First Hot Air Balloon Ride - Friday, October 13, 2023

Here is more regarding our first hot-air balloon trip, on the auspicious date of Friday the 13th of October, during the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, on the southern edge of Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Balloonists from Air Carriage prefer to fly out here, where it is safer, because most electrical lines are underground.  The flight required an hour, ten minutes.

We gathered at Mariposa Basin Park on Albuquerque's west side, to catch a ride to wherever our balloon happened to be.  Conditions were perfect for a balloon flight - almost no obvious wind whatsoever.

We caught up to our balloon next to the arroyo behind "A Park Above" on the southern edge of Rio Rancho.

Sitting in the balloon basket.

Suddenly things went wrong.  The pilot had started explaining safety procedures to us, got distracted, and lost control of the lines controlling the balloon.  Despite the stillness, a breeze was present, heading uphill, northwest up the arroyo.  The balloon started collapsing, with flames from the burner suddenly coming in contact with the fabric.  So, the flames had to be turned off and the balloon collapsed.  The crew called in another balloon.

Here comes our new balloon.

We ran to catch the new balloon.

Here it is!

We launched from the vicinity the Presbyterian Rust Medical Center on the southern edge of Rio Rancho.

Looking north along Unser Blvd.

Looking northwest above Presbyterian Rust Medical Center, with Westside Blvd. in view.

The balloon above.

Looking northwest.

A view of the Sandias.

We're at least 1,500 feet above the ground.

There's a balloon rising quickly near us. They have a shadow, and we do too.

The balloon rises above us.  We start descending.

Looking west towards Mt. Taylor.

The balloon near us quickly descends.

The balloon near us lands nearly on top of a fire hydrant.

As we descend, we catch low-level winds heading uphill, northwest along the bed of another arroyo.  Even as a meteorologist, I didn't really appreciate the presence of these wandering jets of low-level winds.  Balloonists, however, are very sensitive to these winds.  Our pilot was already freaking out a bit about the local thermals.

Dropping lower.

Looking at the arroyo, and northeast, towards the Sandias.

Descending.

A dog barks at us from this yard.

Talking with the woman standing in her driveway.

We just barely avoid colliding with the vent pipe on the roof of this house.

This kids' mural is in a private yard, but here we are!

Here comes impact!

Impact was very light, but we were still about 100 feet from an ideal place to place the balloon on a truck's trailer.  So, the pilot kept the balloon inflated and asked the crew to "skate" the balloon over to the road.  Sounded OK, but there was a low, cinder-block wall in the way, and there was just enough wind to blow the balloon basket into the wall.  This woman was trapped in between the basket and wall and was nearly crushed.  She had to rely on her "ninja skills" to escape.  So, even on days with very little wind, there are opportunities to get hurt.  Higher winds just compound the dangers.

Our balloon collapses.

The low cinder-block wall and our "skating" tracks.

We packed up or balloon, and returned to the first balloon to pack that up too.

Whee!

Here is a map of the balloon trip. We started heading southwest, but as we descended we did a hairpin turn and started heading northwest. The change in direction was imperceptible. The starting point and the ending point were only 0.86 miles apart from one another.