All Ballooned Out!

Haven't posted recently as we have been very busy over the past couple of months. First we had Wairarapa which was an amazing time and It was a great first fiesta for me followed by Waikato. Had a great time at both and felt comfortable flying with balloons around me.  

While I was in Masterton we had to get some repairs done so I met a great guy also interested in building a balloon which will turn out to be a great point of contact for me i believe. 

Lead onto Waikato where I managed to score Mitch for a few hours. We managed to sew the first panel which turned out to not be the case soon after. I found a minor screw up where I hadn't measured one side of the template right which meant I had to cut a whole new set. Luckily we managed to get out of way prior to Canowindra. 

Just before Canowindra I cut a deal to buy the last single Stratus ever made which is a bit special. It has less than 10 hours use and you can even see the bottom colour of the can. 

I picked it up in Canowindra and had a little bit of a play. So why did I buy a stratus? Its a powerful burner which all liquid set up. Vapor pilot lights to me don't really have an upside so having less hose is great. Secondly fuel, in NZ we have a horrible fuel mixture which means modern burners struggle to keep filters clean resulting in failures. In recent years i have seen this a couple times so hopefully the Stratus will chew through it.  Lastly the burner came with a mount for a firefly which is a bonus.

With one piece of bottom end sorted i now look to sort the basket and tanks.