I sometimes see posts on a balloon site about upcoming flights. On 14 February this posted that the next day's flights were 10 balloons flying from Royal Park to Fawkner Park. We thought they would take off about 0630 and fly for about an hour so we should see them in the distance from about 0715 onwards. This first image was taken at 0717 just outside the back gate to 505.
There was already one down by this stage but this was the first down while I was in the Park.
The collection vans,
The flock descends.
10 in this image with 2 already landed.
I asked the drivers how much control the balloon pilots had. The reply was that they had control of up and down but had to remember wind directions at various elevations to get the horizontal moves they wanted.
Flames to control the descent: I am unsure if the guy on the ground has a rope to pull also.
This is on the oval out the back of 505. The units which back on to the Park would have had a great view.
This looking through the top of a balloon.
When I got back to the apartment Frances asked whether I had seen the one hit a tree. She was just out the back and heard the crash as it hit. All the passengers had left by the time I got back - no idea how I didn't hear it.
I think that balloon could be considered '
kufuta' (Kiswahili for 'erased'). It seems from t
his discussion that a balloon costs at least $30k of which I suspect a fair proportion is for the canopy (looking at other sites the canopy is about 80% of the total). The pilot looked very dejected.
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