The fall foliage is looking nice and probably will be peaking early this year. We flew a nice couple from Middlebury CT on Sunday morning.
Sean and April
Lots of bright reds out there right now for fall foliage
It’s going to be a tough week for flying. Rain for first 2 days of the week, with a weather break for Wednesday, and the the weather forecasting models are not in agreement on how the rest of the week plays-out for Thursday into the coming weekend.
It is looking like the foliage will peak 1 to 2 weeks early. I noticed on this morning’s flight, that the colors are coming on strong, just since my Monday morning flight. Those of you who want to view the foliage at or near it’s peak, will need to schedule your flight withing the next 2 weeks. I have plenty of space available on my weekday flights, the weekends are full until the 9th. The color should hang on through the 3rd weekend, but after that, it probably will be over. Here is what it looks like around peak foliage around here –
One of the views out in the flying area
Peak color from up high
The way it looks right now out there!
Peak foliage up close
What peak foliage looks like on a late afternoon flight.
A fall foliage engagement flight
We had great flying conditions this morning and flying conditions should remain good for tonight’s flight. I am noticing that the fall foliage is starting to come on strong and may actually peak in a week or so, which is about 10 days early.
Tom and Alice from Voorheesville, and daughter Donna from Urbana IL.
The flying weather forecast for the balloon festival isn’t looking that good other than on Sunday. It should be flyable for them tonight from Crandall Park, except for the direction which isn’t the best to fly from there. The Friday PM and both Saturday flights may not happen because of the weather. Right now, Sunday is looking like the day to go view the balloons out at the airport.
This morning, Baker and I did one of the community give-backs we do annually, a free hot air balloon tether demonstration for the elementary school kiddies. Today, we were at Hartford Central School.
The kiddies all lined up watching us inflate the Peacock VIII Balloon
The kids watching Baker hold down the top of the balloon while it inflates.
Our teacher who went on the tether flight with me.
The kiddies parading by to get a look up in the balloon while we were up in the air. We had wonderful calm conditions for our tether demo.
Baker holding one of the tether lines.
I need to update a couple of flights that we did recently.
Victoria and Drew from Yonkers on the Saturday PM Flight
Carol and Dan from Shohola PA also on the Saturday PM Flight
We next flew a couple from West Seneca on Monday morning who is vacationing in the Adirondacks.
Karen and Ken up over Hartford with the early fall foliage
The flying weather forecast is somewhat typical for early fall weather, changeable. It’s going to warm up with a couple of fast moving systems for Wednesday and Friday, and hopefully flyable conditions on Thursday and for at least some of the upcoming weekend, which is the weekend for the big Balloon Festival out at the airport. We won’t be at the balloon festival, we will be out in Washington County doing our rides as per usual, enjoying the sights from a close distance, but away from the crowds.
The flying weather hasn’t been the best as of late, but we did manage a flight with 2 couples on Thursday morning, the 16th.
Janet and John from Slingerlands
Lisa and Wilson from Conyngham PA
The flying weather forecast going into the weekend and early next week is looking like Fall, as are the leaves that are nicely changing in spots. It may be a bit windy for my Friday afternoon flight, but Saturday looks good as does part, if not all of Sunday. And, the flying weather is looking good for the early part of the coming week, with a system forecast to pass-through mid week on Wednesday.
It was a decent weekend for flying until Sunday. We had good flying conditions on Friday and Saturday. I don’t have any pics to post of the Friday PM flight due to computer not recognizing my camera in IPhoto for pic upload, (I had just set up my new 3G IPad and it was still recognizing it as connected, it was late at night and was too tired to fuss around to fix, so I just dumped them after loading them onto the web site’s photo page). But I have pics from the Saturday flights, plus a youtube video from DJ, Ralph Renna’s birthday flight on Saturday PM.
Paul and Lorraine on the Saturday AM flight
Cassandra and Ralph on the Saturday PM flight
And here’s a link to Ralph’s 40th birthday balloon flight YouTube video, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So4IteVhF_Y>. You can check-out Ralph’s internet radio show at capitalundergroundradio.com
Monday morning was fine flying weather, the best that we experienced over the Labor Day holiday weekend. We flew a couple from Salem OH who was touring the NE and a couple from the Albany area.
Barbara & Bob, Elania & Brendon
The flying weather forecast for this week doesn’t look the best. There may be opportunities between systems here and there to fly, but it looks like late Friday into early Sunday of the coming weekend will bring the best conditions for hot air balloon flights.
We flew a couple from Edmonton Alberta on Wednesday morning. We definitely have our HHH flying conditions back that we had in July. Dave and Mallory are on an extensive driving tour of the northeast that started in Toronto.
Dave and Mallory
The flying weather should be ok for Friday morning, before Hurricane Earl’s weather starts to affect our flying conditions. Saturday looks out for flying as well as most, if not all of Sunday. The flying weather should be good for Monday into Wednesday of the new week.