A really hard morning.

We have just returned from another tough flight. There were 4 tasks - FIN, JDG, FON, FON. The FIN was not too bad, probably about 20 metres. The JDG was a bit annoying, in that another balloon got beneath me and pushed me out of the way on approach, resulting in about 100m. The 2 FONs were a balls up. I did not set my last one far enough away to give me time to think about it...considering we were moving along at 50km/h. It resulted in 620m. The last one really sucked, as we chose one (in a hurry) in a valley too far to the east. By the time we got into the valley we were too far south. So the result (observered because the marker was lost) was about 2km.

The landing was really hard work. With only a golf course (out of bounds) and a forested mountain between us and the end of the map, I managed (after some fairly tense flying) to put the balloon down in a wet paddock between powerlines, a radio antenna, a train line and a highway. The crew, god bless them, were there right when I landed and we managed to pack the balloon up on a tiny bank and kept it dry and clean. We are all pretty tired now after a big carry out.

Some good news is that as of last night's flight we have crawled up to 42nd. So we are in the 40s. We actually have 3 more flight slots left. They are going to have a flight on Saturday afternoon. So I was hoping we might be in a chance to crawl into the 30s. But I think the 2 FONs this morning might have made that a bit ambitious. But you never know.

Well we have 2 hours to get food, fuel and over to Haga for the afternoon briefing.