April 21, 2013 Passengers: Kathy Tope, Ruth Smith, Kim & Kevin Shaver Mother Nature is still in the “spring mode”, which is I’m really not sure what I want to do (typical female?) so I move this group from yesterday to today and a good move it was (I think) as the winds were out of shape yesterday. I call for the west site with a forecast of CALM to 2 MPH out of the SSW and the test balloon confirms that. There is a bit of a “fluff” breeze so we move off the pavementand use the grass to hide behind the tree line to the south. The “gang” gets the balloon out of the bag and stretched out for the cold air to be pumped in. Once we are nice and tight I ad the heat and we are standing tall. I call for the passengers to get on board and we are off the field and on our way toward the berry fields and the river. The winds aloft are higher than forecasted so I will stay low when I can to slow us down a bit. We cross the river at the park and enter into Keizer. The “gang” is under us as I have several LZ’s on track and proceed to miss most of them. One good one in line is the Keizer Little League softball complex, which I manage to miss by about 300 feet and set us down in the “scruffy” field just past the nice green grass of the 6 infields. The gang is on the churchparking lot and will “hike” out to us for the “tow” (look at the end of the track plot) due east to the lot around the church and around some flowering trees. We get to the lot and drop the balloon for the pack up. The passengers do the “sit” and we load up to return to west Salem and the Park for the picnic. I get the story started, the toast is done and the certificates are presented. PASSENGER COMMENTS: Kim: “First time up, quite exciting & memorable. Great Crew!” Kathy: “My Mom Ruth has wanted to do this for at least 10 years…We had a Great time!! Ruth: “WOW! What a great ‘lift’…I needed that. I’ll always remember the fun tipsy I had, great!” A BIG thank you to today’s Crew (I can’t get in the air or back on the ground without’um) Cecil & Tim (with photog. Mike) TRACK Average Speed: 5.0 MPH Distance Flown: 4.2 Miles Websystem hosting provided by WolfPk. | Site Map Copyright © 2003-2017 Balloon Flying Service of Oregon, Inc. Legal Information All Rights Reserved.