The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Inspires You
September 22, 2010- TCS # 217
Do you remember when I told you about me getting to be on The Crew for The Hot Air Balloon Festival 2 weeks ago? Well, this past weekend was the Plano Hot Air Balloon Festival and my chance to be on the crew. All of this excitement began Thursday Night. You See, I was thinking that we were doing our first crewing part, which I called “Sessions” on Friday Night since that was when it started, little did I know that, in fact, our first session was in the morning on Friday. Now, the surprise of this was that it wasn’t just in the morning; it meant we had to get up at 5:00 IN THE MORNING so we could meet at the Southfork Hotel, where all the pilots and crew had to meet. So, on Friday Morning at 5 AM, My Mom and I get up and head to Southfork Hotel. Once we got there, we had to find our pilot, Rick, so we could drive to the field. When we met Rick on that fateful day, 2 weeks ago, he told us to go to the Volunteer Crew Booth to register our names, but they didn’t have our names. So, the first thing they asked “Are You Part of The Media” and of course, My Mom jokingly replied, “Sure, which channel do you want me to be for, WFAA?” anyway, it turned out we didn’t need to sign in, we just have to find Rick and It just took a minute to remember what he looked like. After we found him, we met our crew for the day, of course there was Rick, his son Chris who was assigned to be Crew Chief, and their mom Carol who was in charge in Balloon Operations. After we all met, we drove down to field where the festival was. Now, I have to say that it was really awesome to not see many spectators there, the only other people besides The Other Balloonists where The Media. After finding our spot to set up, the hard work began which included pulling the Basket out of the trailer, setting up the poles and the heating element, pulling the balloon out of it’s bag, and inflating the balloon. Inflating the Balloon was done in 2 parts, the first part was using a fan and the 2nd part was using The Heating Element. During the inflating, 2 People had to be on the back side of the Balloon to hold the rope that attached to the top of the balloon or in Balloonist Terms, The crown. Once the balloon was up, you had to hold the “Crown Line” to make sure that the balloon didn’t sway and move over in different directions. Now, as I told My Brother and others about getting up that early to do this hard work, there are many times when it’s worth it, like seeing the sunrise, seeing the balloon stand up, and then, watching it lift off whether you are in the basket or on the Balloon Chase is a very proud moment because you think of all the work you did to get it ready. So, after watching it lift off it was time to chase the balloon. Now, one thing that I learned about the Chasing part of the work is how they view the spectators. Now, don’t get me wrong, they think that they are wonderful but, the spectators can be annoying sometimes because, as Chris pointed out, there are 4 things they do, they either walk in front of you, get in the way when your in a rush, follow you(which again, doesn’t help when your trying to get somewhere), or they just stare at you. Anyway, we chased the balloon down the way from the field and then, they landed. Now, the landing side of being on the crew was another story from getting it ready. After they landed, some of us had to hold on to the basket so, it wouldn’t go back up. The key was to hold it down on the ground, you had hold on to the basket and put your weight on it. Whenever we had to do that, Rick would say, “Weight On”. Also, after they landed a couple people had to hold the “Crown Line” to put the balloon down to help it deflate. After the balloon was down, then we had to get the air out of it and that require people on basket side of the balloon to choke the air to send it toward the crown, where I was. In balloonist Terms, they call it funneling. The people on the “Crown Line” side had to pull the line itself and then, pull the rope attached to the fabric of the balloon outward. Now, I have to say first that our balloon (City of Plano Balloon) like many others, the heating element is powered by propane and let me tell you, it smells like rotten eggs with warmth, it makes you feel like gagging. After the air is out of the balloon, The Funneling, then we stand in a line 3 feet apart from each other, we grab the fabric of the balloon (which is very heavy) and put it into the Balloon Bag. After that, we sit on the Balloon Bag to get the remaining air out of it. Once that is done, we take the pads off the poles and then, put them in their own bag. Then, we put the Balloon Bag and The Basket back in the trailer. After That, we head to a spot where they allow all the balloonists to fill their tanks with Propane and then, head back to our meeting place at The Southfork Hotel. After all that work, My Mom and I went to have breakfast at IHOP and After Breakfast, My Mom turned on the car and she had to chuckle because the clock only said it was 10:30AM. and, Then My Mom “We got up, set up a balloon, got it up, sent it in the air, brought it down, packed it up, ate breakfast, and it’s only 10:30!”. The Friday Morning Session went off without a hitch and it was head home, take a nap, and get ready for The Afternoon Session. Now, The Afternoon Session started off at 4:00 which didn’t go as planned because out of nowhere, came thunderstorms. So, we couldn’t fly that day so, instead things were delayed and we instead just glowed. Now, The Glowing Part was awesome because I got to be on the field and even in the basket to “Weight On” during the glowing. After The Glowing, everyone went to tent that they had set up to eat dinner which was BBQ happened at 9:30 that night which was a really later dinner for me. On Saturday Morning, we again got up at 5 AM and repeated the work process, only this time we were pleasantly surprised that My Mom and I got to fly in The Hot Air Balloon, It was Awesome. And, I have to say that nothing beats seeing a sunrise in a Hot Air Balloon and I also found that riding in one is very peaceful, except for when the Heating Element was used. After all the excitement and the landing side of crewing, Rick invited us to breakfast with all the other balloonists. By the time we were done eating breakfast, we felt like a family with them. on Afternoon Session on Saturday, there are almost too much wind but, They decided to fly again. You See, the rule of ballooning is that you can’t fly in winds higher than 10 MPH and the winds were at 8 MPH. The way they tested the wind was by a small balloon which in Balloonist Terms is a PieBall meaning Pilot Balloon. Chasing The Balloon was a little stressful because it going so fast and some spectators were in the way. That day they landed in a tall grass field which was really hard to work in because the grass and bugs were biting us. When I saw how tall the grass was, I thought, “Are we really going to run our crew procedures HERE?!”. on Sunday Morning, we got up at 5 AM for the final 2 sessions of the year, we did the same process on both sides, and then, all of us went to this nice breakfast place in East Plano. The food there was really good and they had good service, unlike the place went Saturday Morning. on the Sunday Afternoon, they sent the PieBall up to test the wind and it went straight up so, decided to blow the balloon up to have a show. All in all, it was a very productive, fun, and busy weekend.
Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. If you get the opportunity to have you go up in a Hot Balloon, Take it.
