We were in Iowa at the National Balloon Classic.  THIS IS NOT A CREW error!  This was my screw up alone! 

Previous to the event they had three weeks of rain.  Every thing was soaked and we were all warned to be very careful where we driving.  Especially on private property. We had gotten in the habit of walking every step before driving on someones yard. 

We had just finished a flight and were leaving the landing area.  We pulled out onto a limestone gravel road.  We were on a down hill slope heading into a right hand curve in the road.  The road had a tilt to the right to offset the curve in the road.  I did not pay much attention to this slope till we started to slide toward the right side of the road.  I turned the wheel to the left and it had no effect,  I applied the brakes gently and that had no effect.  The saturated limestone road was so slick that we were actually sliding over to the right hand edge of the road.  The edge of the road had a sharp drop off of about 12 feet into a ditch.  The front right hand tire went off the edge and the van slowly flipped over in the ditch. 

Fortunately the brush and small trees acted like a hammock and caught the van as it flipped.  I had my future wife (should have been a warning sign for her) and my niece, soon to be my daughter in law, and a few other local ground team.  8 of us in all went for a ride upside down in the ditch.  The forward speed of the van was so slow that we did not travel the length of the van as we slipped (upside down) into the ditch.  Fortunately no one was hurt!  My future wife stayed with me as the other members of the "in the Ditch Gang" handed stuff out of the broken windows of the van to save as many valuables as we could.  The van was totaled!  The tow truck driver said he is doing about 8-10 of these a week because of the massive amount of rain the area had received the previous three weeks.

As I like to say,  Fly well, Have FUN & BE SAFE!!!