I was both nervous and excited on Wednesday when we got an email Alert, the weekend looked like a go for the Longjump. I had never been to Battle Creek and thought that would be a neat place to launch from. With 2 days of preparation on the equipment, and making checklists so that we didn't forget anything, I felt I was fully prepared for the Longjump. I had 36 gals of fuel and was flying solo.

It is now Saturday and the weather caused a switch to Elkhart Indiana, trailer capital of the world (and nothing else). So after checking the nitrogen tank for enough pressure to charge my propane tanks, I felt I was ready for a frigidly cold launch.  So we loaded everything up checking our list and headed out to pick up crew- Greg Miller, we were down to only 2 launch crew because our other crew happened to be going to Hawaii on vacation.  But the 3 of us figured we should be able to launch in the 4-7 mph winds in the a.m. We were hoping for stronger winds aloft than predicted so the fuel wouldn’t be an issue.

On the way to Elkhart the thought going through my mind were, I have never flown over 5000 ft, I have never flown over 35mph and my longest flight was 2.5 hours, I anticipated to exceed all of these marks.

We arrive in Elkhart Indiana about 7:00pm.  After determining we need food before the morning flight (good move), then calling Bill and letting him know we would be late for the 9 pm briefing we sat down for a 90 minute wait for a table. We were finally seated and had a decent Mexican meal.

The hotel briefing gave us more info about the morning weather. We were now looking at slightly different direction heading toward Lima Ohio, winds were varying depending on which weather model you wanted to believe, slightly stronger surface winds. But still looking like a go. So we ran an extension cord from our 2nd floor window and hooked up a ceramic heater in the trailer. There was a flurry of preparation, maps, radios, phones etc,

The Hotel wake up was early at 4:45 (since we wanted it at 5:15) but we were ready to get rolling. The temps outside were pretty cold.  Down for the briefing. Winds looking good sky looking clear and we are off to the field. We packed up, unplugged the heater in the trailer and checked out stopped for a cup of coffee at the Phillips 66 and headed for the Launch site. Elkhart Airport opened early for us. We all drove in; it was still pretty dark out. We line up and started the preparation. It’s pretty windy, Steve gets his wind gage out looks like 6 to 8 on the surface but it is picking up. The sun rises and we start up the fan (remember the heater in the trailer? Yes it fires right up). Some of the fans needed a little encouragement.  

I was aware of the higher winds and wanted to watch inflation. Bill started his and it looked pretty good although at 10 degrees F. the slave tank needed more pressure causing a lack of heat in the balloon also switching tanks on a windy launch would be a little cumbersome. I charged my tanks to 160 psi with the nitrogen, and just using the onboard tanks I had decided it was a go for me. Steve and Karen really packed their balloon out nice and had a great launch. That was my plan too. It worked out great, 2 fans and extra crew helping out and plenty of pressure for a quick stand up and enough heat that I was ready to fly in no time. Launch was 8:41am.

I was climbing out at 600 ft a minute and was at 5000 ft. in about 8 minutes. I was at 7500 when I noticed it wasn’t that cold. I checked ambient and it was 35 degrees. I leveled off 9500 in about 30 minutes after launch, only 1 balloon behind me and 2 in front that I could see. Instruments worked great and pressure was good too, although it dropped to 75 psi, but with 2 burners if needed it was plenty. My envelope temp was 140 degrees F. At 9500, the ambient was 40 degrees and climbing it was very comfortable up there. I looked at my speed and my GPS said I was 52 MPH. Very warm inversion with good speed! It was Breathtakingly Beautiful up there.

Communications with crew and other balloons was very good and the GPS tracking was working well too. I contacted crew told them I was heading toward Ft. Wayne and they said all I have to do is stay at altitude over the air space and we had permission to fly over. After that I was just tracking my position waiting for a little more left thought I was going to track at about 110 degrees but it was actually 138.

About 11:00 am I noticed my speed dropping a little, down to 39 MPH. I climbed to 11,500 speed was 44 there so the speed was dying off.  I flew over Grand Lake at 11:20 and started a slow descent, I wasn’t sure how much room I had from Dayton so I decided to start looking for landing areas. I did a GOTO to Dayton it was 29 miles then I did a GOTO to Elkhart on my GPS and it said 121 miles. I was satisfied with that distance. A little later Mike Murray reported some pretty fast winds on the surface and my crew was reporting the same. I was preparing for a rip out landing but speed was down to 23 mph at 5000 ft.

I was hooking right and had lots of BIG fields so I started setting up for my final.  No time to ask permission but no crops to worry about but some ICE might cause me to drag a while. I radioed the crew and dropped down to 200 ft angling into big fields, as I get closer I saw some furrows and decided to rip at 10 ft. After a tooth jarring 500 ft drag I came a stop with all loose objects scattered about the basket I had completed my very first long jump. I was in an excited daze for a little bit gathering my thoughts. I thought to my self, “WOW what a great flight. I had surpassed all of my personal records for Distance, Duration, Speed, and Altitude. What GREAT Crew, What a GREAT EXPERIENCE!                   

By Dan Greathouse

April 17^th I found out I was the 2004 BFA AX8 Solo Longjump Challenge Winner

Distance 127 miles

Time 3:20

Average Speed 39 MPH

Max Speed 53

Max Altitude 11,400 ft.

Thanks to all my Crew !

Greg Miller

Don & Sandy Hagen

And my very understanding wife… Diane