Great Reno Balloon Race

Brent Dowell

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Well, I got up early at 4:00am to go and see the balloons take off. Specifically wanted to take some pictures.

Well, I figured I'd do something different and shot some timelapse shots just for kicks and grins. Used the old PointandShoot for some other shots.

What an amazing thing to see. Anyhow, thought I would share the video and some of the pictures...

http://brentdowell.blogspot.com/
 
Man to be able to see an event like that first hand I am green green dark green with envy.:)

The time lapse is incredible. That takes first prize. Did they really bob up and down or is that you doctoring the video.

I think the shaped ones the like the Wells Fargo stage and the Smokey Bear are my favorite. I love hot air balloons. To me its one of the last remaining fascintaing items that have not had all the fun taken out of them. You got real nice shots there Brent. Thanks a ton for sharing that event.

Hey you been sailing yet. Seeing your boat in the minature picture made me think to ask.:D
 
Man to be able to see an event like that first hand I am green green dark green with envy.:)

Well worth waking up. I was pretty neat to see the field go from just grass, to covered with people and equipment, to balloons. I'm really glad I went.

The time lapse is incredible. That takes first prize. Did they really bob up and down or is that you doctoring the video.

They really do bob up and down like that. Some of them I was actually worried about because of how fast they seemed to be coming down at times! In fact a few of them went too far west and I think they actually landed early and dropped out of the competition.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20100910/SPECIAL01/100910017

I specifically remember seeing these two guys go too far west and drop out of sight.

Hey you been sailing yet. Seeing your boat in the minature picture made me think to ask.:D

Not yet but making progress. Got the motor all cleaned up and running last weekend. This weekend I'll be doing some work on the inside and the mast and trailer, and then we need to get it licensed in Nevada. Just a couple of weeks away... :thumb:
 
Me too, the time lapse give the whole thing a complete new perspective. Thanks a lot Brent.

BTW I've seen your other pics, I like the spider one and your multiple one:thumb:
 
That was awesome. The time lapse is really interesting. I watched it 2 times.

We have a balloon festival up here as well but it's nowhere near as big as yours. :thumb:

Thanks Bob! They said there was nearly 100 balloons there today. Wish I didn't have so much to do this weekend, or I'd go again tomorrow...
 
The time lapse was awesome! :thumb: Just great photos overall...nice work.

Thanks Darren, but in my minds eye, I know it could have been better. I should have picked the right spot the first time and put in the bigger memory card to begin with! There are a couple of interruptions in there I could do without.

I started off down on the field, and that wasn't a very good place. I did see some folks up on the hill, so I hoofed it up then just as the first balloon started to rise.

If I do it again, I'd probably drop down from 1 shot every 5 seconds to 1 shot every 2 or 3, if my camera and memory card can keep up... A faster interval would have slowed and smoothed things out a bit. Oh well, Live and learn!
 
+1 Jay on that comment.:thumb:

Hey Brent whats with "motor" its a sailing boat.:rofl: And why the licence?:dunno: Is this for the trailer or the actual boat. Is it just a cash grab or is there actually some logic to it.

If it were me i would go again.:rofl: You can always catch up with the work next weekend but to see a bunch of ballons like that dont happen every day. Come on Sharon let him go P....L....E....A...S.....E:stick::bow::D

Now i am going to watch the time lapse again knowing thats how it came out in sequence. Absolutely awesome. You should post it on You tube.:thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:
 
Hey Brent whats with "motor" its a sailing boat.:rofl: And why the licence?:dunno: Is this for the trailer or the actual boat. Is it just a cash grab or is there actually some logic to it.

Have to get both the trailer and the boat licensed. They were registered in California, and we need to get them registered in Nevada. Just the way of the world I reckon.

Actually, this "Sail" boat has a 50 horse 4 stroke Honda on it. It will actually get up on a plane and cruise about 18-20 mph... Makes it quicker to get around when there's no wind! When we used to sail it on the river, there were times with an strong incoming current and the wind blowing so hard we'd be sailing backwards! We'd have enough speed over the water, but our actual ground speed was negative due to the current and the angles we'd have to tack.

The 'Iron Genoa' would come in real handy then... :D
 
I liked the time laspe. I have watched balloons from my yard for 32 years now and I still like them. In the past 19 years we have had about 10 land in our yard. I'll help them bring it around the shed up by the drive so they don't have to carry it so far or put deep tracks in the yard with their pickups. If the wind is fairly calm at ground level 2 people can move the balloon around. The pilot fires it just enough to barely float it. When you get it where you want it one person takes the top rope and pulls out to the drection you want the balloon to lay and the pilot pulls the cord inside that pulls the top out of the balloon. The tops are velcroed in with a 2-3" patch every 12-14".
 
I liked the time laspe. I have watched balloons from my yard for 32 years now and I still like them. In the past 19 years we have had about 10 land in our yard. I'll help them bring it around the shed up by the drive so they don't have to carry it so far or put deep tracks in the yard with their pickups. If the wind is fairly calm at ground level 2 people can move the balloon around. The pilot fires it just enough to barely float it. When you get it where you want it one person takes the top rope and pulls out to the drection you want the balloon to lay and the pilot pulls the cord inside that pulls the top out of the balloon. The tops are velcroed in with a 2-3" patch every 12-14".

Thats right! I'm an Iowegian by birth... Remember hearing about the Indianola balloon launches every year...

The big question Rex is do they give you a bottle of champagne?
 
Great photos, Brent. :thumb: The time lapse was great. The Reno event has a good reputation among balloonists, and it draws a pretty good sample of balloons.

...They said there was nearly 100 balloons there today...

Multiply that by eight to ten, and that's the kind of balloon event I used to work at as a crew member. For about 15 years or so, I worked on (or ran) balloon crews at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Ten days of up to 800 to 1000 balloons. Even after I moved to LA, I'd take a week off work every year to do the balloons. Had I not moved to LA, I would have likely gotten my pilot's license, about a year after I moved. (I was next in line...the people I was working with typically trained the crew chief to be a pilot. I was a chief, and my pilot had just gotten his commercial license. I was next, but I moved.) I haven't crewed since I broke my back 9 years ago (yesterday), but ballooning was the best excuse I ever had for getting up at 3:30 in the morning. Also the best excuse I ever had for drinking beer at 6:00 AM. :p (Those were the crazy days, when I was working with a bunch of cops. The pilots never drank before the balloon was packed up and put away, but the crews weren't always that conscientious. Man, I could tell some stories. :rolleyes:) Later, I worked on crews for corporate balloons (Famous Footwear Tennis Shoe, Klondike Bar Polar Bear, Eveready Battery, Viewsonic Computer Monitor, and an 11-story tall Bald Eagle) so things were not quite as wild. The special shapes are much more involved to work on and control, so you really had to be on your game.

RE: The Smoky Bear balloon...I wrote the original proposal that went to the Forest Service trying to convince them to sponsor that balloon. (I wasn't involved financially, but I did it as a favor to the folks who I was crewing for.) The Forest Service was in the process of accepting the proposal, then someone up the chain of command stalled the deal. A couple years later, that balloon showed up, owned by someone else, but sponsored by the Forest Service. Apparently, someone took the idea (including the drawings of the balloon) and bypassed the people who originally proposed it.

RE: Photographs...back in the '90s, and probably to this day, the Albuquerque event is the most photographed yearly event in the world, according to Kodak. (The Rose Parade in Pasadena is the most photographed one-day event, but more film was purchased in ABQ in 10 days than any other event every year. I have 1.6 bajillion balloon photos, but they are all from the film era, and stored away where scanning them isn't practical. I've seen a lot of cool stuff over the years. (And a few cases of not-so-cool stuff.)

Sorry for the small novel, but I have a lot of history with balloons. ;) Cool stuff indeed, and I'm glad you got to experience it.
 
...the rest of the bottle gets poured over your head...

Or stuck upside down in the back waistband of your pants, depending on who's doing the initiating. :p And the initiations for pilots can be downright brutal. Instead of champagne, think more along the lines of catfish bait. :rofl: I participated in one where the instructor (who does the ceremony) did the whole thing from inside the truck, over the loudspeaker, because he didn't want to get splashed with the concoction we had prepared for the pilot. The pilot knew it would be bad (he'd been a crew chief himself, and we'd learned from him), so he showed up with a diving mask and snorkel. :D
 
Hah! Thanks for the insights Vaughn!

I found the whole thing very interesting. Seems to me the first guys to launch today were at a disadvantage as most of them endend up drifting to the west, and seemed to be unable to make it to the north, where the first "drop zone?" was? It ws probably a half mile to the north, and the guys who seemed to float that way were hanging very, very low. Some just barely grazing the road just to the north of the field.

I did notice some balloons dropping out of sight to the west, and sure enough, the local paper had pics this afternoon of them landing in suburban neighborhoods in northwest reno.

I'd love to go again tomorrow, but my schedule doesn't really allow that.

I'll be at the Reno Air Races in a few weeks. Sharon and I went for the first time last year and that is one big bonanza of photo ops, so that should be fun as well....
 
I always wanted to go, but knowing how we (and especially Brent) hate crowds, never pushed him for it. I suggested it this year because of his new camera hobby. We decided he'd go on Friday and we would both possibly go Sat. However with vacation coming up...too much stuff to get done around here (sigh)

Next year, we'll both plan on going on Saturday which has the Glow Show before sunrise and before the general launch. That will be cool.

But Friday we are going to the Reno Air Races which is internationally famous and super cool:

http://www.airrace.org/indexJS.php

More pictures coming your way :thumb::thumb::thumb:
 
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