With winter on its way and a few other record attempts in the making my curiosity turned to the Canadian Balloon Records. I remembered that the CBA kept track of the Canadian records on their web site. Let’s see, the balloon I fly regularly (the Calgary Balloon Clubs Cameron O-77) is an AX-7. After looking up the AX-7 category on the site I found that the duration record for this subclass of balloon is 6hrs 1min. I had already done a few flights in the two hour range and had calculated my fuel consumption to be about .7 liters per minute. Six hours doesn’t sound all that tough. I began making some calculations and determined that with the proper weather conditions and some extra tanks of fuel I could probably exceed the six hours. Now it was a matter of getting the right equipment together and making an application to the CBA for the flight.

The club has four 40-liter tanks that could be used but those alone wouldn’t be enough to make a serious attempt at the record. Who has some equipment that would fit the bill? After some discussions with Dennis it was decided that I would approach Keith at Rainbow Balloons to see if a loan of some 60-liter tanks could be arranged. I sat down with Keith and explained my situation and also outlined my plan and my calculations. Four 40-liter Worthington’s, two in the basket and two hanging on the sides, four 60-liter stainless steel tanks in the basket and a –20°C day would do the trick. I calculated that with the published weights of the equipment and my own body weight we would still be under the maximum take-off weight of the balloon by 200 lbs. Calculations to determine the internal temperature of the envelope concluded that even at –10°C the balloon would be well within the 250°F maximum internal envelope temperature at launch. Once Keith understood that I had thought everything out he allowed me to use four of his 60-liter tanks and even offered the use of his shop for the preparation and storage of the equipment. Maybe he was just delirious after spending two weeks in the Hawaiian sunshine.

The pace of preparation accelerated during the last week in December and the first week in January as the weather finally started to turn cold. I rented an electronic hang-scale and began the process of weighing all the equipment that would be taken on the flight. We found some small differences between fuel tank weights in Cameron’s Flight Manual and the actual weights measured. There was no record of the weight of the envelope so this was the most important piece of equipment that needed to be sized-up. All calculations were updated and we were still well within our maximum take-off mass. A trial fit of the tanks determined that we could nicely fit a 60-liter tank in each corner of the basket and two 40-liter tanks wedged into the center of the basket. This would give me room on either side of the basket to handle the hang tanks. The two hang tanks would be strapped to the inside rope handles of the basket and would be arranged so that if a landing was imminent I could bring the tanks inside the basket and not have to worry about damaging the tank or the basket. Landing with the tanks hanging on the side was not something we wanted to do. Now one of the most important pieces of equipment taken on the flight would be fabricated in my basement. It was a circular piece of 3/8 inch plywood that would fit nicely on the top of a Worthington fuel tank. This would be my seat for as long as the flight lasted. It wasn’t much but it sure beat the heck out of standing! That’s it in some of the pictures below taken the day after the flight. It was about this time that the final word from the CBA came down and we were cleared for take-off.

As with all ballooning the weather dictated what happened next. Dennis and I began the process of checking the weather on a daily basis. This would be done at 4:30 AM every morning until conditions permitted a safe launch. We needed time to get to the shop, pressurize the cold tanks and put the warm tanks into the basket. We decided that we would leave three 60-liter tanks and one 40-liter tank out in the cold while one 60-liter tank and three 40-liter tanks would be left in the shop. This would allow us to heat the hang tanks and the pilot tank so they could be burned off first. Having the hang tanks burned off and available to drop or bring into the basket early was something that we had discussed during preparations. The pilot tank couldn’t be charged up so we had no choice but to keep it warm.

Checking conditions on Saturday January 3, 2004 showed that the winds aloft were 35 knots at 6,000 ft. while the surface winds were in the 5-8 knot range. Temperatures were in the –28°C to –25°C range. Too windy and too cold to attempt a long duration flight. Sunday January 4, 2004 was a little warmer but this time both the upper level winds and surface winds would prevent a launch. Monday January 5, 2004 a warming trend was slowly starting to set in and I thought we had waited too long. The winds at 6,000 ft. were still too fast to conduct a long flight but Tuesday was starting to shape up to be a picture perfect day. It was 4:30 AM Tuesday January 6^th that the decision was made to make an attempt at the record. The 6,000 ft. winds had slowed to about 20 knots and the temperatures had moderated with a forecasted low of -22°C and a high of -15°C. As we would soon find out the temperatures in Calgary were a lot different than the temperatures in Langdon just east of Calgary.

We meet at 6AM at Keith’s shop to pressurize the cold tanks and strap the warm tanks into the basket. With the trailer full the hang tanks had to be placed in the box of my truck while the inflation tank was put in the back seat. We barely had room for our bags of equipment and two people. Bert drove out to Langdon with Keith while Dennis and I took my truck and the balloon trailer. While driving out to Langdon we noticed that the temperature was steadily dropping. –23, -24, -26, -27, finally –28.

The setup took a little longer than normal, as the hoses and even the cables were stiff due to the extreme cold. The whole time Bert and I were rigging the balloon and strapping the first hang tank to the basket Dennis was working on getting the clubs fan to run. At the same time Keith was trying to get his fan running. His fan was in the back of his pickup truck for the drive out to Langdon and just refused to start. Finally the clubs fan came to life. We left it running in the trailer until we were ready to make use of it for fear that it wouldn’t start again. The burner was checked and we were ready to knock the basket over. SNAP! Pulling on an upright to get the basket to lean over caused one of the uprights to break. No problem they serve no purpose once the balloon is lying down anyway. We proceeded to inflate the balloon under the cover of darkness. At this point it was about 7:55 AM, still 45 minutes before sunrise. The fan worked fine to get the balloon to the point of going hot. Inflation tank ON and we began the hot inflation. It was at this time that a horrible SNAP, SNAP, SNAP was heard from the basket. The remaining three uprights had broken under the heavily laden basket. Oh S**T! Once we had the balloon standing we strapped the final hang tank to the basket, checked the instruments, checked the top and off I went. 8:15 AM.

The first thing I noticed once airborne was that the moon was just setting on the western horizon. This was the first time I had seen this from the air. Once I was stable and at a safe altitude I contacted the crew and made sure that they had made it out of the launch field OK. Shortly there after I noticed that the direction I was heading was almost 180 degrees from what the forecast winds were supposed to be. So much for the NAVCAN Forecast! It was around this time that I noticed that I had forgotten to bring two things. The cell phone and the food! I managed to find a PowerBar buried in one of my bags so I would be OK for a while. This mistake would come back to haunt me later.

The next eight hours would go by fairly quick. After a few hours I had burned off both hang tanks and it was time to come down to the surface and look for a good place to drop the tanks. The same straps that were used to hang the tanks from the handles were used to lower the tanks down below the bottom of the basket. The quick release was used to extend the length of the strap and to allow a quick and effective drop of the tanks. The first drop seemed to take forever as I flew close to the surface of Bruce Lake just east of Keoma hoping that I could drop the first tank on the frozen lake. Once at the far northern end of the lake I hopped a line of trees and came down near Highway 566 and dropped the first tank at the end of the lake. Good access to the lake made for an easy pickup. I immediately began setting up for the next drop by hanging the next tank from the quick release. This time I dropped the tank in a field near an intersection just east of Irricana. I was very relived to have gotten the hang tanks out of the way and now I could sit back and enjoy the flight. The only other problems came while connecting the 60-liter tanks to the hoses. Three of the four tanks leaked upon the initial connection. Two simply required a short wait and a re-connect but the last tank required a little heat with a hand warmer to make the connection work.

One of the challenges for the chase crew included crossing the Red Deer River. When I informed them that I was crossing the river they were almost half way between the bridge in Red Deer and the bridge just west of Stettler. They chose Stettler and were out of radio range for about 30 minutes. A re-fueling stop for the crew in Ponoka meant that staying with the balloon was a bit of a challenge around this time. Once across the river and re-fueled they were right under me again.

Eight hours into the flight and the lack of food started to weigh on my mind. Would I be able to perform an effective landing? Would my arms be so stiff that I couldn’t pull the deflation line? Would my concentration be enough to pick a proper landing spot? I began to move about the basket as much as I could to try and get the blood flowing in my arms and legs. This must have looked pretty funny to anyone watching on the ground. I thought I would try and make the next intersection at Highway 13 and the #2 Highway but decided take a good field with good access about 8 km before the intersection. The winds slowed as I descended and at the point of landing my GPS showed a speed of about 5 knots. As the balloon deflated I was surprised that the burner began to come down and hang off the edge of the basket. I had totally forgotten about the uprights being gone. After a short wait in the field the crew arrived and the balloon was packed as the sun set on the horizon. Nothing left but the paperwork and the BS!