This week I had an amazing adventure. Jan’s son, Eric, owns a hot air balloon and has a pilot’s license. I signed up to be on balloon crew. It was the Friends and Lovers Balloon Rally, which meant that there were a gazillion balloonists launching. The organizers of the event put a big “X” on a field, and all the pilots got a bean bag with their name on it. They were supposed to drop their bean bags out of their balloons near the “X”. The closest bean bag to the “X” would win.
This is a photo from the basket of Eric's balloon - so it's the inside of the balloon. Notice how close the burners are to our heads!
At the rally, there was a pilot’s briefing at 7:00. They gave out the radio frequency for the air traffic control tower at the Albuquerque airport - in case anyone accidentally got too close. WOW! I had never even thought about balloons running into the airplanes! A balloon rally has to get a waiver from the FAA. Who knew?
When the pilot's briefing wrapped up, they launched a PIBAL. Of course, what I heard was, “let’s go outdoors and launch the pie ball.” I thought, hm, possibly they'll catapult pies into the sky.
Anyway, the PIBAL - pilot balloon - was a little pink balloon like you’d get at a birthday party that they released into the air, and everyone watched it float up. Landing your bean bag closest to the target is all about choosing your launch site. You can actually steer a balloon somewhat - who knew - but only by going to different layers of atmosphere. Which are all moving at different rates of speed in somewhat different directions. Information about the wind direction and speed in the different layers is what the pilots were hoping to glean by watching the PIBAL.
Once that was done, there were huge discussions about the best place to launch. People were saying, “Let’s launch from the Cabelos.” Or, “Let’s launch from the Walmart”. Apparently, Albuquerque is so filled with balloonists that they’re allowed go to random store parking lots and launch from them. Well, balloons launch very early in the morning, because the weather conditions are more stable then. I guess maybe the stores aren’t open yet so they don’t care. Still. We eventually launched from a parking lot where several other balloons were launching. The amount of space it takes to get the balloon ready to launch is enormous.
Of course, I was all, ooooooh, where are we going to blow up our balloon, and Eric and the rest of the crew said, “Um, we don’t like to use the term ‘blow up’ in reference to balloons. We prefer the word ‘inflate’.” OK. I get it.
This is the balloon inside the bag. Amazing.
First we got the balloon out of its bag and laid it out on the ground - all nice and straight, because it’s got lines inside - the ropes that go to the vents, and to the top. Then, we attached the basket to the balloon. I say “we”, but I was really mostly watching so that I could learn how to help next time. I didn’t want to do anything that would cause danger in the air!
Once everything was ready, there was a ginormous fan that started up with a pull cord like a lawn mower. Eric started up the fan, and we held the throat of the balloon open so that all the air went inside - and the balloon inflated on the ground. It really went fast!
These are two balloons that were inflating next to us. You can see the enormous fan at work on the closer balloon. And you can see the balloon's basket just to the right of the fan.
Then, Eric turned on the burners and heated up the air that was inside the balloon. WOW! The balloon just rose up off the ground, hovering over the basket in the parking lot. Physics is amazing. That made me really curious about the origins of hot air ballooning. The first untethered hot air balloon flight with a human passenger was in 1783 in France. 1783! George Washington actually watched the first hot air balloon launch in the United States. This is some old technology. The Union Army had a Balloon Corps that spied on the Confederates during the Civil War. Many of those balloons remained tethered, so they could dangle a wire from the basket that the balloonist used to telegraph Confederate locations to the Union Army on the ground. Of course, some of those balloons got shot down. But, this wasn’t even the first military balloon corps! The first was the French Aerostatic Corps, which was active 1794-1799. The French corps relayed information to the ground with flag semaphore!
Once the balloon was upright, it wanted to go into the air, and we all held the basket down together. Eric asked if I wanted to be the second person in the basket along with him. Wow! He opened the basket door and got in. Who knew balloon baskets even had doors? Apparently, many of them don't. Most people have to vault over the side to get in. I followed him in, and the crew locked the basket door from the outside. Then, Eric’s 18-year-old son came up and hugged him and told him he loved him. There was something about that exchange - wait a minute - could we DIE in this thing? But, by the time I’d thought that through we were already above the ground.
I didn’t even feel the balloon rising - it was amazing. I guess I thought it’d be like a fast elevator, or one of those rides at Great America where you swoop up to the top of the tower and then they drop you. But, it was so gentle! I think we were rising pretty fast, but it wasn’t all breezy in the basket, because we were going with the wind. We just . . . floated away. It was like being inside a soap bubble! And, once we were up, we didn’t use the burners all the time, so it was quiet! It was indescribable. So beautiful. I could see our shadow far below on the ground. There were scores of other balloons in the sky.
Eventually, Eric pointed to a spot where he was going to set the balloon back down, and radioed the crew. It’s amazing to me that he could pick a spot and land there. The landing was so smooth - less jarring than hopping out of the passenger seat of a truck if you’re short like me. We got the air out of the balloon, and we put it away.
This is the balloon ready to be stuffed back into the black bag we saw earlier.
And now I’m completely hooked. I can’t wait for the next time I get to be on balloon crew. I probably won’t get to go up again for a long time. But, everything about the crew is fun and interesting. Thanks, Eric! Thanks, balloon crew!