Sanliurfa to Nevsehir, Turkey

3 - 6 June 2008

The surreal scenery of Cappodocia

Late afternoon, it was carpet shopping time again and time to negotiate prices. Hasan then took us to an impressive jewellery shop called Onyx from where there was a great view of Göreme.

6 June. Hasan woke us up at 5 a.m. just before sunrise, and 10 minutes later Sultan Balloons picked us up with their minibus. Upon arrival at the launch site, our captain Ismail Keremoglu was smiling: conditions were excellent. Soon we were airborne and flew meters above the magnificent canyons and rock formations in Rose Valley. Ismail is the chief pilot and general director of Sultan Balloons and is obviously a very experienced balloon skipper with more than 3000 balloon hours and manoeuvred the balloon within centimetres of the rocky walls without touching. Soon we could count not less than 23 balloons in the air, each with up to 20 persons on board. We even had a 'morning kiss' as Ismail called it when the envelopes of two balloons bumped into each other.

PS. After returning to Geneva in June, I got in contact with the manufacturer of the Slick LASAR magnetos, Unison Industries, to try to understand why my right magneto had come loose for the second time. The first time was after we returned from South America during the summer of 2006. It turned out, that due to a mistake in the Unison LASAR installation manuals (approved by the FAA!), I had been using the wrong gasket (P/N M3412) for the last 8 years! I have now installed the right gasket (P/N M3426 or Lycoming P/N LW12681) so it should never happen again. Now Unison Industries and the FAA (I filed a report with them) are now trying to figure out how to best correct their mistakes of the past!