Well thanks to mother nature I dont see that we will get a 4th flight in this month, but 3 flights this time of year is pretty good for Indiana considering past history. In 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 & 2008 we didnt get any flights in during the month of February and in 2004, 2007 and 2009 we only flew one time….So 3 flight for Febraury 2010 is a record:):)

4 balloons

Mike

Brad

96th Street Bridge

2-14-10…4 balloons took to the air Sunday afternoon on Valentine’s Day to enjoy the snow covered ground. Keith, Brad, Mike and myself launched from Metro Airport in Fishers at approx 4:30pm. This was a training flight for Taylon, so I was along to instruct and enjoy the ride. We launched first with Keith right behind us.   We forgot the camera and attempted to land, but couldn’t find a good spot, so we went without the camera.  We had several spectators come out and waive at us during the flight.

The highlight of the flight was sliding the balloon across Geist Reservoir on the ice, what a blast! We flew 7.5 miles in 1 hour & 20 minutes with Bob, Alan, Bailey and Will crewing.

3 flights in 3 weeks in February what fun!

Our Flight

2.7.10… We met an hour before the sun was to rise with the outside temperature 10 degrees with about 6 inches of snow on the ground. We were short on crew, but we did just fine. I took Scott up for his first training flight that was more of an intro flight, though he did get to fly the balloon for about 40 minutes.  One other balloon flew for the first time in INDY, which was a new guy to ballooning with Jack as his instructor.

We purposely picked a launch site that would allow us to fly over Morse Lake, which we did and had a great gentle landing on the hard surface of the frozen lake.  The folks that were watching us for the warmth of their homes must of thought we were nuts!

We traveled 6.6 miles in 1 hour & 45 minutes, but the last 30 minutes of the flight were very slow with the winds changing directions many times. 

We had a great landing in the Westfield High School parking lot.   Thanks Bob for crewing alone, no Beth she wouldn’t come out.

New balloon to Indy

2-1-10…Long flght for Bob.  We flew for 2 hours, okay we flew for 1 hour and 50 minutes, but the balloon was fully inflated and ready for takeoff for 10 minutes due to a restroom break by Will.  We launched with Mark flying his balloon also from the barn in Fortville. The wind was very slow, which gave Bob the chance to do several practice landings, we did 4 in total. We were attempting to make it to Mike’s (a fellow balloon pilot) house to throw a baggie, but decided to stay low and fly to the west due to the upcoming darkness. 

As we headed west we noticed a truck traveling very fast through the fields below chasing us. We assumed it was a farmer that thought we were going to land, but it ended up being teenagers that just wanted to say hello!

We made out final landing on the northwest corner of 104^th and 400 w and travled 5 miles.   Beth and Will were our wonderful crew for the flight.

Afterwards Mark has all back to his place for chili.

The yellow pins show our takeoff and landing spots

Well we are well into 2010, but I wanted to give everyone a recap of 2009 before it gets away from us!

I logged a total of 108 hours that included 89 flights. Take away the tethers and glows would make our average flight approx 1 hour & 15 minutes.

Of those 89 flights 22 were training flights, 6 were tethers, 8 were glows and 53 were passenger / event flights.

8 flights were in other states, 6 flights were in Mexico and the remaining 75 flights were here in INDIANA.

Of those flights, 21 hours were flown on Inflated Ego, 86 in Blown Away and the other hour with Keith Shaffer.

Pilots that received training hours in 2009 included Bob, Brad, Taylon and Keith.

I am amazed I was able to get this many hours in considering I left the country for 9 different trips.

Let’s see what 2010 brings, we have 4 flights already with a total 5 hours and 40 minutes.

Thanks to all the crew for their help in 2009!

Thanks for reading, TONY SANDLIN

We ended 2009 with 4 flights!  All training flights, 3 for taylon and 1 for Bob.   The picture here shows the new design added to Inflated EGO:)  It’s all good and part of the adventure.

Month of Mexico, a wedding to be planned and a farewell to an awesome cook.  We had 11 flights and one glow. During the first part of the month we flew out of the back yard of a young man who was eager to propose to his girlfriend, she did say yes! 

We then packed up Inflated Ego and shipped it to Leon, Mexico we had 5 flights and 1 glow. The trip was amazing both Taylon and Hazel came along for the adventure and except for Hazel getting sick it was a great trip. 

We finished the month with a flight out of Columbia, MO with my sister in law Dana and Jim’s daughter Niki. The purpose of the trip was to spread the ashes of Jim, Dana’s late boyfriend who passed two years ago…We spread Jim around his old stomping grounds.  Man the guy could cook!

Month of the changing colors. 2 tethers, 1 glow and 10 flights.  Several training flights that included me training Brad to train Bob.

WOW!  16 flights, 1 tether and 1 glow.  Our month started in Danville, IL with all of our balloon friends at the NON-Event. We had a few flights in Frankton, IN as part of the Heritage Day Festival ran by Bob & Beth. At the festival we did a tether to raise money for Riley. At the end of the month we made our way south to Louisville to take part in the Kentucky Blue Grass Festival, at the event we were the  last balloon standing during the glow there with the rain less than 15 minutes away, it was a challenge made by the Dj’s that were there, we had to do it.  We did get in training flights for Bob, Brad and Taylon. Taylon did his first inflation:)