2. Airplanes

1984-1995 Balloonatic Days

A gallery of fun shots from my first days in ballooning in 1984 until I left Dallas in 1995 and the fun stopped. (Well, that kind of fun, anyway.) I still miss the smell of propane and the tang of a chilled glass of champagne in the morning. Ah, those were the days!
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    COMING DOWN Dave decided to perform a little Splash-'n-Dash to amuse Doug Two and the guy in the boat, so we're headed down to the water. What Dave didn't plan on was a faulty fuel gauge on the only propane tank in operation. We found the hard way it takes exactly one tank of propane to get from where we took off to right here. At this point, I'm furiously changing propane tanks, but it was too little too late. Hang on! Here we go!!!
    SPASHDOWN!!! When we first hit the water, the balloon was tilted over at a 45-degree angle and water was coming in over the combing where Doug Two's foot is. It was like seining for fish. I'm surprised we didn't catch any. Those are my legs on the other side of the basket.
    DOUG ONE HAVING FUN Hey, what else can you do in this situation, except contemplate abandoning ship to relieve the balloon of some weight. I was just about to do just that when I noticed us starting to gain some altitude. After we broke the surface tension of the water, we shot up into the air like a rocket. I'm glad I stayed in.