June 30, 2013 Passengers: Eli Huie & Leslie Peil Today is a “Private” flight which almost always means someone is going to get SURPRISED? Eli has been successful in keeping Leslie in the dark so her thoughts are…hummm a balloon ride in reality he’s going to POP the question today. We meet at City Hall for the pi-ball check and all looks workable so we load up and head to the nearby school’s parking lot for the set up. Cecil and I set up the “tripod” on the basket so we can get the entire flight on video, then we load up the couple and head out to the south west. We angle across Keizer toward the river as the young folks get settled into the ride. The gang is on the move and it looks like the LZ (landing zone) will be on the west side of the river. The gang crosses the river a bit ahead of us as I climb higher for the “deed”. We are over the gravel pits when Eli hands his phone for a photo and sneaks in the one knee “bit” before I can get MY camera in play. Oh well we have it on the video and in a day or two I will add that to this page. I drop the “banner” to let all on the ground what the result was up here as we pass over the “gang” at the Westgate launch site below. I miss a really good LZ by about 200 feet so we drift up the hill and I spot the Lutheran church parking lot and have the gang move there for the catch. I don’t have a good angle for the lot so I drop to tree top level and catch some down slope breeze that hooks us right to the boys on the upper lot. They tow us down to the lower lot for the take down and the pack up. I take a minute to go say hello to our Host, Pastor Rob Bjornstad and his head “right-hand” man that watched the whole show. We load everybody up and head back to Keizer for the picnic. I get the story started, the toast is done and the certificates are presented. PASSENGER COMMENTS: Eli & Leslie: “It was an amazing experience and so much fun! My beautiful girl friend said YES!!! Our thanks to Jim (and gang) for such a fun flight!!” A BIG thank you to today’s Crew (I can’t get in the air or back on the ground without’um) Tim, Cecil, Ed TRACK Average Speed: 4.5 MPH Distance Flown: 5.0 Miles Websystem hosting provided by WolfPk. | Site Map Copyright © 2003-2017 Balloon Flying Service of Oregon, Inc. Legal Information All Rights Reserved.