2021 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta - Three Days Up Close and Personal

CorralesDan · Oct 5, 2021

I mentioned in an earlier post that the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta started last Saturday. This morning, Tuesday, the winds were right and many of the balloons came up over and around our house. We had over a dozen land around us. Here's a short video of the show. It demonstrates why there's a TFR and why I can't fly my drone. Be sure your sound is on.

The following videos were from later posts by the OP and I edited this post to add them here. (@DoomMeister)

We took our friends who came in from Tennessee to the Thursday morning ascension that's called Special Shapes Rodeo. We had a great morning...

Our friends from Tennessee leave on Saturday morning. They saw a great Special Shapes ascension on Thursday morning (my last video). We watched a great Special Shapes balloon glow on TV on Thursday evening. The last piece of the puzzle would be the balloons coming up around our house on Friday morning. If so, that would be the Triple Crown of Balloon Fiesta. Well, they did and our friends even got to help a balloon crew take down their balloon in front of our house. They left for home feeling very satisfied and happy...

55Kevy · Oct 5, 2021

Very cool! There's a local ballooning company that flies almost every morning north of us, but never that close. How are the cottonwoods along the Rio Grande turning? Looking forward to some video...

JfromMichigan · Oct 5, 2021

Yep. The sound turned up is a MUST!!!
- as if we didnt already see it coming, would have been a dissppointment if it hadnt been that song.

- as much as it must have been rough to refrain from flight, how awesome is it to see those 'beautiful balloons' pass thru your neighborhood?!?

CorralesDan · Oct 5, 2021

JfromMichigan said:
Yep. The sound turned up is a MUST!!!
- as if we didnt already see it coming, would have been a dissppointment if it hadnt been that song.

- as much as it must have been rough to refrain from flight, how awesome is it to see those 'beautiful balloons' pass thru your neighborhood?!?

We're fortunate. There are at least two or three days in each Fiesta week that the winds bring the balloons up our way. We've lived here 17 years and it never gets old.

sar104 · Oct 5, 2021

55Kevy said:
Very cool! There's a local ballooning company that flies almost every morning north of us, but never that close. How are the cottonwoods along the Rio Grande turning? Looking forward to some video...

Too early for the cottonwoods. High elevation aspens are currently peaking.

VenomXts · Oct 5, 2021

That is a cool video, the horses arent spooked from em which is cool in itself.

Prop Wash · Oct 6, 2021

If you can't go to the Balloon Festival, just wait...we'll come to you!!

Do the horses get bothered by the sound of the flame throwers that keep the air hot?

PHZ · Oct 6, 2021

Very nice camera work. The pans were super smooth. Did you use some kind of stabilization? Great match on the music. Took me back to the 5th Dimension.

spsphotos · Oct 6, 2021

Nice video. That is a lot of balloons. Good choice on Vimeo, YouTube would have yank it quickly because of the song.

CorralesDan · Oct 6, 2021

Prop Wash said:
If you can't go to the Balloon Festival, just wait...we'll come to you!!

Do the horses get bothered by the sound of the flame throwers that keep the air hot?

The horses don't mind the balloons at all. They're pretty used to them.

CorralesDan · Oct 6, 2021

spsphotos said:
Nice video. That is a lot of balloons. Good choice on Vimeo, YouTube would have yank it quickly because of the song.

I like Vimeo a lot. It's more of a 'professional' site and I've been happy with their basic plan.

CorralesDan · Oct 6, 2021

PHZ said:
Very nice camera work. The pans were super smooth. Did you use some kind of stabilization? Great match on the music. Took me back to the 5th Dimension.

Thanks for the kind words. I used my iPhone 12 Pro. I have a DJI OM 5, but I didn't use it this time. The 12 Pro has pretty good built in stabilization.

rawman001 · Oct 6, 2021

Great video! I was at the RV park south last weekend. Great fun watching the mass accessions! I did see a drone flying from the field. Couldn't tell what it since I wasn't close, but it must have been officially sanctioned with an exception to the TFR since it was flying for a very long time. I'm at my sisters in the NE Heights right now, we don't get balloons this way often. When I was a kid, every once in a while one would make it over the mountain into Tijeras. Always fun helping chase them down in the woods in the area.

Rabber · Oct 6, 2021

CorralesDan said:
I mentioned in an earlier post that the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta started last Saturday. This morning, Tuesday, the winds were right and many of the balloons came up over and around our house. We had over a dozen land around us. Here's a short video of the show. It demonstrates why there's a TFR and why I can't fly my drone. Be sure your sound is on.

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Very nice. What is TFR? Also, your music is a copyright song. When I try to use one on youtube they disqualify it. `???

rawman001 · Oct 6, 2021

Rabber said:
Very nice. What is TFR? Also, your music is a copyright song. When I try to use one on youtube they disqualify it. `???

TFR is temporary flight restriction. It's an official notification from the FAA that unless they have specific permission from the FAA, pilots (not just drone pilots, but all aircraft) can not fly in specific areas due to specific events, ie airshows, security events, hazards, etc. You can find current TFRs here: Federal Aviation Administration - Graphic TFR's . The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta TFR is here: 1/2318 NOTAM Details

CorralesDan · Oct 6, 2021

rawman001 said:
Great video! I was at the RV park south last weekend. Great fun watching the mass accessions! I did see a drone flying from the field. Couldn't tell what it since I wasn't close, but it must have been officially sanctioned with an exception to the TFR since it was flying for a very long time. I'm at my sisters in the NE Heights right now, we don't get balloons this way often. When I was a kid, every once in a while one would make it over the mountain into Tijeras. Always fun helping chase them down in the woods in the area.

Thanks for the kind words. We were watching the live stream and they mentioned that a drone was spotted at the field and it should be taken down. Whether it was the one you saw, I can't say.

CorralesDan · Oct 6, 2021

Rabber said:
Very nice. What is TFR? Also, your music is a copyright song. When I try to use one on youtube they disqualify it. `???

Rawman gave a better answer to TFR than I would. Vimeo doesn't do that about music.

rawman001 · Oct 6, 2021

CorralesDan said:
Rawman gave a better answer to TFR than I would. Vimeo doesn't do that about music.

Interesting to note, the TFR is only in effect from 05:30 to 12:00 noon. So theoretically, you could fly up and zoom in on the special shape glowdeo tomorrow or the other night events. From Corrales you should have a good view. I'll be out of town after today so I can't try.

rawman001 · Oct 6, 2021

rawman001 said:
Interesting to note, the TFR is only in effect from 05:30 to 12:00 noon. So theoretically, you could fly up and zoom in on the special shape glowdeo tomorrow or the other night events. From Corrales you should have a good view. I'll be out of town after today so I can't try.

OOPS! Never mind, just noticed the TFR was only for the morning TODAY, but it is in effect for the nights they have events scheduled. Still could go outside the 4 NM area and see what the glowdeo looks like from the air from there.

CorralesDan · Oct 6, 2021

rawman001 said:
OOPS! Never mind, just noticed the TFR was only for the morning TODAY, but it is in effect for the nights they have events scheduled. Still could go outside the 4 NM area and see what the glowdeo looks like from the air from there.

Yep. We're four miles from the balloon field so not much we could see.