It has been a while since I have posted, but it is time to resurrect the blog because in 6 days we are heading over to the US to compete at the World Hot Air Balloon Championships.

The Worlds are being held at Battle Creek in Michigan (the home of Kelloggs). I am one of the 3 Australian heading over to take on the rest of the world. The other 2 pilots are Matt Scaife and Peter Wright. Both pilots are really good friends of ours and we all work really well together on the ground and in the air.

I haven’t done a huge amount of flying leading up to the event, but my main preparation at the moment is to make sure I don’t burn myself out during the next 4 days of work. We are going to be taking a few days off in LA to wind down at Disneyland before heading over to Michigan. I have found in the past that it is really important to have a couple of days buffer before diving straight into flying. It allows for any jet lag and work lag to get out of the system.

This year we have set up the Australian Balloon Team Facebook page which will allow us to keep all of our friends and family up to date with our antics. I plan to also keep this blog up to date with more detail thoughts about the event and my performance. When we were at the worlds in Japan in 2006 I found that blogging helped me think about each flight and analyze what I did right and wrong.

The balloon is all packed up and ready to be stuck on a plane and freighted to Detroit.

Sean Kavanagh, who is coming across as part of the team (along with Kath, James and Mum and Dad), has kindly lend me (again) his EX65 racer balloon. I have spent more time flying this balloon in the last couple of year than I have my own, so I can’t wait to get back into it in a week’s time and hit the skies above Michigan.

So the last things to do now are pack our clothes and all the computer and electronic equipment that we will be taking with our personal luggage.