You probably have noticed the lack of posts to the blog. We are getting to the end of the competition and are all getting pretty exhausted. So down time between flights has become a process of self-conservation, trying to get some sleep or food.

The weather has been amazing, so we have flown every morning and afternoon. The morning flights have been really long and hard work. Most of the flights have involved flying up to above 6000ft at high speed and then bombing into targets at crazy speeds. This sort of flying not only drains the fuel in the balloon very quickly, it also drains you mentally.

Flying the tanks dry

I am not going to bother posting how each of the tasks have gone. My results have been a combination of really good and really average. At the time of writing I am sitting in 39^th position but the scores are really close between 25 and 50, so there will be lots of movement in the next 24 hours.

Matt Scaife is still doing well. He dropped out of 1^st position into 5^th position. So we are hoping he can keep in that top pack.

Spirits in the team are really high. Everyone is having a great time and the whole team has been getting on so well.

There are only 2 more flights left in the competition (tonight and tomorrow morning). Rumours are that the weather guy thinks that the weather may not be suitable for tomorrow morning.

After tomorrow morning’s flight (if we get it), the logistics start again. We need to clean the basket and gear (so it gets past Australian quarantine), burn out and purge the tanks, then head over to Detroit to drop it off at the freight depot. We will then have Saturday to sleep in, rebuild the van (replace all the seats and carpet), go to the awards brunch and relax in the afternoon. Sean is flying out from Detroit tomorrow night, so he will be able to drop the van off in Detroit.

Video from the CRAT the other day…