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2016 Lincoln Balloon Fest
LINCOLN DAILY NEWS
August 30, 2016
Page 31
The day began with the scheduled fly-in at 6:30
a.m. being canceled. Heavy black clouds, thunder,
lightning, and shorts bursts of heavy rain showers were
the black balls that Mother Nature hurled that part of
the day.
But from the middle of the day to early evening, the
wheel went red, and the festival goers were the big
winners.
Under partial sunshine and fluffy popcorn clouds,
the Chicago Kites offered kiting demonstrations
throughout the afternoon. The heat of the day made
the vendors with cold beverages popular. As evening
approached, gentle refreshing breezes made the
evening lift-off a wonderful sight to see.
The launch this year began a bit earlier than expected
as by shortly after 5 p.m. there were a groups of
balloons taking to the skies, and others on the ground
working to inflate. It was later revealed that because
there was no fly-in earlier in the day, the pilots were
up to something special for the evening show, a soft
landing demonstration at the Logan County Airport.
One needs to understand the work that is involved in
doing a two-stage show for the thousands of people
who came out on Saturday evening.
The winds on Saturday evening were coming out of the
west so that balloons launching drifted gently off to the
east. Balloonists flew to a good landing spot, dropped
to the ground, deflated, and crews packed up their
balloons.
To participate in the second portion of the show,
everyone in the crew then drove west and well away
from the other side of the airport. They had to find
a spot, roll out the balloon, set up their gear, inflate
and then the pilot flew the balloon back into the grass
landing strip at the airport.
Details of the adventure included that the crew had to
get the inflating equipment loaded back up in the chase
vehicle, get themselves packed inside the truck or van,
and speed back to the airport to beat the balloon there.
Once the crew arrived, they had to coordinate with
the pilot where the landing would occur and be in the
proper position to catch the lines the pilot would drop,
and help bring the basket to a soft, upright landing.
Each of the participating pilots and their crews
appeared to execute all this to perfection with every
basket landing in the upright position, much to the
delight of spectators who for the most part don’t ever
get to see this part of a balloon flight.
With Mother Nature cooperating, for the time being,
the visitors to the airport were also permitted the
opportunity to see this year’s special shape balloon.
The pirate ship piloted by pirate Jim Frazier of
Albuquerque, New Mexico, inflated and stood for quite
some time for the spectators to view and admire.
In all, the inflation, launch, and soft landing fly-in took
up more than two hours of the evening, with all the
balloons deflating for a half-hour rest period before the
night glow scheduled to start at 7:35 p.m.
can’t beat determined festival goers
Mother Nature
S
aturday it seemed that Mother Nature was playing a game of Russian
Roulette with the Lincoln Balloon Festival, but in the end, it was the
thousands of people who braved some ominous forecasts and came out
anyway to the Logan County Airport for a day of great fun activities that
featured of course, hot air balloons.
Continued
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