That strange sight was the second test flight of the Spaceship Neptune-Excelsior, a test capsule designed and built by U.S. startup Space Perspective. For the price of a $125,000 ticket, the company will ferry as many as eight passengers at a time around the atmosphere in luxurious, panoramic digs for six hours. It seeks to launch commercial flights in 2026 and begin crewed test flights next year.

Space Perspective refers to Neptune as a spaceship, which is a bit of a misnomer. Reaching an altitude of about 100,000 feet, the vehicle falls well short of the Kármán line—used by international groups to define the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space—at about 50 to 60 miles altitude. Blue Origin, for example, takes customers beyond that boundary with its space tourism offering, while Virgin Galactic reaches an apogee of about 55 miles.

But according to Space Perspective, Neptune goes high enough for U.S. regulators to consider it a spacecraft. Passengers will be able to see the Earth’s curvature and experience the overview effect, a feeling of awe reported by many astronauts who have seen Earth from space, it says.

“I’m so proud of our devoted team who has worked relentlessly to execute this mission, drawing from their deep expertise and designing solutions for never-been-seen technologies,” said Taber MacCallum, founder and chief technology officer of Space Perspective. “This uncrewed flight not only proves our pioneering technology but also brings us a giant leap closer to making space accessible for everyone and reaffirms our belief in the transformative power of space travel.”

Up, Up, and Away

Space Perspective will offer an approximately six-hour journey to the stratosphere, hovering at about 100,000 feet for two hours.

Spaceship Neptune comprises the capsule, SpaceBalloon launch mechanism, and reserve descent system, all of which are patented, the company says. Flights will be regulated under FAR Part 460 for human space flight requirements and adhere to NASA and U.S. Coast Guard guidelines. The SpaceBalloon will lift off from the company’s marine spaceport, Voyager, and splash down in the ocean. A cone mechanism will cushion the impact and serve as an anchor.

The pressurized, spherical capsule has about 2,000 cubic feet of space, enough for eight passengers plus a captain. Its lounge area is decked out with luxurious seats, foliage, and massive 360-degree windows. According to Space Perspective, its “spa-like” restroom is more lavish than what you’d find in a first-class airplane cabin.

The company’s SpaceBalloon uses hydrogen and ascends at roughly 12 mph, eliminating the g-forces experienced by astronauts. When fully inflated, it stands nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower and could fit an entire football stadium. According to Space Perspective, the balloon cannot pop. But in the case of a contingency, an emergency system comprising four parachutes would deploy automatically.

Just about every component of Neptune—from satellite and ground communications systems to thermal controls to sensors and antennae—was designed and built in-house.

During their flight, customers will be treated to an array of amenities including food, a fully stocked bar with cocktail service, and high-speed Wi-Fi capable of connecting with friends and family on Earth. Interior and exterior cameras will capture photo and video of the experience.

Critically, no training is required. After placing a refundable $1,000 deposit, Space Perspective will walk the customer through the journey, provide regular updates, and help book travel to mission control at Space Coast Regional Airport (KTIX). The company claims it has sold more than 1,800 seats.

Space Perspective is calling Sunday’s test flight a wet dress rehearsal. Neptune completed the company’s nominal six-hour mission profile, launching from Voyager, ascending to apogee, and performing a controlled descent and splashdown.

At its peak, the company says, the capsule maintained cabin pressure and stability, with thermal management systems adjusting temperature based on outside fluctuations. Data from the flight will be used to refine its digital twin system developed in partnership with Siemens, which can recreate the mission profile virtually for additional testing. Space Perspective hopes the data will pave the way for crewed missions, which in December it said it was targeting by the end of 2024.

Sunday’s flight builds on the company’s previous test in 2021, when the balloon launched with a capsule simulator from Space Coast Air and Spaceport. Initial commercial flights will also launch from the Space Coast, though the firm is looking to add service in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe. It has so far raised $100 million from investors in support of those efforts.

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The post ‘SpaceBalloon’ Lifts Off in Stratospheric Test Flight appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The accident occurred during a sightseeing joy ride over the Teotihuacan ruin site—a popular tourist—area when the balloon’s basket caught fire. Jose Nolasco, 50, and his wife Viridiana Becerril, 38, died in the fire, while their 13-year-old daughter, Regina Itzani, jumped more than 130 feet,  suffering a broken arm and second-degree burns, according to the Associated Press.

Reports indicate the pilot, Victor Guzman, fled the scene telling authorities he didn’t know what to do once the balloon caught fire. Guzman also suffered burn injuries from the incident.

Guzman is now being held in pre-trial detention, while the prosecutor’s office has not determined any cause for the balloon to catch fire.

The FAA says it is looking into the incident and determining whether the hot air balloon company involved, Autocinema Retroviso, had a license to operate and proper accident insurance.

• READ MORE: NTSB Welcomes New FAA Medical Rule for Hot Air Balloon Pilots

While hot air balloon rides are popular, accidents remain a rare occurrence. According to the FAA’s Aviation Accident Database, hot air balloons are the safest form of air travel. Since 1964, the National Transportation Safety Board has investigated 775 hot air balloon incidents in the United States, of which 70 involved fatalities.

The United States has far fewer hot air balloon incidents each year than other countries, such as Mexico and Japan. Mexico’s regulatory environment could factor into the higher number of instances because of relatively lax safety standards.

• READ MORE: FAA Loosens Restrictions on ADS-B for Balloons

The most deadly hot air balloon accident occurred in 2013 in Luxor, Egypt, after the balloon caught fire and killed 19 tourists.

Another significant deadly accident occurred in 2016 in Lockhart, Texas. Sixteen people died after a balloon hit power lines and went down in a field. It was later discovered that the pilot had been impaired, having taken prescription medication before the accident occurred.

Following the Lockhart accident, many called for changes to medical standards for balloon pilots. As a result, balloonists are now held to the same standard as commercial pilots and must obtain a second class medical from an AME.

The post Hot Air Balloon Pilot Charged in Deadly Accident appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The FAA first proposed the rule in November 2021. 

At the time of the announcement last week, Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said, “Passengers can now rest assured that commercial balloon pilots must meet the same strict medical requirements as other commercial pilots.”

• READ MORE: How To Make a Living as a Hot Air Balloon Pilot

In a statement, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy called it a “promising step” but suggested that the FAA should do more work to govern air tours.

“I remain concerned about passenger safety on commercial balloon flights,” Homendy said. “We’ve seen the deadly consequences of unscrupulous air tour operators time and again. We need strong FAA oversight of all revenue passenger-carrying flight operations.”

The U.S. Congress mandated the rule based on a 2018 NTSB recommendation after a hot air balloon carrying 16 people, including the pilot, crashed into power lines outside Lockhart, Texas, on July 30, 2016. Everyone aboard died.

According to the NTSB’s statement, their investigators at the time said the FAA didn’t detect the pilot’s record of drug and alcohol convictions for nearly 30 years because he wasn’t required to undergo any such screening that comes with typical pilot medical examinations.

• READ MORE: NTSB Balloon Recommendations Should Have Been a No-Brainer, Safety Experts Say

Still, the NTSB would like to see the FAA do more. It said in a statement that it “has a long history of concerns about the safety of various revenue passenger-carrying operations, including sightseeing flights conducted in hot air balloons, helicopters, and other aircraft as well as parachute jump flights.”

According to the agency’s statement, those operations are not scrutinized similarly regarding “maintenance, airworthiness and operational requirements as other commercial flight operations.”

The post NTSB Welcomes New FAA Medical Rule for Hot Air Balloon Pilots appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The first free flight of a manned balloon took place, as is well known, in France. The king, who took an interest in the experiments of the Montgolfier brothers, suggested that the passengers on the first manned flight should be two convicts, whom he considered expendable. He was persuaded, however, that the honor of being the first humans to fly should go to persons of the better sort.

A minor aristocrat and military man, the Marquis François d’Arlandes, and a recently ennobled science teacher and member of the king’s brother’s entourage, Jean-François Pilatre de Rozier, volunteered. Pilatre de Rozier was bold to the point of rashness; he once demonstrated the flammability of hydrogen — and eyebrows — by blowing a mouthful of the stuff over an open flame, and would end his life in an attempt to fly a balloon across the English Channel. D’Arlandes, conversely, would subsequently be expelled from the army for cowardice, a quality which, if the charge were just, must have developed in him late.

The balloon, constructed of silk, fancifully decorated by a wallpaper manufacturer with zodiacal signs and other celestial curlicues and powered by burning straw, rose from a park on the west side of Paris, flew 5 miles, and landed safely. One can only imagine the emotions the men felt on seeing the world as only God and winged creatures had seen it before, not to mention those of peasants on the ground who looked up to see a huge painted ball floating past in the sky.

Joseph Montgolfier believed that smoke contained a special gas, which he named after himself, that possessed a tendency to rise. This shows, as have many examples since that time, that garbled thinking is no obstacle to the elevation of bloated gasbags.

Actually, what happened in the Montgolfiers’ hot-air balloons, and in all such balloons since, is that fire made the air within the balloon expand. The excess volume was driven out of the opening at the bottom, making the balloon lighter.

Air weighs about 81 pounds per thousand cubic feet at sea level temperature and pressure. The volume of the Montgolfiers’ first man-carrying balloon, which was as tall as a seven-story building, was about 60,000 cubic feet, and so it contained nearly 5,000 pounds of air. Supposing that the balloon and its payload weighed 1,000 pounds, the air within it would have had to expand until a fifth of it had been driven out of the envelope in order to make it neutrally buoyant. In November in Paris, this would require an increase in temperature of about 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

During my early years of writing for Flying I would collect ratings and write articles about my experiences getting them. One of the skills that I mastered just enough to be rated was that of flying hot-air balloons.

My balloon training began in April 1969 at Perris, California, with Don Piccard, a professional balloonist who designed, built, flew and sold his own hot-air balloons.

One learned by doing. I started off as crew, arriving at Perris at dawn to help unload and lay out the balloon. The gondola was a large, heavily constructed wicker basket, atop which a metal frame held, above the occupants’ heads, two cylindrical burners fed by propane from a tank in the basket. The large opening at the bottom of the balloon, called the skirt, was several feet above the burners.

A team is required, first to inflate the balloon, then to follow and retrieve it after a cross-country flight. For inflation, the nylon envelope is spread out on the ground and the basket tilted onto its side. A couple of helpers pick up the edges of the skirt and hold it open while the pilot directs the burner flame, which is large, noisy and menacing, into the opening between them. The heat of the flame, combined with some energetic pumping of the edges of the skirt, causes the envelope to puff up and begin to fill. As it inflates it rises, until it floats above the now upright gondola. All this is fairly easy to accomplish, provided that there is no wind.

Once the balloon was standing up and the gondola light, the pilot and passengers would scramble aboard, together with a bottle of champagne, because it was tradition to celebrate the completion of the flight with toasts. We would then float over the landscape for an hour in an otherworldly silence interrupted from time to time only by the roar of the burners replenishing the heat. Because the balloon becomes part of the surrounding air, its passengers feel no breeze. If it had pennants, they would hang limp. It seems becalmed.

Once, we passed at treetop level above a house as a man stepped out onto the porch.

“Good morning,” Piccard said in a conversational tone.
The man looked about, baffled.
“Beautiful weather,” Piccard continued.
A dog barked. We passed on. The man never looked up.

In June of that year, I found myself at the Paris Air Show. Piccard was there too, along with his wife and their daughter Liz, who was about my age. He was delivering a balloon to a customer, a Monsieur Duvaleix, and was scheduled to fly as part of the air show. He enlisted me to crew for him.

It was windy. The previous day, a British team had tried to launch and had failed disastrously. It should have been a scrub; you don’t try to inflate a 60-foot balloon in a stiff wind. But Piccard — well, Piccard was Piccard.

It was a desperate gamble. Piccard roped the gondola to the bumper of a car. He made Liz and me lie inside the skirt, under the burner flame, to keep the wind from picking up the bottom edge. When the flames got too close to my face, I panicked and rolled out. Liz was still inside, yelling. Her mother rushed in to rescue her. “I can’t let you go on with this!” she screamed at Don, who glanced at her and then went on. Liz, her loyalties divided, broke away from her mother, and we held the sides of the skirt, stepping on the inside to hold it down while the expanding monster heaved from side to side in the wind.

Madame Duvaleix was supposed to cut the rope on Piccard’s signal, using a switchblade knife with which he had provided her; but she mistook his shouts of “Get out” to Liz and me for “Cut it,” and she cut the rope prematurely. The gondola, in the bottom of which M. Duvaleix was curled in a fetal position, began to slide away.

Now we had to lift and carry the lightening gondola, so that the balloon would not lie down. Liz and I and a couple of others struggled to run and lift at the same time while Piccard, like a mad, fixated Ahab, aimed the full power of his flame throwers upward into the belly of the whale.

Finally, we could hold the gondola no longer. It slipped from our despairing hands; we fell on the ground, gasping. The gondola bounced a couple of times and then, miraculously, the balloon tipped upward and the gondola left the ground. It climbed to 20 feet or so and leveled off. The wind bore it along, stately and silent. Our hair was blowing into our eyes, but Piccard and M. Duvaleix were cocooned in calm, and waved imperturbably to the crowd.

It was only in September that I finally soloed, under the tutelage of a different instructor, Deke Sonnichsen. He said that a newly minted balloonist received a nickname from his teacher. With a muddy mixture of champagne and the soil upon which I had landed, he christened me “Enigma Springs.”

My article appeared in the February 1970 issue of Flying. As it happened, I never flew in a hot-air balloon again.

The post Adventures in Ballooning appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Remember that terrible hot-air balloon crash in central Texas a few summers back? The accident claimed 16 lives, including the pilot’s, when the balloon struck high-tension power lines following a short, early-morning flight. The crash claimed more lives than any other aviation accident in the previous seven years. Not to mention this was only a balloon, not a Part 121 or Part 135 commercial aircraft operation.

At the conclusion of the NTSB’s investigation, the Board had no doubts about the most likely cause of the accident, “the pilot’s pattern of poor decision-making that led to the initial launch, continued flight in fog and above clouds, and descent near or through clouds that decreased the pilot’s ability to see and avoid obstacles.”

Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s impaired medical conditions. The Board said, “The accident pilot had been diagnosed with … depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, known to cause cognitive deficits that may affect decision-making and, ultimately, safety of flight.” Additionally, the NTSB learned, “the pilot had several medical conditions that would have precluded his legal ability to operate any aircraft, including a balloon. He was also taking medications prohibited when piloting. He had been arrested on four occasions for driving under the influence.”

In all likelihood, any normal aviation medical examiner would have deferred or denied this pilot’s application for a medical certificate. Strangely however, unlike every other airman in the system who accepts money for their services, commercial balloon pilots are not required to maintain an FAA medical certificate. The reason for this loophole is still unknown.

The NTSB recommended the agency dig into this issue, which the FAA agreed to do. In his closing statement to the public hearing on the accident last fall, NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said, “Today’s recommendations, if acted on, will help to bring the safety standards and oversight of commercial passenger carrying balloon operations closer to those that apply to powered flight. Balloon pilots, their passengers, and their passengers’ loved ones, deserve no less”.

The NTSB and the FAA have exchanged documents that prove the agency is reviewing its oversight of the commercial balloon industry and the possibility of demanding that commercial balloon pilots hold an FAA medical. The last official correspondence between FAA and the NTSB was in December 2017.

Considering how the media these days refuses to let go of any transportation incident or accident, I’m left wondering why people paying good money for a balloon ride, people who assume their pilot has the right stuff, are no safer today than they were during that foggy morning takeoff in July 2016.

The post NTSB Balloon Recommendations Should Have Been a No-Brainer, Safety Experts Say appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

While the 46th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta drifted into the sunset a few weeks ago, the numbers are in and this year’s event was an incredible success. An estimated 887,970 people watched more than 650 balloons from 21 countries take to the New Mexico sky with colorful, mesmerizing and even hilarious designs, certainly driving home the event theme: “Inflate Your Imagination.”

Maurice Petrehn of Olathe, Kansas, took home first place in the hot air overall competition with his balloon “Farther On,” while Kentucky’s Nick Donner took second and Rhett Heartsill’s “Texas Star” took third. Switzerland’s Nicolas Tièche and Laurent Sciboz also set a new distance record in winning the 22nd America’s Challenge gas balloon race.

But the biggest winners were the people who gazed in awe as these incredible balloons hit the sky, and since we couldn’t all be there to gasp and point together, photographers Gary Rosier and Marty Stephens did their best to capture the magic during this incredible week in the Duke City.

(Is your balloon pictured? Shoot us an email with the name and details and we’ll be happy to include them.)

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The National Transportation Safety Board this week called upon the FAA to treat balloon pilots like all others by requiring them to possess a current medical certificate. Currently, balloon pilots are exempt from medical certificate requirement in order to conduct commercial operations.

In an abstract of the soon-to-be-released final report, the NTSB took the FAA to task for its oversight of balloon operations following the July 20, 2016 crash of a commercial balloon in Lockhart, Texas. The pilot of that balloon was found to have been impaired by non-approved medications at the time of the accident, in which he attempted to land in poor visibility conditions. The balloon struck high-tension power lines near the landing site before it fell to the ground, killing all 15 passengers aboard, as well as the pilot. Investigators discovered depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the combined effects of multiple central nervous system-impairing drugs likely affected the pilot’s ability to make safe decisions.

Robert L. Sumwalt, NTSB’s Chairman said, “The pilot’s poor decisions were his and his alone. But other decisions within government, dating back decades, enabled his poor decision to fly with impairing medical conditions, while using medications that should have grounded him.”

The investigators believed the balloon pilot should have cancelled the Texas sight-seeing flight because of deteriorating weather conditions and, once in the air, should not have climbed above the clouds. The pilot’s decision to then attempt to land in reduced visibility conditions diminished his ability to see and avoid obstacles and resulted in the balloon impacting power lines.

BFA Announces Consumer Focused Balloon Safety Guidelines

Nearly coinciding with the NTSB’s report on the Texas crash, the Balloon Federation of America released its new Envelope of Safety accreditation program for balloon ride operations to better inform tourists of an operator’s qualifications before they fly.

Working with the FAA, the BFA created the program for commercial balloons capable of carrying 4-6 passengers. The BFA says these should be flown by pilots who have held a commercial pilot certificate for at least 18 months. They pilots should also possess an FAA second-class medical certificate. Pilots must pass a drug and alcohol background check, have attended a BFA-sanctioned safety seminar within the last 12 months and be enrolled in the FAA Wings program. The BFA will verify this information annually, as well as check the safety record of pilot applicants by researching FAA accident and incident data.

A second part of the program provides balloon ride operators with a choice of three levels of safety accreditation: Silver, Gold, or Platinum. Each level has increasingly stringent safety requirements.

The post NTSB Calls for Regulatory Changes to Commercial Balloon Operations appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

NASA’s super pressure balloon hit a new milestone on Tuesday, completing its first circumnavigation of the globe after 14 days, 13 hours and 17 minutes of flight. Flying the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) payload, the 18.8 million-cubic-foot balloon departed from Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, and flew at 53.85 knots, at an altitude of 110,170 feet.

“Long duration, heavy-lift scientific balloon flights are poised to open doors for science and technology payloads seeking low-cost access to the near-space environment,” said Debbie Fairbrother, NASA’s Balloon Program Office chief.

On May 30, the COSI team had a breakthrough in detecting and localizing its first gamma ray burst, which the onboard COSI gamma ray telescope observed for about 10 seconds. The COSI team is still reporting data to the payload’s control center at the University of California, Berkeley.

“The completion of the balloon’s first mid-latitude circumnavigation marks a key mission milestone and brings us one step closer in setting a new flight duration record,” says John Pullen, vice president and general manager, Technical Services Division of Orbital ATK’s Space Systems Group.

“We are also pleased that important science data, such as the discovery of a gamma ray burst, is already being collected on the mission, which reinforces the capabilities of NASA’s scientific balloons in providing affordable, near-space access for conducting scientific investigations.”

The post NASA’s Super Pressure Balloon Circumnavigates the Globe appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

He told me he was bringing the balloon to a summer evening party in fashionable Indian Hill so the hosts could score a “first” by offering tethered balloon rides to guests.

“I’ll teach you how to run it up and down on a tether and you can play with it as long as you want.”

So of course I went, decked out in a strapless Lilly Pulitzer creation. Few women have less business wearing a strapless dress, but they were “in” and it was a time in life when that was important to me. The night was hot and humid and, well fortified with vodka martinis, I hitched up my skirts, climbed into the wicker basket and concentrated on Frank’s instructions. Somebody caught the moment on film and, no, I’m not going to let the magazine publish it … arms stretched overhead, face beet-red and twisted in concentration and my Lilly frock down around my waist (underpinnings intact … just).

The FAA was unaware of my notorious balloon debut when it sent me on an all-expense-paid two-week trip to northern Colorado, at a spectacular place right on the Front Range. I would morph from an airplane pilot who couldn’t spell Montgolfier to a full-blown, expert, commercial hot-air balloon aeronaut — or so the balloon community in southern Ohio was supposed to believe. Ballooning had “ballooned” in our district, and the nearest FAA inspector full of hot air (ratings) was in Chicago. That he was rarely if ever available for balloon events, surveillances or check rides should have rung a warning bell but, hey, if it’s something that launches you into the air, I’m game to try it.

This mission was not without its challenges.

First, there’s the altitude thing: Being at 3,000 or 8,000 feet in an airplane is home; being any higher than a couple hundred feet in a balloon basket is downright unnatural, something only a high ironworker might enjoy — an opinion my friend Joe Kittinger, who jumped out of one at 103,000 feet and flew another solo across the Atlantic, finds wildly funny. A course completion requirement was to take this thing to 3,000 feet agl, which I did, huddled in a fetal position on the basket floor, occasionally peering over the rim with one eye. When the little hand on the altimeter said “3” I vented at terminal velocity to the first available piece of Mother Earth, which happened to be inside the fence of a Colorado state penal facility.

Which raises the issue of direction. Sure, I know that balloons ride the wind, they’re part of the wind, and getting somewhere specific (like not on the grounds of a prison) means changing altitudes in search of a layer where the winds are blowing the way you want to go … remembering they’ll change again as you descend. Well, OK, I know that, but I have this innate pilot’s conviction that you go pretty much in the direction you’re pointed. But positioning yourself in the balloon basket and concentrating on the direction you want to go is useless because the damn thing rarely wants to go that way. Eventually I caught on to spitting over the side and shooting bursts of foam from cans of shaving cream to try “catching a left” below, or burning to climb to a layer where the wind would take me in a better direction — maybe even back around for another try.

Finally, there’s the business of wrestling these things around on the ground. The Raven model (no longer built) weighed 300 pounds empty with two 15-gallon propane burners. It would lift up to eight people, which made it ideal for the tourist business but something of a challenge for a beginner. Laying it out and inflating and then — if you got down with most bones intact — deflating and packing it up at the end was formidable. We were starting out at an elevation 5,000 feet above sea level and, while I’m incredibly strong, 105 pounds goes only so far. Wimping out is not an option, especially with a crew of teenage girls, so I threw myself wholeheartedly into the task and then took myself to the Poudre Valley Hospital, certain that I’d torn every rib loose from my sternum. Several hours, X-rays and a bill for (can you believe) $90 later, I limped back to the motel with the assurance it was plain vanilla bruised ribs and sore muscles.

I was the lone student at this FAA-contracted “balloon school,” which consisted of the guy who owned the balloon, his girlfriend and a volunteer crew of teenage girls. We’d launch at dawn from a downtown park and usually be packed up well before noon. I guess I was supposed to study balloon theory and read manuals, but this isn’t exactly quantum physics. Besides, the Poudre River was in its spring thaw, and driving up into the mountains with fly fishermen out in those rushing waters provided an awesome sight. I visited Cheyenne and Laramie in Wyoming and stood knee-deep in snow at a lookout in Rocky Mountain National Park. Watching a simultaneous thunderstorm and snowstorm across the valley gave me a wholesome appreciation for the vagaries of mountain weather and mountain flying. I think I got another letter of reprimand for “unauthorized use of a government vehicle,” but it was worth it.

Anyway, the weather turned sour after the first two mornings with a forecast to stay that way for several days. The balloon guy wanted to drive up into the mountains to drum up balloon business with several dude ranches and resorts for the summer. Did I want to go along?

I met him at the girlfriend’s house, an A-frame just behind the first rise of the Front Range. The balloon trailer was sitting in the backyard, and a discussion about how to pay for the next propane delivery was a clue that the weather delay was probably fortuitous. We set off in his pickup and soon left paved roads, climbing to higher terrain where the snow was still pretty deep. Near Granby a sign said “Continental Divide, Elevation 12,700”; I saw beavers building dams, herds of deer and elk, tall firs and amazing mountain vistas. And the lodges where we stopped were exquisitely decorated and comfortable with stables and shooting ranges and heaven knows what else for affluent guests.

Later, on a remote stretch of gravel road, he asked if I was curious about the FAA inspectors who’d met us the first day. I supposed it was a routine surveillance, but he said the feds were harassing him because of complaints and accusations from other balloon examiners. They were trying to take his certificate and maybe I’d noticed that he was careful to show it but didn’t hand it to them. I told him that no FAA inspector in my experience had the authority to physically confiscate a pilot certificate … period!

The conversation progressed (or degenerated) into the story of why he was involved in ballooning when most of his previous experience was in fixed wing and helicopters. Well, it seems he’d recently graduated from a federal prison where he served time for insurance fraud. (Note: The FAA suspends a pilot’s medical certificate for a minimum of one year after the date of a felony conviction, but a balloon certificate requires no medical.)

“Well, gee,” I gulped, “we all make mistakes. You just had some bad luck getting caught. Put it behind you and move on; you’re doing fine.”

The pickup was bumping along in what seemed like trackless wastes as he talked about the expense and hassle of going to Denver every week to see his parole officer plus the financial burden of alimony and child support from several failed marriages. I was holding up pretty well until he dropped a bomb about additional court-mandated visits to Denver he was making — something about sex abuse charges brought by a disgruntled teenage stepdaughter.

“You know,” he said, “I have a real problem with government people.”

Being a “government person” I was feeling uncomfortable, and it wasn’t the ribs, the head cold or the altitude. But within a few miles we came to a paved highway and were soon headed downhill toward civilization. Maybe he just needed to vent, and I appreciated his candor, but it sure wasn’t one of my warmest and fuzziest moments. When I got to the motel, I called my boss and asked what in the hell the FAA was thinking about to contract with this balloon school.

“So you want to drop out?” my understanding and solicitous manager asked.

“Of course not; I just want you to know where to look before claiming I’m AWOL if I don’t come back.”

In fairness, the balloonist was a magnificent aeronaut and a fine instructor. In the next week, he taught me every aspect of the art and science of hot-air balloons. We touched down lightly on mountain lakes and plucked boughs from fir trees as we rose up the slopes. I learned a lot and I liked him. He’d just taken a wrong turn.

In spite of the physical and emotional toll, I came back home a genuine commercial balloonist (hot air only) and worked with the balloon community in southern Ohio for some years. But in truth, I never really got my arms around ballooning or balloonists — well, except for Colonel Joe, of course. I’ll put my arms around Joe Kittinger every chance I get.

The post Unusual Attitudes: How I Became a Hot Air-o-naut appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Case in point: During the week of Sun ‘n Fun 2010, I had some pretty cool adventures, two of which I had never experienced, and one of which I had, but with, let’s say, some new modifications. I’ve already blogged about my Aventura seaplane flight at Splash In at Fantasy of Flight and what a kick that was. But on Saturday, I added to the list, first with participation in the annual Sun ‘n Fun hot air balloon sunrise launch and competition and then a ride in a Waco. What a job!

Ironically, the opportunity to be a part of the sunrise hot air balloon launch and competition stemmed from the seaplane ride. The gentleman pilot Travis Jay had taken up before me was veteran balloonist, Adam Carusone of Guru Balloon (guruballoon.com) based out of Winter Park, Florida. He and Bonnier Staff Photographer Jon Whittle had started chatting while I was “splashing in and out of the water” and I joined in on the convo when I got back to land. One thing led to another as it does in these circles. It’s contagious, the thrill of flight — no matter how you propel yourself through the air (or where you land, for that matter).

So there I was at 6 a.m., at the FAA building at Linder Regional, sitting in a briefing for balloon pilots (or LTA pilots…I apologize in advance if I miss some of the proper terminology). There were to be 27 hot air balloons launching that morning to compete in a Hare and Hound Competition. Winds were the focus of WX briefer that morning…calm/variable for the launch site, with up to 15-25 kts at different altitudes. Other than that it was “Have Fun!” And off we went. A Hare and Hound Competition consists of all participating balloons, or Hounds, following a lead balloon, or Hare, to a target point chosen and known only by the Hare. Once the lead balloon chooses a spot and lands, the crew places a giant X on the ground. It’s this X that all other balloons are to target with a mightily throw of a beanbag after getting as close as possible without touching down (or hitting anything, like electrical wires or buildings). The beanbag that lands closest is the winner.

Preparing to for launch for the competition can be tricky. If you get off the ground or even start your fan to inflate your balloon before the Hare does, you’re disqualified. We had launched about 4 or 5 balloons behind our quarry, and Adam’s goal was to stay low or near the altitude of the Hare and chase at a mild pace so as to not bypass him. During the course of our chase, we ascended to no more than 200 or so feet and at point of beanbag launch descended to around 80.

During the chase, which just by the competition’s name seems like it would be noisy and chaotic, I couldn’t help but feel a quiet awe. Here I was, floating silently (in between the trance-breaking blasts of heat) through the air, with a bird’s eye view of the homes that were still quiet, a pasture where a herd of horses was running, probably to the morning feeding, and strawberry fields with workers picking the fruit from laden plants during the sunrise hour. Adam needed to gain altitude and/or maneuver the balloon a certain direction between the wind layers to keep us on proper course with the Hare. The sensations you feel are ever so subtle, probably non-existent to some. Though only definitely perceptible on the variometer (similar to a VSI), I could sense our ascents after the 15 -second or more lag between the heat blasts Adam delivered from the propane valve to coax the balloon higher at appropriate times. But not the descents when Adam tugged the chord to release heat so we could near our target. The place our Hare chose was not easy. In fact some balloons bypassed it completely. As we neared it, I handed Adam the beanbag and he heaved it overboard on a course that seemed right on target…but for the surface wind that held it back well away from the X. It was a good effort.

The focus of reaching the Hare’s target was intense. Once we launched the beanbag, it was time to search for a landing place. Adam was familiar with the lay of the land, but we were somewhat at the mercy of the changing wind layers so we had to keep adapting. The chase team had us insight and followed us at our whim. One pasture looked like a winner until we saw a bull roaming about and the chase team informed us that the gate was locked. Once Mother Nature gave us a window to land that concurred with a clearing devoid of hazardous objects, we finally put down in a small field just beyond some two-story condos (I’m sure the folks who I noticed having early morning coffee on their patios were surprised by our sudden, stealth appearance! And if I were Santa Claus, I might think the balloon is not such a bad way to get on someone’s roof.)

Right after we passed over the condo roofs, Adam timed the descent perfectly. We bumped along about 50 feet or so before coming to a stop, laying the wicker basket on its side. The chase team pulled up right after we landed and so they weren’t in place when we landed. As a result, Adam had to immediately get out and lay the balloon down because the winds decided to pick up! Charged with pulling in the envelope chord, I decide to get completely out of the basket in the event, though unlikely, things got out of hand. I would be like that kid who got whisked away in a balloon on his own, though this time for real!

The team packed up in about 20 minutes. All in all, the time in the air was about 40 minutes or so and what a ride it was. It’s like walking through the air on air…none of the physical sensations when flying in an airplane, for obvious reasons. It’s peaceful at the same time as exhilarating. This was like no chasing of a hare I could have ever imagined.

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