First Day: January 13, 2002

APO sponsored a balloon for the White Sands Balloon Fiesta. The original lift-off had been scheduled the weekend after 9/11, so it was rescheduled for 1/13-14/02. Friday night's crew/pilot reception was well attended by participants; 70 balloons participated in the fiesta, not a single sponsor requested their money back after the September cancelation. We were told numerous times by folks there that the pilot we had was great and a real nice guy--later confirmed by us). With great weather, Dave and Claudia Woods, and my family participated. Launch 1 was from Washington Park with Dave , Claudia, Zita and Alexa. Pilot: Mike Brown (below); Hot Air Balloon: Freddie (right)
After about a 35 minute flight we swapped out riders to myself and a friend of ours from St. Louis visiting and 1 of the pilot's crewmembers. When not flying we were either crewing (setting up, helping landings, packing up) or chasing. Flying was the most fun but the rest was equally enjoyable.
	During the 2nd flight, the pilot pointed us towards APO (upper left photo) After the flights we attended the 1st flight initiation party given by the pilot with champagne and snacks and received our certificates.
Dave and I then brought the pilot and some crew up to the observatory and gave them a tour of the observatory. They were quite pleased and impressed with the facility. They specifically noted the HAFB lighting pictures and were interested in the whole lighting issue.   see Balloon Glow or Second Day