We finally got off the ground...it was a hazy morning as we got up at 3:45 am to meet our ride Kevin to the pick up point on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. At around 5 am all 15 of us were ready and we were bused about 1 hour out of town toward Al Alain, the desert oasis that was the birthplace of the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi. The founding Sheikh was born out here and we learned from our pilot that this part of the desert is kept especially cleaned up of trash so that the Royal family can come out here with their falcons and hunt...There is a short video at the bottom of our first attempt at take off and a couple of random pictures Art took from the basket

This is the engine, 2 hot burners and a 16 passenger basket, four people to a quadrant and the pilot from Russia in the middle

Too bad it was so hazy, but this picture of when we came close to the earth to search for wind direction came out pretty good, it is along the top of a dune and the wind had blown over the top here

There were 2 balloons today, our sister balloon was filled with tourists from Dubai