Balloonists defy gravity

Hot air balloonists defy gravity in an airship with no steering, no motor, no brakes, and no promise of where they’re going to land. But that didn’t stop more than 30 teams of hot air balloonists from turning out for the Oklahoma Festival of Ballooning in Muskogee this past weekend.

Though spectators galore visited both Friday and Saturday evening to enjoy tethered-balloon rides, a balloon glow, and helicopter rides, the balloonists are there for the opportunity to fly and compete — including the Retro Hot Air Balloon Team from Topeka, Kansas, with their candy corn-colored “envelope” that gets filled with 140,000 cubic feet of air.

The Retro team didn’t win Saturday’s contest — an early morning flight in which balloonists drop targets in a field — but they weren’t in it for the glory anyway, said Michele Harrison, crew chief and co-owner of the balloon.

“Any day we can fly is a good day for us,” said Rachel Martin, a member of Retro’s “chase crew.”

At nearly the crack of dawn Saturday, competitors met in the Hatbox Event Center before heading out with trailers in tow, seeking the perfect place to launch.

“We’re looking for a place with no electric lines around it, no light poles, hopefully mowed grass if not in a parking lot,” Michele said. She navigated while her husband, Pilot Darrin Harrison, drove.

They and a handful of other teams found a spot on the north side of US 62 and set to work unpacking their gear, greeting other teams, and talking about wind speed and direction.

Before unloading, they released a small balloon into the sky. “We call it a pi-ball, short for pilot balloon,” Michele explained as everyone watched it languidly float up and away. “We’re watching to get an idea of the best path to take, because we can’t really steer, we can only move up and down to try and get in a wind current that’s going the direction we want to go.”

The team placed poles on each corner of their basket, the burner on top of the poles, and attached gas lines to the four 10-gallon propane tanks that stood in the corners of the basket.

Then they laid the basket on its side, attached the envelope (the nylon balloon with fire-retardant fabric at the opening) to the basket and set up an industrial-sized fan to help inflate the balloon.

Some of the team pulled the balloon out of its bag from the “crown,” or top, of the envelope, others pulled on the sides. Michele stood in the front holding the mouth of the balloon wide open while their pilot fired up the burner and filled it with hot air.

Darrin went up alone for this flight because Oklahoma was already a furnace by 8 a.m. Excessive heat reduces the amount of weight a balloon can carry, Festival Organizer Chris Saliba said.

“Early in the morning when it’s not as warm, it’s not as bad, but in the evening, it does affect us,” Saliba said. “It’s still in the mid-80s in the morning, but we can deal with it.”

The flight itself was uneventful, but the wind, or lack thereof, did affect the balloon’s trajectory, Darrin said. His balloon, along with what looked like at least a third of his competitors, didn’t make a turn they needed to get over the competition field because of the wind.

“The direction change that had been there earlier had gone away, so when I dropped, I didn’t get the left turn I was expecting,” he said. “Ones that got in five or ten minutes ahead of us made that that turn.”

The chase team followed their balloon using a tracking app called Glympse, radios to stay in contact with the pilot, and GPS maps to find the best roads and possible landing places.

They ended up well south and west of Hatbox before Darrin saw a field with no power lines and no cattle wandering around. Once he did, his crew quickly got over there, knocked on the door of the nearest home and got permission to use an empty pasture for landing.

Then Darrin gently set it down among tall weeds and a swarm of startled grasshoppers. His team quickly set to work, deflated the envelope with a “squeezer,” and tucked it all back in its bag.

Hot, sweaty, but happy, they kidded each other a bit while they packed everything up and planned their next move — finding a good place to eat.

“On every trip we have the three B’s,” Martin said, and laughed. “Balloons, breakfast, and going back to bed.”

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