Trips

The balloons land all over the greater Albuquerque area: in back yards, in the Rio Grande river, back on the balloon field, etc. - often in our RV camping area, as we were very close to the balloon field. Because steering a balloon is nearly impossible, pilots often have little choice of landing place. They can go up and down to avoid obstacles, but that is about it.

Little Angel approaching

Touch down

Collapse

Flattened

Many balloons landed in the area next to our campers, giving folks an opportunity to go help with the process.

Several different kinds of competitions are held during the Fiesta. These include tossing a weighted object from the balloon onto a target, trying to place a ring over a long, flexible pole, etc. The competitions lead to situations where many balloons are trying to be in the same place at the same time and because of the difficulties involved in steering, there are lots of "kisses" and not many pilots experience a lot of success.

Approaching the targets - there are several identical targets in various locations on the field to spread out the congestion somewhat.

Trying to put a ring over the pole, unsuccessfully

Dot's pilot tossing a weighted ribbon onto a target

Volcanic Motion trying their luck

Volcanic Motion - looks as though they hit the target

One of the really fun parts of the Balloon Fiesta are all of the "special shapes" balloons. There are some really creative ones, some of which are very difficult to fly.