KRQE.com Balloon Fiesta Blog

So as Ryan mentioned in his last post, the balloon ended up at an alfalfa field in Corrales. For the flight, since Ryan was all snug up in the sky, I joined the chase crew to find the Racer.

And that brings probably the biggest challenge in being on a chase crew: finding the balloon.

But first, we needed to get out of Balloon Fiesta Park - a challenge when you consider the crowds. It was packed with people, especially since we were in launch site G1, right next to the park's Main Street. It took a couple of members of the crew to help guide the van to the exit on Roy Road.

Then we tried to find the Racer among the mass of balloons flying northwest of the field. Just spotting it is a challenge, but it's really quite useful to be able to predict where it's going, especially in relation to the Rio Grande.

(There are very few river crossings near Balloon Fiesta Park, so being able to know which side of the river the balloon would land on allowed us to get close enough so we can clear the balloon out of the field quickly, helping other pilots land.)

Of course, we also kept in contact with Carl via two-way radio, so we were able to ask him where he planned on landing, as well as get some direction about how to get there. The map provided by fiesta officials helped a great deal too.

When it landed and we finally got to the alfalfa field, we stopped to ask permission from the landowner. He was very nice about the whole thing, letting us drive on his driveway all the way to the balloon. His one simple and reasonable request: Don't drive on the alfalfa.

From there, it was just a matter of maneuvering the balloon to the driveway and neatly packing the envelope into the bag. It was a nice workout, but it wasn't hard at all.

While Carl's crew heads back home, Carl said he'll stick around until after tomorrow's mass ascension, if it happens. The winds might be a problem, so we'll keep an eye on it.

And, if you're curious, we are planning to leave our Balloon Fiesta coverage online after everything wraps up. And, we'll be adding to it through the week with some of the video we were never able to get to posting.

Source: KRQE News 13 | By: Todd Dukart