My sister Barbara gave her husband Joe a balloon ride for two as a Christmas present. Joe asked me to accompany me on Sunday morning for a balloon ride out of the Columbia County Airport conducted by BalloonNY. Saturday we drove to Delanson to stay overnight and arose at 3am to drive to the airport in time for our 5:15am balloon prep.

Below we lay out the balloon envelope and inflated the balloon with air prior to heating.

Our balloon held two youngster, a driver and Joe & I. As we took off we manufactured a sunrise. A little later we were able to see the shadow of the balloon on the fog surrounded by a rainbow aura created as the sun heated the balloon fabric.

The balloon had tremendous altitude control and several times the pilot would drop it down to brush the tops of trees. We landed at an orchard and quickly dumped hot air out of the top of the balloon. When we were finally out of the balloon we squeezed the remaining air out of the balloon and stowed everything in the chase van.