FOLEY 2005
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.
I arrived in Foley, Alabama for a media flight Thursday afternoon July 14 prior to the First Annual Gulf Coast Balloon Festival, but the weather was atrocious, raining steadily all afternoon. The weather continued to be bad all the way through Saturday morning. To top it all off, I was there by myself. Pam had to work and wouldn't arrive until late Friday. Mike, Eileen and Gary and their family didn't arrive until Friday either. But by Saturday afternoon the weather was good enough to get a couple of competition flights in.
Flight 1. Saturday afternoon the winds were out of the south, with a slight component from the east which died out quickly. I took off from an undeveloped development with a couple of other balloons which had attracted a small crowd of bystanders. I never did get any of the push to the west, so I missed the target at the main field (marked "013" on the map), flying due north at first, then veering to the right.

Here, ready for takeoff, are a couple of the bystanders, me, my passenger Kathy, and Pam holding us down.
Shortly after takeoff, looking north-northwest towards the main field in the distance.
My passenger and, in the background, my friends Paul in the blue Royal Splendour and Gary in the red Heart of the Sunrise/Clifford.
We flew very low over some corn and some beans in an effort to catch some left. In between was this friendly farmer on his tractor.
Shortly after, from the chase vehicle, as I skimmed the beans.
A few other balloons across the beans.
So I missed the main field, but landed in a front yard of a nice little house right on US 98 in town. A crowd gathered, I had my ropes, the wind was very light, I had just enough room, and the landowners were amiable and excited, so I rigged for tethering. Here we see the gathering crowd, the landowners, and most of the rest of my crew, including the Greens (whom I've spoken of before): Betty holds the basket down on the left, while Donna readies the rope as her little daughter Patricia looks on, clutching her doll. Several girls are already jumping in the basket.
A couple of very nice tether & glow pics from Kathy.

Flight 2. The next morning we had similar, nice conditions, with winds from the southeast. The task set was another X set north a few yards from the previous evening's, and a pole in place of the old X. The pole had a ring on the top of it; whoever grabbed the ring got $10,000. Again we had to launch at least two miles away.

After the last few competitive events, I and other pilots had learned to watch the Curves for Women balloons very closely. Their fleet is growing rapidly; they have at least five balloons, probably six or seven, including one of the football-shaped competitive balloons which was actually a Christmas present from one pilot to another. Not only are the Curves folks very good at competition, but they employ an interesting tactic: one of the balloons launches ahead of the others, and the rest use it as a wind indicator into the target. This became obvious in Longview, and when I found the three Curves balloons at Foley setting up on Sunday morning, I set up right behind them. I flew Betty Green and Kathy's daughter Nicole. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera on the flight, but Pam and Kathy took some nice pics from the ground.

Here, Stephen Guido in Stars and Stripes, I in GR and David Miller in Skybird fly in close formation over Rusty's on Alabama Hwy 59 shortly after takeoff.
Winds were slow and steering was good. Pam and Kathy and got back to the field quickly. Donna Green was already there and fed me scouting reports via cell phone. Unfortunately, one of the reports was that the third Curves balloon got the ring off the pole. I watched this happen about half a mile or so in front of me. At least this clued me to try for the X as opposed to the pole. Here, the mass of balloons approach the target area on the field. That's the back of Pam's head. The weather to the east looks a bit dramatic, but it stayed good all morning. This must be just after I passed, since Skybird was right behind me.
I scored well on the X, but so did everybody else, given the exceptionally good steering. We were allowed to land 300 feet away from the targets. Here, Stephen Guido and I land on the field in a rapidly growing crowd of balloons. The field was heavily saturated from the previous days' rains and treacherous for chase vehicles, but where I landed was relatively dry.