The Garden City Telegram
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Balloons inflate fun for families
Published 8/25/2008 in News : Area coverage
By EMILY BEHLMANNebehlmann@gctelegram.com
Balloonists young and old were at the Finney County Fairgrounds over the weekend to show off for observers for all ages the aircrafts that have become their hobby.
In spite of their differences in ages, though, pilot Bud Hebrlee, of Albuquerque, N.M., said almost anyone he meets at hot air balloon events is intrigued by balloons like his colorful “Aerloon.”
“There’s a little bit of child in every adult,” he said.
This time, the event was the Finney County Convention and Tourism Bureau’s fifth annual Hot Air Balloon Classic. It was held in the place Hebrlee, a Garden City native, first learned to fly beginning in 1974.
High winds kept the nine balloons at this year’s event grounded for the scheduled Saturday morning launch, but pilots were able to launch Friday night and Sunday morning.
Hebrlee said weather is an important factor because with such a large mass of fabric, the wind would drag him off too quickly at speeds like Saturday morning’s 14 mph. External wind pressure also makes it hard to get a balloon to an upright position, he said.
Winds were questionable Saturday night, too, during the Convention and Tourism Bureau’s Pig Gig dinner, but several pilots still inflated and illuminated their balloons for the balloon glow.
“They’re really neat,” 6-year-old Rosemary Colson said at the evening event. “I like all the colors.”
Her favorite balloon was “all of them,” she said.
Kenny Bonnette’s favorite was “the KU one,” a blue and red balloon called “Air Hawk,” decorated with the University of Kansas Jayhawk. The 7-year-old even got to touch it, he said, and he’d like to ride in that balloon or another one some day.
Pilot Brian Carlson of Topeka said he, too, saw his first hot air balloons as a child. He became fascinated with them, especially after his friend’s father got a pilot’s license and began to fly.
Now Carlson has his license through the Federal Aviation Administration, and he owns two balloons.
He said his favorite part, besides meeting new people at balloon events, is that although he can get an idea of his balloon’s path by watching wind patterns, he never quite knows where he will land.
For Nick Stroup, of Silver Lake, the appeal of ballooning is the peacefulness, the calmness, he said. A fixed-wing airplane bounces around, but a hot air balloon is a smooth ride, and so quiet that from 200 feet in the air, a passenger can have a conversation at normal volume with someone on the ground, he said.
The draw of hot air ballooning caught Stroup, now a commercial pilot and flight instructor, 22 years ago, he said.
His wife, Diana, who co-owns the “Finest Hour” balloon he was showing over the weekend, was a crew leader and arranged for Nick’s first ride, he said. He was hooked.
“They say your first ride costs you $100 and your second costs you $30,000,” he said.
Now that he and his wife are balloon owners, Stroup said, he likes to attend shows like Finney County’s Classic because balloonists “like to show off our pretty toys.”
He gets joy out of it, but “the kids enjoy it the most,” he said.
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