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Balloons over 66 Saturday morning
fly in
[August 31, 2026]
Saturday, August 29th marked
the third day of the Balloons Over 66 weekend. The annual fly in to
Open Arms Lincoln was held that morning, just after sunrise. The
sunrise itself was beautiful, as was the weather. The air was cool,
but not cold, and the sun warmed up the air just enough after it
came over the horizon. The wind seemed to be a bit more agreeable
than the night before.
Open Arms held a lift off the night before, but no one could take
off due to the lack of wind. That was not a problem this morning, as
five balloons came over the treeline to the south, traveling north.
It started with one, the Zeenith,
which came in and landed before the others had taken off. As this
balloon landed, the tops of others could be seen just over the
treeline. One by one, the other four balloons took off and began
their journey over the cornfield and into the field near Open Arms.
The wind was not too strong, and so the balloons slowly meandered
their way over. A few of the balloons almost landed in the
cornfield. The pilots fired their burners just before they landed in
the field, and the balloon inside the air warmed up and they were
able to keep going.
One balloon traveled farther than
the others. This was Seth Goodman’s Honest Abe balloon. It flew over
a second treeline and landed near the field where the glow was held
the night prior.
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As the balloons came in and
landed, their teams would come over to them and help pull them
to an area where they could deflate. As the teams pulled the
balloons, the pilots would keep igniting the burners, keeping
the balloons just high enough so as to keep the bottom of the
basket from dragging along the ground.
The teams then began the deflation
process. The balloons were pulled down by someone pulling on the
cord that is attached to the top of each balloon. As the balloons
tipped to the side, they hit the ground and slowly lost air. Some
teams had a large tarp the balloon was tipped over onto while others
did not. The teams then squeezed the bottom of their balloon,
working their way up as the air escaped from the hole at the top.
The teams then loaded up their
balloons and baskets before taking off.
Balloons over 66 Saturday morning fly in video playlist
[Matt Boutcher]
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