Butterflies and Balloons

Have had an incredible amount of butterflies flying through on their annual migration to Mexico. Below are a few pictures from my backyard. Also, have had a few flights here and there. Am working towards earning my commercial license. Below is a picture of a flight from the other morning.

A pet?

I was out running around my neighborhood when I noticed a golden retriever run in front of a car. The car stopped, and as I ran by the dog joined me on my run. It followed me around for another mile or two then followed me back to my place. I called animal control (since I assume the dog belongs to someone). If not, it maybe my new dog. Anyone have any name ideas?

Few more pics of Nationals in Battle Creek

As I mentioned, the weather really stunk in Battle Creek. Here are a few pictures (I copied from Facebook) of the flight that I forgot to bring my camera on. You can see how marginal it really was...what you can't see is the gusty winds to boot.

Nationals

I traveled to Battle Creek MI last week to participate in the US Nationals. The weather was less than ideal, so out of the nine scheduled flights we flew three. On one of the flights I forgot my camera (and to be honest I really didn't think we were going to fly anyway). Below are a few of my pictures.

Notice the baggie tails blown down wind-it was breezy...not just on the beach.

Ken Walters approach on the 3rd target on Sunday morning.

Gary Haynes flying over the 3rd target Sunday morning.

Brad Craig's approach to the beach target.

Balloon congestion at the first target Sunday morning. Surface winds were fast!

Jon Shelton flying over.

Benji Clemon's gravity drop on the first task Thursday night.

Cory and Gary flying into the target.

Todd Isley getting ready to drop his baggie.

Andy Baird heading to the second target.

Al Nels with Scott Armstrong and Steve Jones closing in.

Paul Petrehn's new balloon.

Green Day

A week or so ago, I was fortunate enough to see Green Day in concert, what an energy packed show!

Lots of Flying!

I recently attended the National Balloon Classic down in Indianola, IA. I was the weather official for the event, so the week was incredibly exhausting both serving as an official and flying in the competition. Going in, I had a goal of making the top half and finished in the top quarter at 24th. It was great to go back there and spend time with family and friends. I want to thank Devin Burnham for making the trip down and flying the event with me. Below are a few pictures of the event.

70+ balloons glowing.

Nice flight Sat night.

Here is my approach to the first target. I was fortunate enough to be flying with Jim Winker (hall of fame inductee) and his son in law Mike.

Here is my drop on the first target.

Here is my drop on the target Monday night. This does not count toward the overall competition but was a heck of a lot of fun!

Approaching the target Monday morning.

Wednesday AM, this was part of a five part task.

What a fun week!

Recently I went up to my friend's lake house to fly them over the lake. We had a great flight flying over Lake Byron. We even made the web site, check out http://www.lakebyron.org/.




I am headed to Battle Creek, MI from August 25-31st for the Nationals. I will be serving as the weather officer at that event, check this web site for a list of my co-workers in the event. Check back here for pictures of the event!

Pictures of Recent flights

Here are a few fun pictures of recent flights.