Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu August 17, 2011 |
In 2011, I was invited to fly again in L’International de Montgolfières de Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in Quebec. |
(Click browser back button at any time to exit slideshow) |
![]() |
My regular crew chiefs all had schedule conflicts making them unavailable for the trip. Luckily, Jacques Côté, who had helped with my 2008 flight as a festival volunteer, offered to fill in. He also brought along his son, a policeman, which is always helpful in an activity where contact with law enforcement sometimes occurs. |
![]() |
Valerie Doucet, the coordonnatrice aux montgolfières, came by to check on me. After inviting me to fly there again, she had helped work through all the logistics of my flight, as well as the coordination of regulatory permission. Transport Canada is fairly strict in its regulation of ballooning -- my requests to fly elsewhere in Canada had all met with much lugubrious shaking of heads by aviation officials. As we had in 2008, we relied again on a regulatory loophole that allows senior provincial authorities to waive Canadian federal rules – which, being from Quebec, they had some willingness to consider. |
![]() |
Célébration Deux |