KLAQ El Paso Balloon Rally
My first KLAQ rally was in 1999. The host location has moved over the years but has always been a nice rally. 2009 found the rally for the first time in a change of launch location from the Wet n Wild in Anthony. The site was muddy but thunderstorms plaqued the area in the week preceding the rally. In 2010 we are promised an alfalfa field to launch. The committee does a great job of finding group events for the pilots and crew. The last few years we have been treated with a full dinner at the race track where we do the glow. My crew is few in numbers but we have managed to launch and fly with the best. In 2009 I came in 3rd place in the competition.
This hardly represents three flights. I was so focused on my duties as pilot that I forgot my camera on the first two flights. The last two pictures, well that's a long story. It starts with Alan in Albq. messaging me at 8 P.M. Sunday night and the next thing I know he says he is on his way and will be on the launch field at 6:30 A.M. Yep, he was there before me. Anyway I felt that he should get a good nights sleep before going back so I put him up in the Alamogordo Comfort Inn and after a short nap we went out to his dreaded Golden Corral and then he came over to the house to meet some of my wife's critters.
01/06/2010