Balloons Away! - 2011

Two weekends ago we again went to the Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival. This year the festival was held in November instead of December. We looked the schedule over and decided to again go to the Saturday morning launch. The local paper, the Yuma Sun, reported on the Friday launch, whetting our interest.






We got up early on Saturday, hoping to see a promised mass ascension, but it was not to be. When we arrived we were welcomed by a smallish remote-controlled hot air balloon.







 Some used a pickup with a lift gate, others used trailers to contain all of their gear.

Some crews had small carriages to store the balloon.

Others kept their balloon in a large bundle.

One enterprising balloon crew enlisted the crowd to lay out their balloon prior to inflation.

After they were given the weather report, the balloonists had to decide if they would launch despite the forecasted winds aloft. Soon a few were inflating their balloons.

We had not seen the top of balloons before, so that was interesting to see this year.

Of the registered pilots and their balloons, we ended up seeing only 5 launch: Applebee's, Fly n Beagle, Wound Up (Barney's), Cardiac Air Rest and Phoenixson. The Applebee's balloon chose a layout/launch site that was at the very end of the field. Due to wind during launch, the basket crashed into the chain link fence. Fortunately, there appeared to be no damage, and they flew on.

As usual, the crowd was part of the show. These young children were particularly cute.