![]() The fiesta happens every year, and is a “must do” event in Albuquerque. Just a few stragglers here and there that for whatever reason failed to launch, but up the sky… now that was a different story entirely. One by one, two by two, ten by ten and then the launching area was empty. The sight is absolutely incredible to behold and everywhere you look their colors fill the sky.Īnd they just kept taking off. Still, it is an extraordinary sight to see so many take off together.Īs the dawn lights and the sun takes to the sky so do hundreds of balloons of every shape, size, color and style imaginable. To be sure, “at the same time” means within a short period of time, and in practical terms, they take off row by row, with perhaps 20 in a row. What is really interesting about the mass accession is that the balloons–all 550 of them–take off at the same time. The couple from West Sussex, South East England said they would also eventually return to Sussex, N.B., where they waited seven weeks for ideal flying conditions.Balloons take to the sky in the mass accession during the 2009 Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. “Initially, we won’t be doing anything,” said Deborah. The couple said this latest setback wouldn’t dull their adventurous spirit and passion for flying balloons, but stopped short of making any final word on this particular trip. “It just completely takes everything over.” “In total, we’re talking eight years, and it’s a bit consuming,” said Deborah. The Scholes have faced multiple interruptions getting in the air, from winds blowing the wrong direction to French military exercises in the east Atlantic.īefore that, a worldwide shortage of helium, pandemic travel restrictions, and health challenges caused further delays. He ran a passenger ballooning company for several years. Mike, a former Royal Navy Pilot, began to lose his sight at the end of 2007. ![]() The trip has been a fundraiser for Blind Veterans UK. She regularly competes in long-distance hot air balloon flying competitions, and has flown balloons across the English Channel and the Alps. This is the longest flight Deborah has ever piloted. “Even with the issues we had, it was a beautiful flight.” “I’ve got to process it first,” said Deborah with a laugh. “This was beyond being able to fly on safely over a large ocean.”ĭeborah didn’t want to elaborate Friday on specifics about the technical issues. And as much as we wanted to do it, it would not have been okay.” “When you’re going out over a great big ocean, that’s a different ball game altogether and everything has to be absolutely right,” said Deborah. It wouldn’t have been right to have carried on.”īefore lifting off, both Deborah and Mike said the first few hours of their balloon journey over land would be critical in determining if everything was working properly for the remainder of the trip. “Like with any big project, everything has to line up. “There were technical issues,” said Deborah in an interview Friday afternoon. The journey ultimately ended early with the Scholes and their balloon making a safe, controlled landing just after sunrise in central Newfoundland. with the goal of completing a transatlantic balloon trip, landing in Spain in about a week. As Deborah Scholes piloted a helium balloon over Newfoundland toward the open Atlantic early Friday, she had an important but difficult decision to make: forge ahead or trust her gut.ĭeborah and Mike Scholes left Sussex, N.B., on Thursday at 9:45 a.m.
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