stays standing.
The landowner took this picture of Robert and me waiting for the crew. The CMN balloon came in shortly after this and "bumped" us like a bocce ball a few feet further. (Look...I've already got a scorch on my new skirt panel! Snf!)

Flight 3. Now to Sunday (the last) morning. Conditions were very good...almost too good. We don't like to fly in high wind, but for any meaningful competition, you need some wind, at least five miles an hour, blowing in at least one fairly consistent direction. On Sunday morning, everything was nearly dead calm, all the way up beyond 1,500 ft. altitude. Under these circumstances, had it been my decision, I would have called off the competition. But George called a task very similar to the previous day's. We had to start a minimum of 3,000 meters away from the first target. But even if by some miracle we somehow found the correct wind, it would take between 45 minutes to an hour to get to the first targets. For a launch field, I picked the same place Gary Odom had launched the previous morning (he's standing up right below the red Budweiser balloon, between two other inflating balloons, in the first Flight 2 picture), which was barely 3,000 meters away from the target.

Paul Lasalle set up right next to us. Here we are setting up. I'm standing between Robert's Pam and my Pam, holding the wrench I use for the occasional sticky carabiner.
We launched with Paul...really close to Paul...
I flew with both of the Pams, Robert's...
...and mine! (That's John Good's Second Molar behind my sweaty head.)
This balloon, like John Good's, is a National competitor. By this time the winds were so random that the State and National competitors were hopelessly mixed up. We were contacted by cell phone and told the last target was scrubbed; and to try to make it to the main Pennington field to land. But of all 80 State and National competitors, only one, Steve Jones in the Budweiser balloon, made it to Pennington. The rest dispersed, literally, to the four winds.
The balloons dispersing & mixing.
What little wind we had was taking us away from Pennington. We rose up to look for a better one, winding up within talking distance of John Good. Gary Odom and Harry Moran are behind him on the right.
Lou Bottigi, who runs a Sports Medicine clinic, in Spindler's Lift, flying over the Louisiana HQ of Blue Cross/Blue Shield off I-10 and Bluebonnet with a T-shaped lake in back.
The wind above 2,000 ft. didn't take us any closer to Pennington, but it did take us across I-10 and the railroad tracks into the southernmost suburbs of Baton Rouge. Here there seemed to be plenty of opportunities for good landing spots, but I almost muffed it. It took us nearly an hour and a half just to get the four or five miles over there. But when we got there, we saw some some beautiful pieces of property, like this one with cedars in its back-yard pond:
Here it is from the other side.
And here's one with a lovely garden. At this point things took a somewhat alarming turn. The very light winds shifted just a bit...and started blowing me towards the large swamp between these suburbs and the river! There was no way I could clear it with the winds as light as they were. Fortunately, I caught one of the last houses on the south end of Baton Rouge, landing on the edge of a large, sprawling old live oak on their lawn. The landowners, the Zancas, who own a local Harley dealership on Siegen Lane, were very hospitable, so we deflated in just enough room, packed up and headed home.