Starting to Get Ready

The first task of the day was to register for the event.  The competition center is located at the local university:



Then we went to the local grocery store to get some supplies.  50 cents US for a huge bottle of water (bought that), but $6 for a box of bran flakes (didn't buy that).

After that we came back and started to get the equipment ready.  We filled propane tanks (they were shipped empty) and picked up the rented helium cylinders.  The entire venture (45 gallons of fuel + 2 helium tank rentals) cost $500 USD.  The logistics of getting everything ready have been somewhat challenging, so we probably won't fly tomorrow morning. Maybe in the evening.




Most of the pilots will be using Ford cargo vans (like the one shown above) for the balloon, with various Ford cars, minivans, and crossover-type vehicles for lead vehicles (more on that in a later post).  However, Johnny Petrehn opted for a 4WD Ford Ranger to haul his equipment.  He might need it, as the fields around here are apparently very wet.  Rumor is that the dirt roads aren't passable even with 4WD.

Most of the Americans have now arrived.  As great as that is, it unfortunately means that the Internet at the hotel is incredibly slow.  Even pulling up an email takes 45-60 seconds, and uploading the 7 pictures for this post took over an hour.  The hotel has a single low-grade DSL connection (768k down / 128k up) for the entire facility.  Any type of Skype call is unthinkable, so my wife and I have resorted to instant messaging.  It's better than nothing, but still frustrating.

Unfortunately, still no news regarding Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis, the American pilots that went missing during the Gordon Bennett gas balloon race.  The latest statement from the event can be found by clicking here.

USA2
Richard Abruzzo
Carol Rymer Davis

A Slower Day

Budapest and the Danube River, from the "Buda side" (west bank) looking northeast

We woke up this morning to the sound of rain.  No worries, as we weren't planning any flying until tomorrow at the earliest.  And we still 4 days until the competition starts on Monday.  Today will be spent in Debrecen.  We'll casually start to get the vehicles ready, and probably hit a grocery store (one of my favorite international activities as a tourist).  It does appear that my roommate Larry Coan will arrive later this afternoon, as his flight from Chicago to Brussels has now landed.  I believe that the award-winning team of Bob and Dottie Humbert, who will be officials at this event, are on the same flights.  Other Americans, including Team USA managers Al Nels and Brad Teymeyer, are scheduled to get in today as well.  The last member of our clan, Andrew Petrehn, arrives on Saturday.

Speaking of my room, below are some photos.  As best we can  tell all the rooms at this establishment are the same, save that some have just 1 twin bed.  We get 11 channels on the TV, 1 of which (BBC) has English audio.  There's one dedicated sports channel, and right now two are showing people painting walls.  The brown boxes on the table in the corner are the radios for the balloon and vehicles, and I'm sitting right now at the desk next to the TV, tapping away on my trusty netbook.


The event has put a notice on their website indicating that propane for any practice flights will be billed at €1.15/kg, which by my quick math works out to USD $2.95/gallon.  On Tuesday it was indicated that a digital copy of the competition map would be available yesterday, but that didn't happen.