July 21, 2012 Passengers: Wes & Jeni Norbo Today is a “Private” flight for the 10th Anniversary of our passengers. Wes has been planning to “surprise” his bride and she really was when they showed up at Keizer City Hall parking lot this morning at 5:30 AM. We move a few blocks north to the school lot for the layout out and pump up. It has been a bit since Cecil has had any “burner time” so I have him bring Starship to life this morning and he does a fine job too. He goes ahead and loads the passengers up as I set the “plank” as I have FINALLY learned how to run the Go Pro and want to prove to Cecil I CAN turn the dang thing ON! We swap out PIC’s and I get some heat in the bag and we are off the lot and head out to the east for a bit then at about five hundred feet get the push back to the west that the pi-ball had shown us earlier. We track as forecasted for the early part of the flight as we drift over the passenger’s home town of Keizer and we kind of zig and zag across the “main drag” of River Road N. after drifting over the picnic spot at City Hall. The speed has picked up a bit and it looks like we will cross the river so I drop altitude to get that east shove that we had at the launch (take a look at the TRACK, below) so we can stay on the RIGHT side of the river today for the “gang”. The move works and we have a steady push to the east with some good LZ’s in front of us. We slide over the Kroc center, been there before but we are a bit off track for there lot’s so I have the gang move to the Epping property off Portland Road as the shot for today. We need to cross the tracks then over the street and as I set the shot I loose it to the north so I have to climb a bit to correct the shot then “hot shot” us into the corner of the lot for a drop rope. The “gang” does a classic post and we swing right to them on to the TALL grass. There is a better spot to lie down in to the north so they tow us there and I have Cecil do the take down for some more “burner time”. We get the balloon deflated and put back in the bag, the passengers do the sit and we head back to Chalmers Park for the picnic. I get the story started, the toast is done and the certificates are presented. PASSENGER COMMENTS: Wes: “What a great experience! Thank you for everything, all the food and excellent company!” Jeni: “Thank you so much for the amazing ride, so much fun!” A BIG thank you to today’s Crew (I can’t get in the air or back on the ground without’um) Cecil, Tim, Mike, Dr. T & Mitch & ‘da boss, SJ TRACK Average Speed: 3.0 MPH Distance Flown: 3.9 Miles Websystem hosting provided by WolfPk. | Site Map Copyright © 2003-2017 Balloon Flying Service of Oregon, Inc. Legal Information All Rights Reserved.