Marianne's first ride with Kenny!!

We woke up to a cold 12 degrees at our house this morning, but we thought 'what the heck, it's a beautiful morning'. I finally got to take a ride in Mai'Ken Dreams, with my husband as pilot in command! It was a beautiful flight; however, it was freezing cold.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

The Jay's are hoping everyone had a very Merry Christmas and safe travels.

Kenny and Marianne Jay

Private License Check Off Ride

On Sunday, December 19th we woke up to a very cold 14 degrees in Indianolia, IA. From Indianolia, we headed to Carlisle, IA so Kenny could take his check off ride for his Lighter Than Air (Hot Air Balloon) Private License.

Here are Kenny and Rob taking off for the skies. Guess we did well so far!


There they go, despite the cold, it was a beautiful day for a hot air balloon ride.

I think he skidded a little upon landing, good thing it was Rob's field and he was with him!!

Our friends Stacie Brackenberry and Adam McGee joined us as crew for the all very important flight. Not only are they great crew, they are great fun!! (ps..don't you love Stacie's hat?)

Kenny and I were so happy, we couldn't stop smiling...because...

HE PASSED!!! My husband is now an official Lighter Than Air Pilot!!!!

Congrats, Kenny, everyone is so proud of you!!

Now, about that ride you have been promising me since May....

Soft Landings,

Kenny and Marianne Jay

THE PUMPKIN DROP AND SOME GOOD NEWS

We had a great time last night at the Sutters' annual Pumpkin Drop, even though no pumpkins made it into the lagoon. What we did have; however, was a beautiful night for a hot air balloon flight, good food and good fellowship.

Our friend Stacie came out to crew and drug along her friend Jason, he was a hot air balloon virgin. He had a great time and wants to come back.

We inflated next to our good friend Lynn with Skydreamer. Two great inflations.

Our friend Jason was also there with Cheaper than a Wife.

Such a beautiful flight seeing Skydreamer and Mai'Ken Dreams flying together.

In other news, Kenny passed the written portion of his test to get his Private Pilot's license. We are very excited to have that next step done to get that much closer to me getting to ride with him!

The next step is a trip to Iowa so he can take his check off ride. Hopefully that will come in the next month or so. Then it will be time to start cashing in on all those promises for hot air balloon rides.

Flying season is never over; however, it sure slows down a lot, and that time is here. We will fly as much as we can this winter, but it probably won't be much.

Until next time,

Soft Landings

Marianne and Kenny

First Solo Flight

KB got his first solo flight Tuesday, September 7th. It was a very exciting night, but I was way nervous. Here we are getting things ready, he's checking over the balloon and making sure we are good to go.

There he goes, setting it up and getting ready.

Oh my, he's off! I was a WRECK. You can see Gary Sines in the background.

He flew for about 30 minutes, nice short flight with a fairly tight landing spot, but he landed it great. We were all there to catch him.

I will post pictures of the celebration later, it was a great day!!!

Flying in Brookfield

As with the past 5 years, we spent Labor Day weekend in Brookfield, MO at the Great Pershing Balloon Derby. This was the 34th year for this derby, and it's the longest running BFA competition in the US. We started the derby Saturday morning with a beautiful 4 part task from the launch field. Here are a few of our friends inflating for this beautiful flight. First we have Tim Graham in Still No Regrets, Andrew James in Godzilla, Matthew Riley in Cherry Bomb and Gary Whitby in Boomer.

What a beautiful sight. Here we see our friend Lynn McVay in Skydreamer (3rd balloon from left)

I love when all the balloon cluster together.

After a small incident Saturday evening at the glow, our friend Jim Wolters needed a balloon to fly, and we happened to have our system there and ready to go. Kenny got to fly with Jim for Sunday morning's competition. They scored 5th for the morning.

Here they are hovering over the target, making a great throw. After that, Kenny got to take over the burner and get his high speed landing in.

Unfortunately I was not there to see that very fast landing, I think he looked for the most remote field he could find to land.

The rest of the weekend ended up very windy and we were unable to get any more flights in, but we did have a great time. Looking forward to the 35th Great Pershing Balloon Derby when we will hopefully be able to enter our own balloon, with Kenny Jay as the pilot.

Congrats to Jeremy Rubin for his big win on this derby.

High Altitude Flight

Stacie, Gaige and Jesse came out to crew for Kenny's high altitude flight with Theron. I guess we need to get Gaige a Mai'Ken Dreams shirt, huh?

George Thomas and Gary Sines also flew that night, well, Adam Magee did too, but I didn't get him in this picture.

There he is, just a dot in the sky. He went up to approximately 4,300 feet. On the way down, they did a 'terminal decent' at about 1,400 feet per minute. This caused them to go into a spin. I'm sure glad I didn't see it!!! It was bad enough knowing how high he was going.