My
arrangement with the festival was that the helium cluster balloon
flight was to take place on the first suitable afternoon after
the first Saturday's opening day. Although there were morning
flights for the festival, the spectators only came for the afternoon,
making that the preferred time. I'd heard that the afternoons
tended to be windy here, but I assumed that with a nine-day
festival, I'd have no problem getting the cluster flight done.
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However,
that assumed that the afternoons would be flyable at all. When
we arrived in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, the forecast called for
rain for almost the entire week. In practice, things were not
entirely that bad. Most of the mornings were flyable, so Ernie
or I flew one of my hot-air balloons, assisted by Jacques and
my girlfriend Marj. In the afternoons, the clouds piled up impressively,
and sometimes there were sudden thunderstorms. The hot-air balloons,
requiring only fifteen minutes or so to set up, could wait until
almost flight time to decide whether to fly; with the cluster
balloon, I needed more like two hours to inflate, plus time to
get the crew together, so I was very dependent on the forecast.
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Early
each afternoon, I consulted with André, the festival meteorologist,
and went over the various contradictory weather forecasts. We
had to be somewhat cautious, because if I started my inflation
and the weather turned bad, there was no putting the expensive
helium gas back in the tanks, and there was only enough helium
for one inflation. A couple of the days were obviously rainy and
no good. Other days, André and I decided I shouldn't fly
based on the forecasts. One such day turned out to be beautiful
at flight time; another day, all the hot-air balloons launched,
but rain, lightning and strong wind appeared out of nowhere, drenching
anyone who stayed up the full hour. André was philosophical,
and filled his special weather briefings for me with rhetorical
questions, his Gallic laugh, and his not-so-flattering take on
the skills and work ethic of the weather forecasters in Montreal. |
Saturday
afternoon, the eighth day of the festival, was predicted to very
windy, according to the Montreal airport terminal forecast. By
that morning, I had already mentally written off the day, turning
to Sunday as my last hope for flying the cluster balloon. However,
as I checked weather thorugh the day, the forecast winds in Montreal
were modified downward slightly, and other forecasts showed no
particular windiness. When I went out to the airport in the early
afternoon, André said he thought conditions would be good
by our 7 PM launch time. I passed word to the festival staff who
were organizing some of our inflation crew, and to Jacques, who
had recruited some of his neighbors over at the VR park to help
out. We got things ready, and after securing the final blessings
of various officials of the balloon festival, we began the inflation
at 5:30 PM. |


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