Comment on Preparation is key in ballooning, but once aloft, it's mostly up to the winds

Preparation is key in ballooning, but once aloft, it's mostly up to the winds

When Dale Pattyn retired from the Air Force in 2008, he found a way to keep flying that required he relinquish much of the control he had as a military pilot: hot air ballooning. Now, he's traded in the sophisticated cockpit controls he once used a Special Operations pilot of Lockheed HC-130 aircrafts for a propane-burner, 90,000-cubic-foot nylon balloon named "Hyggelig." "Flying a balloon is all flying by the seat of your pants - you have to feel what the wind is doing," Pattyn said while preparing the 60-foot-tall, 700-pound system for the first event of the Labor Day Lift Off festival. Hyggelig was one of 65 balloons in a procession of launches that began just after 7 a.m. Read more on Colorado Springs Gazette

 

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