On August 5, 2017 we said farewell to Dr Elizabeth Tattersall aka “the Balloon Doc” as she had to return to teach college classes. ET lead the balloon crew through initial training and early morning launches for a month. She will be missed. We celebrated one month in Argentina with a team dinner. Some of the team continued the celebration with Salsa dancing. Who knew the tower chief Hector could also work the party crowd and dance?
The next day the snow stayed on the hills, not reaching the lake or airport. But we have had cold rain for 2 days. The team walked across that not-anymore-dry lake 2 weeks ago. It used to be suitable as an alternate landing site for Perlan. Now the wild flamingoes are using it for landing. Since the wave weather is on a down trend we have time for some further upgrades. Morgan pulled the wing tips and took the flutter excitation electronics off. We are putting heating elements on those “shaker” motors. Stewart removed the tail wheel and fairing so we could pull a HDMI cable through the fuselage and up to the tail for future use. The BRS was removed so we could add more heater capacity to the Air and Oxygen regulators behind it. Tim spent hours on his back stretched from front cockpit to rear cockpit under the rear intrument panel. Miguel was interviewed for a local radio station.
And everyone knows this is a competitive group–my coffee mug has more Perlan stickers than your coffee mug.
