New Toys!

When i was initially looking for a bottom about a year back i had a couple of hopeful leads which didn't work out which was very disappointing. I didn't end up getting my dream basket so i had to cast my view further abroad. Finally i came across a basket i liked which is slightly bigger than i had hoped but not a bad size overall. I ended up changing a couple of benchmarks i set for example i am not a fan of the riveted on suede on a T&C baskets and a couple other minor cosmetic items. 

Its not all negative i managed to get an amazing burner that has some cool history. I am looking forward to seeing how it performs but i am almost certain its the best solution for New Zealand's 60/40 Propane/Butane mix. All liquid feed is a big bonus for me also. I can nitro my tanks if required plus i dont have to worry about having the master or slave juggling act.

My tanks are quick shut off V-30's made in 1992 they are amazing tanks which i guess goes to show much like the Stratus they did make some really nice components. I have three of the suckers which essentially means 2 hours flights will be easy going.

So onto my new toys... i got my tanks recently which is awesome, sadly there is a little bit of work involved in getting them up to standard. The tank covers are in good condition but id like to make new ones to fit with the colour scheme which sounds stupid but its only a bit of material and time to make it look a thousand times better. Sadly they are out of date which adds to the cost of getting them ready for action. Lastly the foam they have used if horrible its essentially particle board foam! It has no real structural integrity and has a little bit of damage so sadly another cost involved.

I have started the process of cleaning up the stainless tanks so next step is testing followed by new prv's, foam, covers, rego fitting covers and a arrow to help remember the dip tube direction. 

Smashed Another Milestone

Been ticking away at the sewing machine on my weekends. I am slowly struggling more and more for space which is concerning considering i just hit half way. Total the balloon has about 300+ seams to sew 260 of these are the gores going together which i have just passed my 130th seam. Hopefully it will line up when the gores get sewn together. Until that stage ill keep sewing along.

With the basket arriving soonish i am trying to plan out what i need to sort once its here. I have gone to Hamilton Canvas and picked out fabric's for the bag, basket cover, tanks, dropline, fire extinguisher and basket organizer. It helps to think of these side projects as i can process any potential issues that may arise so essentially a couple of things have been tweaked to make them work better.

I always get annoyed when balloon owners over think their kit. A couple of balloons have baffled me because crewing on them is such a complicated ordeal its like your first day crewing on a balloon. With that being said i don't want my balloon to be anything like this and i hope what i end up with ends up being functional yet simplistic. i HAVE to fit a dropline, fire extinguisher, Manual and First aid kit. simple enough task but what i want to fit in is another story. So in the basket i WANT to fit is a slot for markers, place to hook radios, drink bottle slot, junk slot and tablet slot that is also removable. After a reshuffle it should all fit in but ill have a lot of work to sew it up.

Almost forgot to mention the burner is now back together with its brackets for the frame and i even did a little polishing on the hose connections. They came up pretty good considering it took 10 minutes to make it 100 times better . Top one is cleaned the bottom one isn't so lucky yet...