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And Across the Finish Line

First inflation today was an unqualified success.

Big smiles all around.

We spent a good part of the day fiddling with this and that while waiting for the light winds to die. As a result, the inflation proper didn’t start until nearly sunset. So Kevin got the balloon stood up, but the pictures we were able to take are of only marginal quality. Ah well, here are a few shots anyway. More pictures and details to follow on Tuesday.

As always, you can click on each of the “thumbnails” below to get a full sized picture.

Here’s a picture looking in the mouth towards the top. That’s Kevin working out some nits:

view towards mouth during inflation

Here’s a picture of the balloon looking towards the mouth during inflation:

view from a distance

Here’s a picture of the balloon standing up for the first time, 22 days after cutting the first of the fabric. The photo is a bit blurry due to the coming darkness and necessarily long shutter time. The image has been enhanced by Jon Radowski (Thanks Jon):

improved full view at dusk

This entry was posted on Monday, January 30th, 2006 at 8:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “And Across the Finish Line”

  1. Laurie Says:
    January 30th, 2006 at 9:05 pm

    CONGRATULATIONS Kevin!! I’ve been checking the blog about every 30 minutes today to see if the stand up was successful. I am so excited and impressed that you could make it happen. I really like the design and I can’t believe it is a real balloon now.

  2. Paul Vincent Craven Says:
    January 30th, 2006 at 10:59 pm

    Very nice! Congratulations. It is a lot of work to put those together.

  3. David Tanzer Says:
    January 31st, 2006 at 9:15 am

    Excellent! Congratulations! 22 days for a first effort! Bravo!

  4. Adam Barrow Says:
    January 31st, 2006 at 6:56 pm

    Nice work Kevin. 22 Days is a super effort. Well done to Dan as well for keeping us up to date with the Blog, makes us all feel like we are part of it in the best possible way, i.e - no sewing and no money :)

    Now all you need to do is fly it, although I would recommend something besides a steel frame and crate for the bottom end!

    Congrats again.

    P.S - Dan - more pictures of the finished balloon would be great.

  5. Mark Caviezel Says:
    February 2nd, 2006 at 9:37 pm

    Just checked the blog front to back. COOL! Congrats! I hope you can get the bottom end together real soon so you can do some flying!