It wasn’t the first time we were registered in a Gordon Bennett race. It seams that destiny has a way of doing things that we don’t always understand. Our first participation was to be in 1993, in Albuquerque with Ron Martin as PIC. We were all set to go when we realised that our balloon was leaking. Leo started to count how fast it was leaking (by looking at the diamonds of the net) and determined we couldn’t fly through the night. So at 10:30pm it was the end of our first Gordon Bennett race. It was a big disappointment, but by having been involved in ballooning since 1982, we had learned to accept the constraints of Mother Nature or other sources with a bit of philosophy. Nevertheless this first experience gave us an even stronger desire for flying gas balloons.

In the same year Leo and I went to Colorado to learn about ammonia flying with Tim Cole (we wrote an article for the CBA journal). That was it, we were hooked. For us, flying a hot air balloon is very exciting. The only way to make it better would be flying without the noise of the burner. Gas ballooning is a whole new world…total silence, higher flight, breathtaking scenery, technical and navigational challenges and the aspect of adventure we don’t normally have with hot air. From then on, we made sure to make at least a gas flight a year. It is not a lot, but we know the extent of our financial means. Fifty hours of gas experience are required to register as PIC in a gas competition. So Leo and I took turns flying with other pilots to build up time. In 1997 we finally had enough time to register together in a competition. Since than, we alternate as PIC.

Our second Gordon Bennett was to be from Paris last year. The cost of that adventure was very high ($3,800 registration fee, plane tickets, balloon rental, chase vehicle cost, meals etc). But the opportunity of flying from ‘les jardins des tuileries’ of Paris was once in a lifetime. So, we decided to go for it. It was a difficult experience. The French have ways of doing things that are far more complicated than here. After the registration (once they got our money) they kept springing on us all kind of rules and demands, such as their ‘ Air Police’, that were not always easy to comply with. At the first briefing, they imposed a lot of altitude restrictions over Paris (witch we could live with) but the launch window was only from 11:30 the Saturday night to 4:30 on the next Sunday morning. Apparently they were not able to get any other time because of the high traffic of Roissy and Orly airports. Apparently the authorities forgot all about the beginning of aviation - balloons! Even the weather in France didn’t want to cooperate. There were a series of systems going through, with a lot of convective activity. Even when it looked like the winds were dying down for the beginning of the launch window, we would have been on IFR conditions over ‘les Vauges’ (a small mountain range to the east) and consequently the flight was cancelled.

The next possible opportunity was on the Monday night (because no trucks are allowed on roads on Sunday). The helium vehicle had to stay in Paris. The helium was stored in its liquid form (low pressure), at a temperature of +4° Kelvin (or –272°C). This has the advantage of having a very large amount of gas in only one tanker. The small airport of Château Thierry (125 km Northeast of Paris) was chosen. Finally on Monday afternoon, after evaluation of the weather, a launch could have been possible -but we were to go over the Alpes on IFR and freezing conditions. A launch could have been possible until Wednesday night - but nothing led us to believe in an improvement of the weather. Finally the 42th Coupe Gordon Bennett was cancelled and only the ‘ mail balloon’ got a short flight from Château Thierry.

I am grateful for the friendship of our French friends who tried to make the rest of trip more pleasant. Without them I would have found this trip useless. Fortunately for us the FAI asked the organisers to reimburse the entry fee. The United States were chosen, among the 3 countries presenting a proposal, to hold the next cup.

This time for this third Gordon Bennett every thing seemed to flow easily. Leo made arrangements to rent the Peter Cuneo and Barbara Fricke gas balloon. It is an almost-new Padelt balloon conveniently located in Albuquerque. With this balloon we knew we had a leak-free and reliable system. Peter and Barbara agreed to lead the inflation and took off our shoulders a good amount of work. We had time to rig the basket to our convenience in their garage, an advantage highly appreciated.

It is amazing the amount of equipment we need for such a long flight, as example: Aviation radios, communication radios, transponder with encoder, GPS, flight instruments, emergency locator, barograph, batteries to power all this equipment, oxygen, maps, few repair tools, warm clothing, food, water and all we may need for a flight lasting up to 3 days. We also kept in mind weight, and located everything where they wouldn't interfere with other things.

One of our past frustrations was the lack of help from a meteorologist when we were updating the weather with the FSS. Pre-flight briefing always has been complete and extensive, and in-flight we could get information on each airport. But we could hardly get anything on how the systems were predicted to behave.

This year we made an agreement with the Montreal weather TV channel. They provided meteorologist services (on a non-priority base) against few TV and over-the-phone interviews. Two meteorologists of the team already knew about hot air balloon needs by having been involved at the Gatineau balloon festival. Leo met with them to make sure they all knew the special needs of a gas flight.

Our chase crew consisted of two Texan ladies; Donna Gardiner-Startz, a very experienced crew person who had done a gas chase for David Levin the year before, and Laura Hearn, a friend of Donna's who had never done a gas chase but knew about the amount of driving involved in it. They were both really good with maps and reading co-ordinates.

Registration was done, and Albuquerque organisers treated us very well: they gave us nice jackets, fiesta dollars (money allowing us to buy souvenirs we prefer), coins and participants were lodged in very nice hotel. In the afternoon the first official briefing was held. We met our observer and officials, the rules were reviewed, we got a primary weather briefing (by David Dehenauw, one of the Brietling Orbiter team meteorologists) and the order of departure was drawn. We would be the 3^rd team out of the 20 to launch on Saturday night.

Saturday at noon the pre-flight briefing was held. The meteorologist gave us the synopsis: Higher we go, faster the wind. The first 24 hours would be uneventful but there was a system north-east of us moving toward north-east, expected to diminish in 2 days and another system developing in the Gulf of Mexico, expected to increase in few days. So the best time to go was Saturday night. We had to be ready by 18:30 the beginning of the launch period.

Teams took their place in the field. Our French friends Jean-Mi and Nicolas took care of the sandbags while Peter and Barbara started the preparation of the balloon. There was a lot of help for the inflation. It was a bit breezy and none of the quick-filled started to use the helium, only the 3 netted balloons started to bubble of the ground. The launch period was delayed at 19:30 and a supplementary briefing was to be held at 18:00. At about 5 o’clock the first quick-filled started to inflate with helium. It was still windy but our inflation was without incidence.

Next to us a Werner balloon with parachute top had a problem. Instead of a rigid (wood or metal) valve, these balloon have a parachute top (about 2 meters wide). The inflation technique is different. The crew put the top in place and rolls it. They sit on the rolled part and start to fill the bottom part of the balloon. When enough helium is in the balloon, they all stand up at the same time and the top is sealed up by the pressure of the helium rushing to the upward. In their case something went wrong and the top didn’t seal and the helium was escaping. The crew closed the opening and started the process again.

The launch was delayed again to 20:30 because some teams had helium pressure problems. During the waiting time Leo gave a TV interview via cellular phone and talked with our meteorologist. He wanted us to keep due east and avoid going toward Northeast. So our strategy was to cross the mountains right away, get some speed, and avoid going too high with the more northerly direction.

Our balloon was ready. We kept half a ton of sand (30bags) as anchorage until 10 minutes prior to launch. A last verification from the officials, everything was there, we were ready to go. Sandbags were removed until equilibrium. We were carried toward the official launch platform. There were about 200 persons around, following us. It was grandiose; we looked like monarchs on an official parade. We were taken up to a podium of 15 square meters by climbing about 10 very wide steps. Peter, assisted by Jean-Mi, took care of the handling the last bags. After equilibrium, 2 bags were removed; this made us climb easily to 500 feet. We were very light. We were held to the ground. During this last earthy contact people were wishing us good luck, some yelled ‘have a good flight’. We saluted our friends spread in the large crowd, and at 21:50 all of them wanted to be witness of launches.

To the sound of our national anthem, applause, and cheering from spectators, we majestically left the ramp. The 5 kts winds pushed us temporarily toward the west. We were climbing 200 feet per minutes. During the first minutes we were busy with after launch duty, taking out the night-lights, turning on the transponder etc. Maintaining our rate of climb, we made sure we kept far enough from transmission tower of the west side of the field. We took off with 25 bags of sand and 5 gallons of water. Then we looked back. The launch site was getting smaller, but we could see the next balloon on its way to the podium, we heard the speakers announcing them, and the crowd acclaiming. The crowd was even bigger we imagined. These sounds were now fading to be replaced by the city noises.

We poured some water to increase our rate of climb up to 300 ft/min. We were going toward the mountain. It was getting darker and darker. The city lights were dimly lighting the mountain, and we wanted to make sure to clear it. We had a range finder good to 800 meters. We used it frequently. At 22:35 we could see we were just over the ridge, we took a reading with the range finder: 491 meters at 24 kts. We could expect a downdraft because we were under the rule of thumb (1000’ per 10kt of wind), on the other hand the east side of Sandia Peak is on a gentle slope and we waited to see the effect.

A 200’ a min. descent started, it took a few spoonfuls of sand to stop it. We established the balloon near 11 000’, we had a track around 95° and a speed of 20kt. At midnight we spoke with the meteorologist. He told us we had a good track and warned us about going higher and getting closer to the system. We got a call from our crew saying they were having an overheating problem with our vehicle. They were stopped at Clines Corner and were waiting for the engine to cool off. They didn’t know what caused it. Nothing we could do from where we were, so we suggested waiting until morning to see how the problem could be solved. We flew all night between 10 and 11 thousand feet keeping the same direction and speed. Very little ballast was used after the 9 bags needed to cross the mountain.

At 6:20 we started to see light on the horizon, and it allowed us to see 2 balloons, one lower to the Southeast and one higher to the Northeast. It is always exiting to see balloons on the horizon when the sun rises. Twenty minutes later we saw another balloon behind us lower to the Southwest. The Texan landscape is very familiar to us; almost every flight we did from Albuquerque took us this way. At 7:40 we confirm with the meteorologist our position. He’s happy with our track. The precipitation is more Northeast than yesterday prevision, which is good for us. We then contact the command centre to report our position, they informed that our truck has made it back to Albuquerque, apparently with a radiator problem. We tried not to think about the chase, our crew is resourceful and we had friend in Albuquerque who could help them with decisions.

The morning heating took us from 10 000’ to 11 800’. This climb made us take a slightly more easterly track (from 70° to 80°).

At 12:00 we were about 100 km SSE of Amarillo. We had another discussion with the meteorologist. He suggested for the coming up night to stay at 10 000’ because lower winds would be half the speed. There would be some light non-significant rain (from the Northeast system) on SE of Oklahoma for the time of our passage. It didn’t look like the system to the south would affect us.

The next day it would be gusty on the ground with winds coming back toward Texas, and diminishing by sunset. We were averaging a speed of 20 kts. It looked like we were getting closer to the balloons in front of us and gaining some distance from the ones behind. We prepared our meal but we didn’t have much appetite. We probably ate half of what was planned. Peter Cuneo had loaned me a book in French, written by Ernest Demuyter, a Belgian pilot who won the Gordon Bennett 5 times. I read some chapters that I found very inspiring.

At 13:45 we were at 15MN of Childress, TX when I contacted Fort Worth radio and asked them to report our position to the command centre (we found out later they never did). From 14:30 a slow descent has started. At 15 o’clock we entered Oklahoma State. It was amazing the change in colours. Texas is yellow as far as we can see, but Oklahoma got greener and greener as we went on. At 16:20 (ABQ time) we were 350 NM from Albuquerque and we were at 10 000’. We saw to the southeast of us cloud coverage. At 17:00 our track was then 63° and it look like we were getting closer to the clouds. We had hard time to reaching the meteorologist, he finally said that the system was going toward east. Tomorrow we would be behind it; there would be some clouds but no rain. The wind for Monday would be from NW at 12kts at 2 000’ to SW at 18kts at 7 000’.

We were getting closer to the sunset and these clouds still were getting closer to us. We let the balloon descend to see if we could keep these clouds to the south of us. It looked like if we kept this altitude the passage over them would be unavoidable. We’ve checked the winds on the ground; they were 17kts gusting at 22. We certainly didn’t want to land on these conditions, it would have been too risky.

On the other hand, we were not sure about going over the top. We knew we had plenty of sand to fly the night but we didn’t want to be in clouds. We brought in all the sandbags and stowed them under the bed, for the eventuality of a landing. We made sure the valve line had an easy access and we tried to have faith in our meteorologist who said the clouds would dissipate the next morning and nothing bad would develop.

At 20:00 the clouds under us dissipated then we went up 800’ without ballasting. It made us go through a very thin layer and we flew above it. It looked like there was a cloud in front of us but we started a light descent. The map and objects around us were damp. At 20:15 the track change from 77° to 105° and the speed drop from 21 to 15kts. Obviously we are affected by what was around us. Leo jettisoned 2 spoonfuls of sand to get out of this effect.

At 21:00 when we entered Oklahoma City zone, there was a thin low level layer. The air traffic controller asked us how many balloons were in the race - he could see 4. He also asked where we were going…(tough question to answer). We said as far as we can go (all the way through to the Atlantic if we can). At 22:25 we knew there was a balloon 15 miles north of us. We both saw some lightning, but the controller didn’t see anything on his radar (range of 55miles).

By 23:10 raindrops were falling in the basket. There were no clouds around us. We were down to 5,300’ and we thought it was moisture on the envelope dripping on us. This balloon is not equipped with a rain skirt. We know they are not very effective, but in a situation like that one, probably would have been helpful. Every thing was getting very wet. The map was soaked and our clothing was starting to get wet, too. I took out 2 Mylar thermal blankets and covered Leo, who had just gone to sleep. So at least the sleeping bag would stay dry. I used the second one on the load ring and then to the map board to at least not get the map any wetter. I had to empty the overhead water pocket regularly, but it worked.

Monday at 00:25, the dripping had stopped and with the weight relieved, we had climb 1,700’. We were 45NM SSW of Tulsa. We were informed of the presence of thunderstorms ahead of us, but they were to dissipate by the time we would get there. The balloon kept climbing to 8,900’. We were then heading 104° at 11kts. This didn’t please us, so Leo valved 1 second twice to induce a descent.

For the first time since the truck problem, we made contact with our chase crew. They were 70 miles SW of Oklahoma while we were 50 miles south of Tulsa. It’s amazing the range of these radios when we are up high. We were all very happy to finally know they were closer. Budget rental car, via the Albuquerque organisation, had loaned them a pick-up truck.

Because the map was too wet, Leo used the star-finder to find out in what direction we were going. By 2:30, Leo woke me up. I said ‘ you want me to take over’ he said ‘ no! I want you to wake up and see what is going on. A big cloud had formed just behind us. He said ‘ nothing was there 5 minutes ago’. My apparent calm reassured him. It was at an angle of 70° and going up to 20,000’. This cloud disappeared like it came. We were at 5,200’ tracking 103° at 21kts when we saw a lot of lightning really close by. We’ve called McAlester FSS. We gave them our position and track. The winds on the ground were from the north at 14kts, gusting at 22. They confirmed thunderstorms at 30 and 40 miles south east of us, they were going away from us on a south easterly direction.

Reassured a little by this information, we continued on. We were hoping not to have to land at night with these winds. Nevertheless we decided to climb a little. Ten minutes later we called again the FSS, just to make sure that what they said was still true. At 6,300’ our track turned to 93° and our speed increased to 31kts. It pleased us. The night went on, and lightning stopped. Needless to say these were the most frightening moments of our flight.

At 05:00 we called Fort Smith radio to get wind information. It wasn’t available, but the clouds were to dissipate during the day. The Air traffic controller was looking for a British registered balloon. That team had asked for the flight following procedure but communications were lost… We now know, that they were looking for Simon Forse who broke his back during an emergency landing. From what we now know we think he was only 10 miles south west of us when the weather forced him down.

At 05:30 a few drops of condensation were falling on us. We were at 6,100’ more than 2,000’ over the clouds. The sun rose. We could observe waves on the top of the clouds, just like a sea. It was the first time we could see such a phenomenon. We noticed ‘a dip’ in the cloud layer.

When we compared the map with our GPS position, it looked like the clouds were following the topography of the terrain. It looked like a canyon in the clouds!

At 06:00 another weather update. The higher winds were towards the east; on the ground they were from the north. A depression was to the east in Arkansas and Kentucky. Precipitation was in NE Kentucky and south Tennessee and was moving towards east. We were more than 300 miles west of it. At 07:00 we got a call from the tower saying there was traffic to the south of us, then we saw a big carrier at a more than respectable distance on his ascent to his cruising altitude. We started our climb from the solar heating half an hour ago. From 6,000’ we are now at 7,700’.

At 09:30, while Leo was sleeping I started to look closely at the two thin layers of clouds under us. We were then at 12,400’ with a track of 125° at 26kts. The lower layer was drifting towards the south. The top layer was drifting more easterly and faster than us. This is what we where hoping for. I woke Leo up. I wanted him to agree before initiating a descent. We valved 4 seconds to get a little descent of 150’/min; we stabilised at 11,800’. Another 5 seconds of valving got us down to 10,300’. The balloon didn’t want to come down. It took us 11 more seconds on the valve to finally get to 8,000’. At that height, it looked like we were travelling at the same speed and direction as the clouds below. We were still about 1,500’ over them. A few spoonful of sand stabilised us. We still had 9 bags of sand and we were 714NM from Albuquerque. We were glad to have this message from the clouds because the communications with our meteorologist didn’t work since the previous evening.

Near Little Rock (Arkansas) at 10:30, we got a whether update from the FSS. The front was from Chattanooga TN, going by Baton Rouge and ending in San Antonio TX. It was moving SE. Winds on the ground were from SE. We kept a track of 115° at about 27kts for few hours. We followed the Arkansas River for a long time. The meander of the river made it look like a long snake in the valley. By 13:00, we were over the Mississippi River. It was even majestic, due to its size, the large sandbanks and the dark green patches of trees along its sides. We were delighted by the scenery. The Mississippi landscape was very beautiful. There were clusters of fields with various shades of green. We could also see quite a few water basins. We could assume fish farming was also popular in this region.

During that time, we realised our path was veering towards the south. Our track was then 130° at 15:00. We called the FSS, and they confirmed what we already knew. Higher up, the winds were not better. They were turning south and slowing down. Winds on the ground were from the north at about 10kts. The cold front was from Chattanooga, TN to Hattiesburg, MS ending at Houston, TX, and the winds at the front turned 90° to the right, like they normally do. Sunset was at 17:40 ABQ time. We started to make projection for our flight path. We had plenty of sand to go on for another night. We had enough rest and were in good shape for another night.

On the other hand we would be over the Gulf of Mexico at night and we didn’t know what would be the effect of the cold front on our flight. We didn’t want to plan a night landing. At 16:00 we decided to land before sunset. We started to prepare the balloon for the final approach. At 16:45, at 7,800’ we started the descent. We did valve 9 times for 4 seconds to provoke and maintain a 200’/minute descent. It was a heavily wooded area, but large fields were spread here and there making us confident in finding a suitable landing spot. Leo handled the valve while I was taking care of the sand. In the last few hundred feet our descent accelerated to 300’/min and our direction shifted 90°, taking us to a less desirable direction. I discarded extra sand to make sure we wouldn’t level just at the treetops, because we were now heading right for a radar dome. "We are too low", said Leo. I discarded more sand to make sure we wouldn’t hit the dome. We were at about 15kts. I discarded too much sand and we went back to 500’ AGL.

We saw in front of us, a nice size brown field on the other side of a road with a power line. Half a km further, there was another small field. It looked perfect. The plan was to level off over the trees before the road and to deploy the trail-rope after the power line and the road. We started again a 200’/min descent, we were levelling off while we were heading for a pine tree sticking out above the others. ‘Lets hit it, it will slow us down’. The basket hit the top and stopped us. Leo made sure no rope was tangled in the branches (especially the deflation ports), while I made sure we were still levelled, not to descend on the power line near by. The crew was nearby; they knew where we were, but they could not see us because or the high trees on each side of the road. The balloon started to move again. We crossed the power line and realised we were going towards a cotton field. We were on a descent. We looked at each other and wondered what we should do.

It was a 150 meters long field, so I released the trail-rope, and we would decide before the end of the field what to do. The whipping of the basket by the trail-rope didn’t happen. Leo bent over the basket to see the rope falling into the deep ditch of the field. The grommet holding the rope to the load ring broke. Without the weight of the rope we were back to 500’again. This time we had to get in that little field. It looks like the wood went on forever and we had only 25 minutes left of daylight. Another approach!

We were travelling at 10kts. Like a hot air balloon, we brushed against the branches of the last trees and, 2 seconds before touch down, we both pulled on the deflation ports. We had a stand up landing. The balloon didn’t even bounce! We were really happy about this landing. It was 17:20 (ABQ time), we had flown 844NM in 43hours and 30 minutes.

It was a small pasture and it looked easily accessible by a main road. Less than 5 minutes after we landed, a pick up truck entered the field from a side we didn’t expected to. Six young men were in the truck. They explained that the bridge to enter the field from the main road was down and that the only access to the field is by the back roads. The crew was very close by. They also found out about the bridge. I went with 2 persons to get the chase, while the 4 other men helped Leo with the folding of the balloon. The back roads were very complicated, and with there help, we save us a lot of time.

At the main road, I retrieved the trail-rope from the ditch and we all went to the balloon. The group of men had watched us from the beginning of the descent and had followed us all along. Even the landowner was in the field with us. It was dark when we left the field. We went to Jackson for dinner and to sleep. Walking out of the restaurant, we noticed how strong the wind was blowing. We were glad of the way thing had happen. Donna and Laura thought we were in second place. We dismissed their optimism because some teams were still flying. We were all ready for a good night sleep.