Outstanding pictures of High Hopes

Darcy and Devin took a few great pictures of "High Hopes" and "Mysitic" together on recent flights. Thanks for the pictures!!!

Sue and Suzanne having a great time, that is what it is all about!!

Up up and away...

The weather has been really good for flying lately, and I have squeezed three more flights in over the past four days. On Friday night, I flew from Tuthill to the west side of town landing at Memorial Middle School. There were between 50-100 kids that came out for the landing, and a few of them got tether rides till I ran out of fuel. I forgot my camera that night, so no pictures (sorry). Saturday night I drove up to Pipestone, MN to fly with Bill Smith. (Thanks for the invite Bill)! Winds in Sioux Falls were nearly calm, but by the time we got to Pipestone winds were gusting 10-15 mph out of the southwest (due to the higher elevation). We waited till the gust dropped off some, then took off. We covered just under 20 miles during the flight, landing just beyond the Buffalo Ridge (and all the windmills). That is a great place to fly, with very little in the way of land owner issues and lots of roads with no power lines. On Monday night, I took off at Tomar Park on the south side of Sioux Falls and flew directly over my house before doing a splash and dash in the Big Sioux River before landing just north of Interstate 90.

The weather looks breezy the next few days, but hopefully Mother Nature will allow for a morning flight or two this weekend.

Bill had LOTS of veteran crew that allowed him to do passenger changes despite the windy conditions.

Looking good Bill.

Another passenger change.

Bill flying over the corn. Quite a bit of planted crop up there, but not many powerlines except right by the wind mills.

The windmills along the Buffalo Ridge.



We landed in the hay field in the upper right corner of this photo (immediately behind the windmills).

Devin flying towards my neighborhood.

My house front and center.

Another of my humble abode.

One of the neighborhood...

Back in the air...

After nearly a month of being ground-bounded, I was able to fly three nights in a row prior to going into work midnight shifts. The first flight was with Duane, and much faster than I expected. I took off on the south of town and covered nearly 15 miles before a stand up landing in a backyard well north of town. The second flight was a slow flight to the southeast. Devin, a new student pilot in the area inflated and flew his balloon for the first time. There were thunderstorms to the northeast, so I made this a short flight to avoid any outflow concerns. Finally, Thursday night was a good flight, but the direction was due east and not northeast like I was anticipating. Because of this I ended up flying over powerline alley, before a nice landing at the water treatment plant.

Tuesday nights flight, what a strange night windwise!

High Hopes drifting off to the southeast.

Looks great Devin and Darcey!