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kevin922

The 2003 Ballunar LIftoff Report (LOOOONNG) but awesome video / pics :)

By kevin922, in The Bonfire

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kevin922    0

kevin922
I’ve uploaded the crew swoop video here

And pictures here


The 11th Annual Ballunar Liftoff held at NASA space center in Houston, Texas was held August 22 – 24th, providing spectators with a plethora of sights from numerous hot air balloons to countless skydiving demonstrations, and I had the honor of being one of only two birdman pilots at the event. The wingsuits were a new addition this year, and were brought in with great excitement. Al Saylor, the coordinator for the Ballunar Liftoff festival had us come in a day early to do a media jump to help with the promotion.

And so the adventure begins….

I flew in from Washington, DC and Tamer flew in from Deland Florida, we had flights that arrived at approximately the same time and determined a meeting point, Al was sending a balloonist to pick us up. I was in the baggage claim area and called Tamer asking where he was, he told me he was outside my security gate waiting for me – I evidentially walked by him and didn’t see him, so I told him to come down to baggage claim. I waited about 10 minutes and he called me, “where are you??” he asks, I tell him I’m in baggage claim “where?” standing in front of hertz rental car I say. “Well I don’t see you, I’m standing in front of hertz” I finally asked him “Tamer, what airport are you at?” his response was “the Houston airport” well unbeknown to Tamer, there are multiple Houston airports and while in distance they are not far from each other in time they are. So I’m standing in Hobby and he’s standing in international about an hour apart. I walk outside and up pulls the “Up or Down” chase crew van, a lady rolls down the window and asks if I’m a skydiver and tells me to hop in. Turns out this is no ordinary chase crew van driver, it’s Sandy Graff – a championship balloonist. I inform her of the “small” problem that we had, only to realize it was around 5:00 PM and we’d be going straight towards downtown Houston in order to get to international. So as we’re driving I find out through our conversation that she travels around to various DZs and lets jumpers jump her balloon, mainly around Texas. I was thinking heck yeah! I’m at a balloon festival, where else would I have a good chance to get a balloon jump in?? Of course this idea was quickly put to rest when she informed me of the flight restrictions the balloons were under due to the proximity to major airports. Only to rub salt into the wound, Sandy told me she would have offered to take me up had it not been for those restrictions. Drat. So about an hour later we roll up and Tamer is outside with rig in hand. We start the trip back towards Al Saylor’s house, I look out and see an actual column of rain approaching. We get in it and it is coming down like cats and dogs, a rather discouraging start to the weekend but nonetheless it was soon gone and we were looking at blue skies once again. We get to Al’s house, which is situated in a neighborhood that contains an asphalt runway with numerous houses backing up to it. Al’s house was no exception to this trend, in fact he had a fairly new hangar in his back yard housing numerous planes, one of which was astronaut Dave Brown’s from the space shuttle Columbia – turns out they were neighbors. Al was not there when we arrived, and I later found out this was because at least during this weekend Al is busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest. When Al arrived we exchanged quick hellos and were soon off to the “safety meeting.”


The safety meeting

The “safety” meeting consisted of pre-registration and a Mexican dinner at a local bar. Our own DZ.comer Rebecca was on her way and a few hours after we arrive she begins calling asking Tamer and I for directions. She ended up going up and down the street a few times until she found us, but she eventually did. I didn’t recognize her, but after meeting her and talking to her for a while I definitely recognized her eye J it is the same one that is in her avatar. I met a lovely crew dawg named Jen, she and I formed a team to challenge Rebecca and Tamer in pool. We then proceeded to get our butts kicked 3 or 4 times before giving up. So we decide to call it a night, and head back to Al’s knowing that in less than 8 hours we’d be doing the media jump, the butterflies were starting.

So we roll out of bed and jump into NASA

So the next morning we get up super early in order to jump into NASA, I roll out of bed and hop in the shower when I get out Tamer informs me that Al moved the jump up 30 minutes for the media, so we had to hurry. I repacked my main for sanity sake, put on my suit, walked out the back door of Al’s house and hopped in the Cessna 206. Tamer informed me he was a little worried, why? Well he’s never, ever, jumped out of a Cessna. We went over the exit, hopped in the plane and taxied down the runway. We turned around ready to takeoff only to see a giant hot air balloon directly in the path of the runway about 1000 feet off the ground. We waited a bit for it to clear and off we went. As we climbed and headed towards NASA we passed balloon after balloon, it was quite a site. Some of them had landed, one of which in a 4 lane highway stopping a line of traffic. We started flying around the DZ, Saturn 5 clearly visible as was a Remax hot air ballon. We planned out the exit point and where we were going to go, I was wearing smoke and the 206 had smoke as well. The pilot told us when we were on jump run, Tamer (who had just learned how to OPEN a Cessna door only 20 minutes earlier) turned the latch and the door flew open. I can only imagine what he was thinking, wearing a suit with huge wings between his arms and legs, crawling out onto a small step with 60 mph wind hitting him. He got out, I got out popped the smoke and gave the count and we were off! We flew around, deployed and started to come in for the landing. I came in, had a perfect landing right in front of the news cameras. Everyone was ecstatic; they said you could see everything from the ground and that it was amazing.

The Bird Dawgs are Formed

I was worried that because I didn’t have enough smoke for every jump that the people on the ground wouldn’t be able to see us when we jump. Tamer and I both routinely “buzz” or flyby tandems that are under canopy at our home dropzone, so I approached the crew dawgs about doing it with them. Bill Runyon (sp?) was heading up the crew dawgs, and was all for it. He even (jokingly, but it wasn’t so apparent he was joking) suggested that they build a box with a hole in it and we fly through it, I was all for it but then he said he was joking J But they did build some killer formations and we did some killer swooping. I only wore my camera on a few of the jumps but the video from those jumps was awesome! Flying over a 13 way 5 – 8 feet from the top of a layer was just crazy. I wore smoke, and evidentially my glide ratio was similar to theirs because they were in my smoke for a while after I flew past them. They even felt my burble as I went by, it was just too cool.

I’ve uploaded the crew swoop video here

And pictures here


I met a lot of very awesome people, many of them were dz.comers - to all of you I met, it was good meeting you and can't wait to jump with you guys again!

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TB99    0

TB99
Yup ... that pretty much summed most of it up! You left pretty early Saturday night! The pool party was KILLER! I too had an unbelievable time there and definately did NOT want to leave that place!!! Thanks for the invite and thanks to all that were there for showing us a great time!B| I especially want to thank all those CReW dawgs for eating both our burbles during the entire weekend, lol. Swooping those formations so close was just an amazing experience!!!


Trailer 11/12 was the best. Thanks for the memories ... you guys rocked!

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kevin922    0

kevin922
Quote

No pictures of Shannon.

Dude. She's not gonna like that. You know how she is. >:(



She woulda liked it worse if I posted the video of her ;) I still have some others (i think she's in some) that i haven't posted yet.. i know rebecca's boobies are in one i haven't posted..

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Shotgun    1

Shotgun
Hey Robert, Is this the Shannon you're talking about?

Don't know if you remember me, but you "attempted" to take me on a headdown jump once at SSM (when I used to live out there) - well, we were headdown until you let go of me anyway. ;)

Nice pics! Good to see some faces from Texas! :)

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kevin922    0

kevin922
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Hey Robert, Is this the Shannon you're talking about?

Don't know if you remember me, but you "attempted" to take me on a headdown jump once at SSM (when I used to live out there) - well, we were headdown until you let go of me anyway. ;)

Nice pics! Good to see some faces from Texas! :)



No that isn't her, he's talking about shannon the rat,
rat23 i believe.

i'll see if I have any pics of her .. i guess i was just so much in awe i never got a pic with her :(

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Rebecca    0

Rebecca
Quote

i know rebecca's boobies are in one i haven't posted..



Huh? Wha? Dude- PM it to me- lemme see my boobies!

Cool story- especially all that exciting detail about me 'getting lost'. :S It's not my fault the Clear Lake (or wherever) city planners couldn't count.

Me driving: "OK, the address is 3345... there's 2000, 2200, yes, I'm going the right direction... over a bridge, la la la... 4500?!? WTF? What happened to the 3000's? Kevin, help!"

Kevin, "I'm not even from here!"

Me, "Well, find someone who is!"

Sigh. Good times.

you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' -- well do you, punk?

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Rebecca    0

Rebecca
Oh yeah- there seemed to be a few pictures being snapped, so I didn't remember Kevin specifically being one of the photographers... :$

I still wanna see it. Privately, of course.

you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' -- well do you, punk?

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kevin922    0

kevin922
Quote

Yea that is ... That's Shannon! Can't you tell a hottie when you see one?B|



Damn that's shannon? i didn't recognize her with her clothes on.. er i mean her normal clothes not a jumpsuit.. people look so different when they aren't jumping :)

sorry shannon ;)

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78RATS    0

78RATS
Your just makin it worse Kevin.

I have video of you literally eating out of her hand and you don't even know her name.:S

Good thing you live in another state bro'


However, I'm pretty sure she would forgive you if you just post the "Shannon video" your bogartin'>:(


Rat for Life - Fly till I die
When them stupid ass bitches ask why

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Brains    2

Brains
Quote

Your just makin it worse Kevin.

I have video of you literally eating out of her hand and you don't even know her name.:S

Good thing you live in another state bro'


However, I'm pretty sure she would forgive you if you just post the "Shannon video" your bogartin'>:(



It's amazing what you forget when in her presence:S

Nice pics Kevin, i still say holy shit every time i see that video.:o Very cool meeting you and Tamer, come back and see us again.

Never look down on someone, unless they are going down on you.

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