KRQE.com Balloon Fiesta Blog

Today was a beautiful morning to fly. We had a perfect Albuquerque Box going, the temperature was just right and the winds stayed nice and low.

Paulette and I split up today. Paulette took off in the Mayflower balloon along with a couple of Mayflower executives. They caught a nice wind and landed a couple hours later in Rio Rancho.

Meanwhile, I was in a balloon called 105 Racer, which flew the Department of Tourism's banner. The pilot, Carl Young of Carlisle, Iowa, had been flying balloons for more than 20 years, he told me, and has been in countless Balloon Fiestas with a variety of different balloons.

Also in the balloon with us was Toby of the Tourism Department. This was his first balloon ride. He has been putting in some long hours to help with the fiesta, and is planning to bring some big VIPs to tonight's Special Shape Glowdeo.

The three of us took off from a field just north of Balloon Fiesta Park, along with many other standard shape balloons. From there, Carl maneuvered us over the field and dropped down to about 10 or 20 feet above the grass so he could drop a baggie on a target in one of the fiesta's flying competitions.

Afterwards, he went back up and flew back north, a great demonstration of the Albuquerque Box, where the wind blows in different directions at different altitudes. Using the box, we were able to fly over Balloon Fiesta Park several times.

Things are wrapping up here for today. We'll be back this weekend for the final Balloon Fiesta events, so stick around with KRQE.com and KASA.com.

Source: KRQE News 13 | By: Todd Dukart