"Intermediate Ballooning - ..." a Albuquerque Travel Page by kymbanm

The balloon I crew for is piloted and owned by a local firefighter-paramedic named Scott Esposito. We have a diverse group on our crew, and Scott, as well as his wife Anicia are wonderful to us all.

Being a private balloon, instead of a corporate balloon, we don't have pins and other toys. What we do have is comraderie, fun, and sooooo much laughter that my sides hurt by the end of the morning :)

Most pilots who are planning on flying will pre-assemble most of the basket - leaving only the propane burners and canopy assembly for the field.

The pilot will usually delegate tasks to crew members he or she has worked with before and have a trusting relationship with ...... clamping the canopy lines, and flight lines to the basket is one of these tasks ....

If you are asked to help, follow directions, and ask for the pilot or the crew chief to double check your work ... remember safety is everything!

If the winds have picked up, you pilot will give you direction on what to do for the upcoming rough landing.

Usually you are instructed to flex your knees, crouch in the basket, and hold on :)

As you can see, this landing wasn't perfect, but the passengers are still smiling, laughing and safe .... and in the perfect position for taking more photographs :)

There are flaps in the crown of the balloon that allow for altitude changes, landings, and later deflation.

This is a pic of the crown during deflation .... you can see the crown line, and a large section of the crown that has been released from the canopy for deflation.....

One of the best parts of becoming a crew member is the ability to build friendships and have fun while getting some sort of work done!

You are up at the crack of dawn, still in a dream state, cold, craving caffeine, and sometimes even awake enough to be hungry. These are the hardships that build bonds between different people :)

While waiting for the go ahead to set up, we chat about everything .. on this particular day we were working on convincing a crewmate that she was wearing the wrong size bra ..... we were right, she's much happier now ...... (snicker)