Moonshine

We have finally got the full team together. After a practice flight in the Stubenberg valley, we headed down to Hartberg to pick up a very sleepy looking Camilla. She had just done the bus from Canberra to Sydney, 2 plane flights from Sydney to Vienna and then the train to Hartberg. So after a quick shopping trip we headed back for a relaxing day in your loft, reading, sleeping and generally chilling out. We then headed down to the official launch site for our first practice flight in the main flying area. Sean flew two pilot declared goals both with good results of a few metres.



The team is working really good together. Yosh, Camilla and I are the type of people that just get on with it.

One thing we are starting to think is that we will probably end up with a lot of time to stand around on the side of the road. Without markers to have to measure or observers to race to the marker drops it is likely to make the work on the ground somewhat more simple.

At the afternoon landing spot, the land owner appeared in the paddock with a bottle of their homemade "moonshine" schnapps to welcome us. This is very much a tradition in the area. Now I have had schnapps before and it is normally pretty strong... but the bottle she produced was almost pure ethanol. Yosh, who does not drink, did the tactful tipping of the schnapps on the ground without the woman seeing...however he then had to convince her that he did not need anymore.

We finished the day with a team dinner at the Balloon Hotel in Stubenberg. This Balloon Hotel is a 5 star version of the Balloonary in Canowindra, run by the family of Ellina who we met many years ago in Canberra when she came out as part of the Festo upside down balloon team.