If you watch the Fiesta Live broadcast for day 5 you will get a good sense of what it was like on the field. The footage of pilot briefing shows the papers blowing and a radar map showing lots of green sitting right on the entire state of New Mexico. But there’s hope. Dawn patrol is standing up, well about a quarter of the dawn patrol balloons are standing up.
During the weather brief they talk about the rain in the area and the thunderstorms coming in for the afternoon and that there is a heavier batch of rain that should be hitting the field in about 20 minutes. Next they talk about the schedule for the day which included the flight of the nations, off field targets and the record attempt of 75 RC balloons. With rain spotting the camera lens they boldly put the balloons on…hold. They really want people to be patient for a while, then to static when the conditions improve. That yellow flag must be really wet by now.
It seemed like a good time to take photos of the sponsor tents. Boring stuff but photos that Fiesta needs for marketing. As the cloud deck descended and the rain increased they announced that they were staying on hold and hopeful things would improve. Easy-ups starting being set up by some of the more persistent crews as others headed off field to drier shelters. Sometime just after 7:45, as the announcers were going to move their broadcast undercover from the rain, the officials finally cancelled. I’m not sure if red flag was hoisted since the visibility was so low I couldn’t see across the field.
America’s Challenge
Wednesday was the last launch window for the gas balloons. They canceled the event.
Zoo Party
Ballooning wasn’t the only Fiesta event for the day. It was zoo party day. When Ernie and I were regulars at Fiesta they had lots of sponsored parties scheduled. The zoo party out lived the others. I think it went away for a while but with all the years we missed I can’t be sure. In the past it could get a little out of hand. There was an incident with a crew person trying a table center piece on his head. The zoo security did not find it amusing. He was escorted out and not allowed to keep the paper mache watermelon. I won’t confirm or deny who that was.
The rain that started in the morning just kept falling. If you arrived on time at the zoo you could get food that wasn’t wet yet. The cookies were kept dry at least. The few covered tables and covered exhibits such as the polar bears became very popular.
Many of the animals were also seeking shelter but a few were out. The lion and polar bear were doing some posturing between their enclosures. It was rather odd seeing two predators that would never naturally meet staring each other down.
The rain did eventually stop but it took 2 days for my hoodie to dry out.
If you missed the posts about the earlier days you can find them at the links below.
Day 9, the final day of Fiesta 2022
Fiesta 2022 Day 8
Balloon Fiesta 2022 day 7 (Friday)
