Smallhorses
Staff Emeritus
- 7,260
Hi there! 
Last year as a birthday present to me from Rachel (itgirlxx), and with various birthday monies given to us by our family members we were given a balloon ride as a gift.
We're legendary procrastinators, (so I'll be back to finish this thread later... j/k!) and didn't get round to booking anything by the time the weather became unsuitable for ballooning in wintertime here.
Yesterday (July 17th) we finally did our flight & Champagne Brunch at Kendall Jackson Winery with Up & Away Ballooning. 👍
We were supposed to fly from close to Santa Rosa airport, along the Russian River Valley, but the weather conditions around the Northern California coast can be somewhat foggy around this time of year, so the flight was moved inland a little to around Middletown.
Consequently this meant our meeting time which was supposed to be 5:30am at Charles M. Schultz Airport (Yup, the Snoopy guy has an airport named in his honour!) was brought forward to 5am.
Given that it's about an hour drive from our home by the SF Bay to Santa Rosa, our alarm went off at 3:20am yesterday
to give us time to get up, bleary-eyed, and get showered before jumping in the 911 and powering across the Richmond Bridge to Highway 101 and on up to the meeting point.
Arriving there, we met the other 8 wannabe balloonists, and were split amongst 3 vans with their ballooning trailers, to be bussed, sleepily, about an hour inland to Middletown, a great drive which means joining Highway 29 just North of Calistoga and winding up and down the mountain road before reaching our destination (and having a well deserved nap on the way if possible!)
We stopped briefly for a quick coffee (or Diet Red Bull!) and bathroom break (there's nowhere to pee in a balloon!) at a gas station close to the launch site.
Once there, we helped and observed the balloon pilots & their support crews in setting up the 3 balloons that'd carry us for just over an hour of early morning flight.
Rachel & I took up positions to help them inflate the balloon horizontally, which is done first by blowing in air with a petrol-powered fan (about 30" diameter) which gives enough clearance then for the hot-air burners to be blasted inside and get the balloon into it's vertical position ready for launch.
The basket unloaded. It contains 4 good sized propane tanks which'll allow for around 2 hours maximum flight time.
The crew setting up our hot-air rig.
Rachel watches the balloon being unravelled from the trailer onto the protective tarps after it's been hooked to the basket.
Rachel (& I on the other side) help with the balloon inflation, wearing gloves to prevent rope burn, we gradually released the cluster of ropes one by one as the canopy grew in size.
Our pilot, Daniel, checks the rigging & gets the burners ready to fire up.
"Dreamweaver"'s (our balloon's name) canopy gradually inflates...
The noise and ferocious heat from the dual propane burners was phenomenal to stand so close to, and after a few minutes we were glad to step away as the balloon began to right itself as the hot air did, well, what hot air does.
Rachel & I by "Dreamweaver"'s basket prior to embarking. The balloon in the background was one of the others from Up & Away Ballooning.
Our balloon was ready first, and 6 of us plus the pilot loaded into the basket ready for embarking on our "Montgolfier" expedition across the California landscape, shortly after 7am.
Takeoff was a really gentle experience, save for the blasts of heat that threatened to singe our scalps each time the burners fired, and very peacefully and calmly we began to ascend away from the launch site with almost no feeling of motion at all.
Looking back just after takeoff, we catch our 2nd companion balloon (about $90,000 worth!!!!
), owned privately by the pilot, Jim, (who is a commercial pilot for United Airlines when he's not floating passengers around for hobby!) moments after it's own takeoff.
Ascending to a little over 1000ft, we look down onto the rising balloons of our fellow aeronauts as another set of balloonists get their canopy unfurled.
Jim's balloon rises up to meet us.
The balloons ascending away from the launch site.
Just hanging around at about 1500ft.
Rising above us for a while, I took this photo through some of our rigging lines with just blue sky as background.
The pilot had a couple of pre-determined options for landing sites for our voyage, and by making use of the various different wind currents and directions which change according to how high or low the balloon was allowed to rise and fall, he was able to guide us out in the direction he ultimately wanted to be going.
The basket was a little cramped with 7 people on board, but the passengers were all just gobsmacked by the views, the fantastically floaty sensation and the occasional "jump" (not literally of course!!!) here & there as the burners fired.
Looking down on Middletown, the Sonoma Valley is in the distance, and we could see some vineyards below us, and a golf course which stands out from the usual scorched, dry, brown grass.
The other "Sister ship" glides above us, and some of our rigging, canopy & burners.
Jim takes his passengers down for a quick dip (trying to touch the basket on the water's surface!) which makes for a great reflection shot.
Looking up into our balloon as the burners are firing and you can see the heat haze & orange plume of flame!
We descended almost to ground level and watched millions of Crickets jumping in the grass, the odd ground squirrel and see the other balloon in the background as well as our own shadow.
"Dreamweaver"'s shadow on the ground, with the outlines of the passengers in the basket.
Floating freely in the sky, looking West with the Sonoma Mountains behind them.
4 more balloons from other ventures lifting off from our launch site in the distance.
Balloons everywhere!
Watching Jim's balloon coming towards the landing site with the later departures in the distance.
Another view back to the East over Lake County with balloons.
Coming in to land, our support crew has been tracking us to Daniel's proposed landing zone, a target he landed within 50 yards of!
Looking up through the burners and their detached fuel lines after we'd touched down ever so gracefully.
"Dreamweaver" deflates as Jim's balloon comes in to land behind it.
Yours truly with our balloon being deflated in the background
Jim scores a perfect Touchdown!
How to get rid of more hot air than a Congress full of Senators?
Getting the balloon down and ready for packing as those other balloons still seem to be following us!
So that was it, we touched down around 8:30am after a little over an hour of flight, and travelled only about 2 - 2.5 miles in that time, but with a lot of ascending & descending thrown in too.
It was, as I've already mentioned about 15 times, a truly amazing experience, although Rachel has categorically assured me I'm not allowed to buy my own balloon now!!!
Once packed up, we loaded back into the bus and headed back to Santa Rosa to collect our cars before we convoyed over to Kendall Jackson Winery in Fulton, where we were served a Champagne Brunch in the grounds by our Up & Away hosts. We were all presented with a certificate of newfound aeronaut status and a lapel pin of the respective balloons that we'd all flown in.
1 free wine-tasting later, we hit the road home for a well deserved nap, and full of a new batch of memories that'll stick with us for a lifetime.
If you're ever given the opportunity to take a balloon ride, do it! 👍
Last year as a birthday present to me from Rachel (itgirlxx), and with various birthday monies given to us by our family members we were given a balloon ride as a gift.
We're legendary procrastinators, (so I'll be back to finish this thread later... j/k!) and didn't get round to booking anything by the time the weather became unsuitable for ballooning in wintertime here.
Yesterday (July 17th) we finally did our flight & Champagne Brunch at Kendall Jackson Winery with Up & Away Ballooning. 👍
WOW!
What a truly fantastic, tranquil and awe inspiring experience!
What a truly fantastic, tranquil and awe inspiring experience!
We were supposed to fly from close to Santa Rosa airport, along the Russian River Valley, but the weather conditions around the Northern California coast can be somewhat foggy around this time of year, so the flight was moved inland a little to around Middletown.
Consequently this meant our meeting time which was supposed to be 5:30am at Charles M. Schultz Airport (Yup, the Snoopy guy has an airport named in his honour!) was brought forward to 5am.
Given that it's about an hour drive from our home by the SF Bay to Santa Rosa, our alarm went off at 3:20am yesterday
to give us time to get up, bleary-eyed, and get showered before jumping in the 911 and powering across the Richmond Bridge to Highway 101 and on up to the meeting point.Arriving there, we met the other 8 wannabe balloonists, and were split amongst 3 vans with their ballooning trailers, to be bussed, sleepily, about an hour inland to Middletown, a great drive which means joining Highway 29 just North of Calistoga and winding up and down the mountain road before reaching our destination (and having a well deserved nap on the way if possible!)
We stopped briefly for a quick coffee (or Diet Red Bull!) and bathroom break (there's nowhere to pee in a balloon!) at a gas station close to the launch site.
Once there, we helped and observed the balloon pilots & their support crews in setting up the 3 balloons that'd carry us for just over an hour of early morning flight.
Rachel & I took up positions to help them inflate the balloon horizontally, which is done first by blowing in air with a petrol-powered fan (about 30" diameter) which gives enough clearance then for the hot-air burners to be blasted inside and get the balloon into it's vertical position ready for launch.
The basket unloaded. It contains 4 good sized propane tanks which'll allow for around 2 hours maximum flight time.
The crew setting up our hot-air rig.
Rachel watches the balloon being unravelled from the trailer onto the protective tarps after it's been hooked to the basket.
Rachel (& I on the other side) help with the balloon inflation, wearing gloves to prevent rope burn, we gradually released the cluster of ropes one by one as the canopy grew in size.
Our pilot, Daniel, checks the rigging & gets the burners ready to fire up.
"Dreamweaver"'s (our balloon's name) canopy gradually inflates...
The noise and ferocious heat from the dual propane burners was phenomenal to stand so close to, and after a few minutes we were glad to step away as the balloon began to right itself as the hot air did, well, what hot air does.
Rachel & I by "Dreamweaver"'s basket prior to embarking. The balloon in the background was one of the others from Up & Away Ballooning.
Our balloon was ready first, and 6 of us plus the pilot loaded into the basket ready for embarking on our "Montgolfier" expedition across the California landscape, shortly after 7am.
Takeoff was a really gentle experience, save for the blasts of heat that threatened to singe our scalps each time the burners fired, and very peacefully and calmly we began to ascend away from the launch site with almost no feeling of motion at all.
Looking back just after takeoff, we catch our 2nd companion balloon (about $90,000 worth!!!!
), owned privately by the pilot, Jim, (who is a commercial pilot for United Airlines when he's not floating passengers around for hobby!) moments after it's own takeoff.
Ascending to a little over 1000ft, we look down onto the rising balloons of our fellow aeronauts as another set of balloonists get their canopy unfurled.
Jim's balloon rises up to meet us.
The balloons ascending away from the launch site.
Just hanging around at about 1500ft.
Rising above us for a while, I took this photo through some of our rigging lines with just blue sky as background.
The pilot had a couple of pre-determined options for landing sites for our voyage, and by making use of the various different wind currents and directions which change according to how high or low the balloon was allowed to rise and fall, he was able to guide us out in the direction he ultimately wanted to be going.
The basket was a little cramped with 7 people on board, but the passengers were all just gobsmacked by the views, the fantastically floaty sensation and the occasional "jump" (not literally of course!!!) here & there as the burners fired.
Looking down on Middletown, the Sonoma Valley is in the distance, and we could see some vineyards below us, and a golf course which stands out from the usual scorched, dry, brown grass.
The other "Sister ship" glides above us, and some of our rigging, canopy & burners.
Jim takes his passengers down for a quick dip (trying to touch the basket on the water's surface!) which makes for a great reflection shot.
Looking up into our balloon as the burners are firing and you can see the heat haze & orange plume of flame!
We descended almost to ground level and watched millions of Crickets jumping in the grass, the odd ground squirrel and see the other balloon in the background as well as our own shadow.
"Dreamweaver"'s shadow on the ground, with the outlines of the passengers in the basket.
Floating freely in the sky, looking West with the Sonoma Mountains behind them.
4 more balloons from other ventures lifting off from our launch site in the distance.
Balloons everywhere!
Watching Jim's balloon coming towards the landing site with the later departures in the distance.
Another view back to the East over Lake County with balloons.
Coming in to land, our support crew has been tracking us to Daniel's proposed landing zone, a target he landed within 50 yards of!
Looking up through the burners and their detached fuel lines after we'd touched down ever so gracefully.
"Dreamweaver" deflates as Jim's balloon comes in to land behind it.
Yours truly with our balloon being deflated in the background
Jim scores a perfect Touchdown!
How to get rid of more hot air than a Congress full of Senators?
Getting the balloon down and ready for packing as those other balloons still seem to be following us!
So that was it, we touched down around 8:30am after a little over an hour of flight, and travelled only about 2 - 2.5 miles in that time, but with a lot of ascending & descending thrown in too.
It was, as I've already mentioned about 15 times, a truly amazing experience, although Rachel has categorically assured me I'm not allowed to buy my own balloon now!!!
Once packed up, we loaded back into the bus and headed back to Santa Rosa to collect our cars before we convoyed over to Kendall Jackson Winery in Fulton, where we were served a Champagne Brunch in the grounds by our Up & Away hosts. We were all presented with a certificate of newfound aeronaut status and a lapel pin of the respective balloons that we'd all flown in.
1 free wine-tasting later, we hit the road home for a well deserved nap, and full of a new batch of memories that'll stick with us for a lifetime.
If you're ever given the opportunity to take a balloon ride, do it! 👍
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! But the thing i could never ever do is sky diving! I would probably pass out half the way 
!
