Fire from the Crown

Today I bagged the shot that I botched from yesterday.

To get a hot air balloon up and running you start with a gasoline powered fan and blow air into the envelope. Once that's done you start pulsing the burners which will add enough heat into the balloon to stand it and the basket up.

There are 2 different modes on the burners. One generates the most heat and the most noise. The other mode is called whisper. This is much quieter when traveling over animal farms and makes a very bright yellow flame. Wonderful for night time balloon glows.

At the very top of the balloon is a very large air valve that can be opened with a rope to let out all the hot air and kill the lift. This is called the crown.

This shot was taken reaching through the edges of the crown during the first moments of running the burners. To add brightness I had Phil start out using the whisper mode. Next to the flames are tonight's passengers...

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The above is a cropped view. Click here to see a large, uncropped view.