Friday, day 7 was second of the Special Shape RodeoTM events. The pilot weather briefer talked about dissipating rain in the area and a normal box wind setting up. Dawn patrol did its thing and actually launched. However while the balloon of the day was getting ready to fly it was put on hold as a rain shower popped up. The rain shower did break up and balloons were cleared to fly. Amazingly there was even a little blue sky peeking through the clouds for a short time.
Day 7 competition
The last day of competition was again 5 poles each worth $2000, a central X and a Gordon Bennett Memorial task. Basically the GBM consisted of two triangles with the objective to drop a marker in one of them closest to the set goal, in this case the X between the triangles.
Turned out getting into the target area from the ground was the challenge for one of the official photographers. An overzealous navigator decided that listening was not of value and verbally accosted the photographer as she entered the area. This person then decided it would be best to call not the head of the media personnel but to the person above that. Luckily that higher up person was standing in the target area next to the media coordinator who could confirm that official photographers do have access to the area. The photographer ran past the security line during all this and was greeted with many apologies for the unfriendly treatment.
For the balloons, getting in the target area was tricky with the variable winds. There was a number of ground contacts and frustrated pilots looking for the right wind. But it was still a busy place to be.
Last chance for the RC balloon record
As competition was winding down the RC balloons attempted their record run. They needed 55 balloons up at the same time. There were 85 registered with at least 60 there to try. Unfortunately the winds were picking up and some of the balloons ran out of fuel waiting for others to stand up. I don’t know the official count but I believe it was 48, so no record.
Winds off the field also got a bit sporty for some of the pilots. Two balloons I know of landed in very wet arroyos and had to re-inflate back on the field to dry out. Turns out that was only the beginning of wet balloons.
Evening events on day 7
The Special Shape GlowdeoTM is a crowd pleaser and therefore really important to Fiesta. Glows weren’t having a great track record for this year so they really wanted this to happen. They may have wanted it too badly. Even though there was some instability in the area the pilots were cleared to inflate.
The Empire made their presence known while waiting for the official call.
Before all the balloons were standing up it started to rain. Minutes from the first “all glow” the announcement came in that rain was 2 miles to the south and imminent, all the balloons were told to put down immediately. Not something a special shape pilot/owner wants to hear with very expensive and slow to pack up balloons at risk.
I stayed on the media tower for a while watching Sunny Boy and Mr. Winter stand up in the rain. As the rain got heavier I headed to the media tent just as the first lightning flashed. As the crowd inside the tent grew the mass of cell phones announced a “shelter in place” order all at once. As the rain pounded on the tent, the sky suddenly lit up red as a loud explosion startled everyone. It turned out to be the fireworks show. It was not clear if this was a safety measure to keep it from getting wet, hit by lightning or to distract people from the fact that were were sheltered in tents with lots of metal poles during a thunderstorm.
A little while later another mass cell phone alert went off to “evacuate the area”. Yeah, right! That wasn’t at all possible so we opted to stay put till the rain slowed and we could cross the field to the car. We then sat in the car till the traffic started moving off the field and back to our trailer to listen to the sound of rain on the roof all night.
To get an idea of how hard it was raining and how fast it all happened watch the day 7 evening Fiesta Live video. The rain announcement is at 1:22:15, the lightning hit at 1:30:15 and the video feed gets lost at 1:33 as they try to cover all the equipment.
If you missed any of the previous recaps of Fiesta 2022 you can find the links below.
Day 9, the final day of Fiesta 2022
Fiesta 2022 Day 8
Balloon Fiesta 2022 day 7 (Friday)
Balloon Fiesta 2022 day 6
Day 5 at Balloon Fiesta and zoo party day
