Date:October 5, 2002
Time:1630 local time
Mission: To fly over Meteor Crater
Aircraft: Firefly AX-7 hot air balloon
Captain: Scott Nicol
Flight Crew: Bob, Eric, Brent

Over the weekend of October 5-6, 2002 the Roping The Wind Hot Air Balloon Team participated in a small balloon rally and air show in Winslow, Arizona. We had some wonderful flying conditions and two very pleasant flights over the Winslow area each morning. However, the main objective of the weekend...  to fly a hot air balloon over Meteor Crater! I visited the crater a few years ago and toured the museum and crater. Since that day, I have always wanted to see the crater from the basket of a hot air balloon! Each of my flight crew members had also previously visited Meteor Crater. On Saturday afternoon, October 5th 2002 at 5:03pm, our dream was fulfilled as we touched down on Chavez Pass Rd after a flight of 35 minutes over one of the most well preserved meteor impact sites in the world!

Meteor Crater was formed nearly 50,000 years ago when a meteorite estimated to be 150' across and weighing several hundred thousand tons, impacted the earth at over 40,000 mph. With an impact that would have an explosive force greater than 20 million tons of TNT! In the wake of this incredible impact... a huge hole in the generally flat northern Arizona plateau region nearly 1 mile across and 570' deep.

Our mission began at approximately 1445 hours when we arrived at the exit to Meteor Crater off Interstate 40. Meteor Crater Enterprises operates the crater, museum, RV Park and gas station. A security guard was nearby and I asked about making the flight and if we could get their permission to overfly the crater. Why ask the landowner if we can fly OVER their land? After all they don't own the sky above it! Well, in typical Roping The Wind Balloon Team fashion, I wanted the management to know of what we planned to do on this afternoon and wanted their approval. After a brief talk with the security guard, we went inside to make a phone call to the management. I was rather suprised to not only get their permission to make the flight, but, they were very happy that we had asked permission first and were very helpful in helping us secure permission with the local ranch that owns and leases much of the land surrounding the crater. The only request the crater management had was that we were not allowed to launch or land on the crater property. They also requested that we fly a minimum of 500' over the crater rim (FAA legal altitude). This was a very small request that I greatly respected and obeyed. The management, employee's and park rangers were awaiting our flight!

It was now approximately 1530 hours and we headed off for a 5 mile drive down a dirt road to the Bar T Bar Ranch. I spoke with the owners of the ranch for a little while and they too were happy to allow us the use of their property for launch and retrieval. They were extremely friendly folks. I thanked them (as it would be nearly impossible to make this flight otherwise since they own much of the land around the crater. Much of which is fenced off) and we headed off to start studying the wind for our flight over the crater.

We first drove north of the crater and studied our first pibal release (a pibal is a small helium filled balloon to 'read' the wind direction and speed aloft). I was somewhat suprised to see it go straight up for several minutes! Although that would seem like ideal conditions for a balloon flight, this was not good for this flight. We needed to cover a distance of approximately 4 miles and also (obviously!) make it over the crater to the other side! The surface winds since about 1200 hours had been around 5-7k with some light gusting to perhaps as high as 10 knots. The winds in Winslow (were we had flown earlier in the day) had been very calm all morning until around noon when similar wind conditions began to occur there. We were very fortunate to have high pressure overhead and favorable surface wind speeds. This area can get rather breezy during the afternoon hours and downright windy when a weather system moves through. After a few minutes of watching this first pibal climb, it finally began to move off toward the southwest. As it climbed higher, it moved off quicker! This was an excellent direction for a crossing (NE to SW) as we could launch and land on a road (well traveled dirt roads). There are very few drivable roads in this area. We moved to the NE of the crater and let another pibal go. At this time, surface winds had started gusting again and the pibal never climbed high enough to catch the right hook toward the SW I had seen it make earlier. I decided to cut it in between these two locations. We chose a small clearing in the otherwise brushy desert NNE of the crater and did one more quick pibal release. Surface winds were still showing some light gusting around 6-8 knots or so and the pibal never really made the right hook. I was confident it was there as the first pibal moved off rather quickly once at that altitude (approx. 1,000' AGL).

Flight crew Bob, Eric and Brent went about quickly rigging the basket and laid out the envelope and prepared for a cold inflation while I went over my preflight ritual as well as one more look at the topo maps to confirm a good choice of launch position. We were 1.16 miles NE of the crater and I wanted to be a good 800'+ over the rim and well out from it before crossing over the rim. So, wanted a light surface wind to launch in so we could climb quickly. Not particularly a problem from this distance away.. however, the crater rim looks very BIG when standing on this otherwise flat region! A little patients (and perhaps luck!) and the surface winds weakened. A very welcome light high cirrus cloud layer was beginning to move over and this helped in providing some stability. This cloud layer would persist the rest of the afternoon. Temperatures were only in the low 70's all afternoon. A quick cold inflation and I stood the balloon up and my flight crew member Brent hopped in. A slight gusting again began and buffeted the balloon. However, I had two well experienced crew on the crown line to stabilize the balloon. A short wait for the wind to subside and at 1630 hours... we lifted off!

This was our first look at the crater from the air as we were just lifting off from our launch site NW of Meteor Crater.
 
 
 

A few minutes into the flight and after flying on an almost due south heading (over the east rim), we finally found the right turn that would take us over the crater! We are about 1,000' AGL.
 
 
 

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I am not a professional photographer, but I think this is a really cool shot! Could that be a shooting star!?  :)
 
 

A photo of the Bar T Bar ranch, located NW of the crater. The dirt road heading into the ranch is where we launched near. The ranch owns or leases much of the property around the crater's property. This flight would not have been possible without the permission of the ranch owners. We very much appreciate their help in making this flight happen.
 
 
 

The Meteor Crater museum and gift shop is located in the building below and on the north rim of the crater. There are several observation platforms there in which to get a close up view of the crater. Although I think our viewing platform from the air is rather spectacular! Still, the chance to see the crater close up from the ground is awe inspiring. It is HUGE!
 
 

Approximately 15 minutes into the flight. We are now at 7,000' MSL and a little over 1,000' AGL over the crater's rim and 'inside' the rim's outer edge.
 
 
 

A view to the west and northwest from directly over Meteor Crater. Off in the far distant center of this photo are the San Francisco Peaks, the highest peak in Arizona at 12, 633 feet elevation. In the center of the photo is Canyon Diablo, located about 4 miles west of the crater. The thought of flying over Canyon Diablo was rather entertaining. However, our ground chase crew would have a long ways to go to get around the canyon! Landing on this side (east side) was a necessity.
 

About 20 minutes into the flight. We are now heading SW at 1,000' AGL and about 0.12 mile east of the center of the crater. Meteor Crater is nearly 1 mile wide!
 
 

Up ahead is Chavez Pass Rd.  This dirt road is west of the crater and runs north and south. The road gets it's name from Chavez Mountain Pass located at the southern terminus of the road in the Ponderosa pine country of the Mogollon Rim (on the far distant horizon of the photo). Due  to the lack of roads in the area and the numerous fence lines, it was a necessity to take off and land on or as close to a road as possible. Chavez Pass Rd was our intended destination before we lifted off. The wind direction turned us slightly to the right as we descended to near the surface. We would land right on the dirt road! Although surface winds had increased again slightly as we approached our landing site, Our 'impact' with the earth's surface was MUCH gentler than the meteor's impact! :)  Allowing us to leave not a trace of our being there.
 
 
 

As I was busy concentrating on the landing, my flight crew member Brent was able to snap one more photo of the crater. We are about 2 miles SW of the crater.
 

Our flight landed at 1703 hours local time, providing us with a wonderful flight of 35 minutes duration. Crew members Bob and Eric were right there waiting for us as we touched down. Wind were just quick enough to necessitate an immediate deflation and it was great to have the crew right there for us to bring the envelope to rest on the somewhat brushy terrain. After the envelope was fully deflated, we all had smiles and grins on our faces as we looked back on our achievement!

After a quick pack up, we headed back to the museum to thanks the management and then enjoyed another beautiful Arizona sunset as we returned to Winslow for the air show and our scheduled balloon glow.

We could not have asked for a better day or better weather for making this flight. Surface wind speeds were exceptable for take off and landing and the speed aloft was quick enough to get us over the crater, yet not too quickly as to be able to enjoy the spectacular views of Meteor Crater below! We were also very fortunate to have the light high cloud cover as this helped to stabilize the air and maintain a consistent wind direction aloft to get us directly over the crater.

This will be a flight we will remember for years to come! We would once again like to thank the management at Meteor Crater Enterprises as well as the owners of the Bar T Bar Ranch for the wonderful hospitality and allowing us to make this flight a reality.