The Blog

Ken Sklute just completed flying in the inaugural Phoenix Balloon Festival this weekend in Phoenix. 25 balloon buddies got together for three days of flying. My fantastic crew and guests accomplished 3 wonderful flights and a fun Saturday Night Glow for a packed house of enthusiastic spectators.

Our first flight on Friday morning was a short, 35 minute flight as the winds took us in a challenging direction.

Our Saturday morning flight was absolutely fun and exciting. We traveled 12.8 miles over a 1:47 hour flight. After a fun afternoon of tailgating with crew and friends, we got ready for a 90 minute balloon glow. The young kids are just amazing as they came up to the balloon with its loud burner and after a couple of minutes they were totally at ease with the sound and light show. Speaking of sound and light, following the glow there was a great fireworks display. Be sure to see the wicked image that Trystan captured!

After way to short a rest, we all gathered for the final day of the event. Sunday turned out to be a flyable morning although a bit sporty with the winds just above the ground. We covered a similar flight path to Saturday’s flight with the difference being that the constantly changing winds carried us for 10 miles in only 45 minutes. We came in to land at 12.1 mph. We reached a top speed of 31.8 kph!

Take a look at what remarkable images that my crew/friends captured over the weekend! Thanks to Trystan Trenberth, Kristy Snyder, Chris Kenworthy, Ron Pelton and Bob Romaneschi.