Floating on High

A spectacle of eye-popping color occurs each fall at the Kodak Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta during a phenomenal event for spectators and balloon pilots alike. At predetermined times for nearly two hours, more than 800 hot air balloons ascend into the sky, one after another.

“It is something to see,’’ says Kathy Copas of Sellersburg, Ind. Especially from the view she and her husband, Jerry, have in one of the balloon gondolas, rising like so many upside-down pears into the early morning breeze.

“If you are fortunate enough to get to lift off early, you can look back at the other balloons and it looks like popcorn popping. You can see them fill with air and then they come up. It’s wonderful,’’ says Kathy, 36.

Jerry and Kathy experience the en masse liftoff, officially known by balloonists as a mass ascension, annually. Albuquerque’s fiesta is one of but 15 to 20 events the couple, both veteran balloon pilots, participates in each year. In addition, at their home across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky., they teach others to fly balloons and they sell them, as well.

Married for 14 years and having flown in 30 states and five foreign countries, the couple’s motto could very well be, “love is in the air.”

Jerry, 39, was the first to develop an affinity for flying. “I was the kid in school who was always staring out the window and drawing pictures of airplanes and helicopters. I’ve always liked the idea of going into the sky,’’ he says.

One day when he was in junior high, a hot air balloon landed outside his hometown. The landed craft was part of a launch to advertise the upcoming Kentucky Derby. His mother took him out to the landing site, where he saw a crew begin to pack up the balloon for the ride home.

“I was impressed. I had not even thought about balloons,’’ he says. What most impressed him about the sport, and still does, is that ballooning is a group endeavor.

“A pilot in a fixed-wing plane can get in, take off, fly around, and then land, all by himself. With balloons, it’s a social thing. Here was a kind of aviation that needed a crew even to get the thing off the ground,’’ Jerry recalls.

Of course, he was eager to join a crew. “And they were ready to let me. I was dependable and would do anything; just what they were looking for,’’ he says.

Jerry earned his pilot’s license at the age of 19, working his way through the lessons by volunteering on the ground crews of local pilots. He flew all through high school and college, where he received a commercial art degree.

Ballooning even led him to his wife, who was introduced by a fellow balloonist. It was not long before she not only was his intended, but his student. “He was my instructor. We worked pretty well together,’’ she says.

A Simple Concept

As aircraft go, balloons are the plodding turtles of the aviation world. They are slow, their paths uncertain. As Jerry notes, planes are usually flown for a reason—to proceed from point A to point B.

“When you get in a balloon, you never know exactly where point B is going to be,’’ he says.

But that’s the way it’s always been with ballooning, whose history long predates other forms of loosing man’s bond from terra firma. The first balloon was unveiled in June 1783 by the Montgolfier brothers of Paris, who publicly demonstrated—for Louis XIV and his court, no less—that a balloon rider would not implode upon ascension. But to be on the safe side, a sheep, duck, and a young rooster were the first passengers, much the same way chimpanzees were first sent into space by American scientists about 170 years later.

Several weeks after the animals went aloft, the first manned balloon flight took place. Two men, one a science teacher, another a military officer, flew nine miles across the Paris landscape.

The concept, filling a large bag with hot air, has not changed since the Montgolfiers. But the materials have. The envelopes, the technical term for the balloons, are made of nylon or other synthetics and are quickly inflated using the flames of propane torches. Upon spreading the bag out and aiming the torches into the open mouth of the balloon cave, it takes only a half-hour to bring a craft to life.

Average balloons are about 75 feet high and 60 feet across at their widest points. During inflation, most displace between 75,000 to 80,000 cubic feet of air. Gondolas still are made of rattan or wicker, by craftsmen who specialize in their manufacture.

“Ballooning remains an extremely simple concept,” Jerry says. “Most people don’t understand the wing theory that keeps an airplane in the air, but balloons, they’re easier to understand.’’

Ever the Crowd Pleasers

When the Copases go flying, they always attract a crowd, on launch, during the flight, and on landing. Since they went into ballooning full time eight years ago, one of their primary jobs is to take up balloons that sport the logos of various pizza or beverage companies, so drawing a crowd is good for business.

But they also enjoy the flights when it’s just for the pleasure of sailing in the wind. Pilots never know what they will see.

“One day I was taking a flight around home. I was right above the treetops, and I looked down and saw a little stream, and a raccoon was there washing his hands. He just stopped and looked up at me,” Kathy recalls. “It was so quiet, it made me feel closer to nature.’’

“For me, it’s still the same thrill every time I go up,” Jerry adds. “It’s nothing I’d ever get bored with.’’

Most of the 6,000 active balloon pilots in America can be found in the inland and less mountainous states, where the lay of the land is more conducive to a balloon’s flying characteristics, according to the Balloon Federation of America. More than 50 major balloon festivals are scheduled throughout the country each year.

Although most people who attend these events prefer to watch from the ground, several do approach Jerry and Kathy to inquire about flying lessons. Soon enough, they learn that going up, up, and away doesn’t come cheap. A full slate of lessons costs about $2,000. A new balloon can cost about $20,000, although a used one can be bought for about half that.

“But you can pack it all up and put it in your garage,’’ Jerry notes. True enough; you can’t do that with a Cessna.

The Indiana couple likely will have a balloon or two in their garage for years to come, if not for their own enjoyment, then for their young son. Spence is just 2, but he’s a pilot in the making, his proud parents say.

How do they know?

His first spoken word was “balloon.’’

Stephen Leon Alligood writes from his home in Middle Tennessee.

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