Up, Up and Away!!!

It all started with the Montgolfer brothers, back in the 1700s. The two Frenchmen wanted to fly. They knew hot air rises, and tried to find ways to use that knowledge to get aloft. Lacking a politician with enough lungpower to do the job, they used heated air to lift silk bags upward. Thus was born the sport and science of hot air ballooning.

In 1783, the brothers sent their first passengers upward. A sheep, a rooster, and a duck made a short flight in a wicker gondola suspended under a tethered balloon. The brothers were thrilled with the results, although it meant that their back-up plan of having coq au vin and mutton stew if the balloon crashed was scrapped in favor of a celebratory omelet, load of bread, and bottle of red wine. (There's no record of what the animal aviators thought about their trip.)

The brothers continued their experiments, and a few months later, arranged the first balloon flight for humans. They watched while two noblemen from the French court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette floated away. The noblemen didn't earn any frequent flyer miles, but they started a tradition. Like any self-respecting French adventurers, they took off from Paris with a couple of bottles of champagne aboard. When they landed in the fields outside Paris, they were greeted by suspicious farmers who weren't particularly pleased about the strange contraption littering their fields and crushing their crops. But when the nobles offered the champagne as compensation, the farmers were mollified. Since then, pilots offer a bottle of bubbly to whoever meets the balloon when it lands.

Things just kind of drifted along after that, but that's the way balloons work. There's no way to steer them. Winds dictate the direction, although the pilots control the altitude with burners and vents while searching for winds going in the right direction. Quixotic and fun, but as a reliable means of transportation, forget it!

Even getting airborne can be a challenge. If the wind speed is more than 5 or 6 miles an hour, the flight will be scrapped. Most 'envelopes,' the fabric shell that holds the hot air, are 60 to 70 feet high. It's just too hard to control them while inflating if there's a noticeable breeze. Practicality and safety, not romance, are the reasons why most flights are sunrise or sunset trips, because the air is usually quieter then.

A ride in a balloon is equal parts of magic, romance, and adventure. There's a little bit of The Wizard of Oz when the wicker basket slowly rises to the waves and cheers of those watching. Aside from the frequent firing of the burners - which are loud and hot - the flight is quiet. Balloons move so slowly, there isn't even the sound of the wind to distract from the sounds on the ground. Trips are tracked by barking dogs unnerved by the sight and sound of the balloon, people in back yards calling out greetings, the occasional startled Heifer mooing to alert her friends. There's time to watch the details of the landscape waking in the early morning or farmers finishing their chores as the sun sets. Pilots stay in touch with their chase crew - the people who have the van and the equipment (including the champagne) to pack up the balloon and return it to home base - with two-way radios.

Most balloons are the classic teardrop shape in any combination of colors and patterns. With the starting cost at $15,000, this is not a sport for the average backyard hobbyist. Many corporations sponsor balloon crews, and their logo adorns the nylon globes.

But artistic balloonists combine their creativity with the laws of physics to design balloons with a lot of other shapes. Billionaire Malcom Forbes has a hangarful of unusual designs, including a French chateau, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and a bust of Beethoven. There's a Liberty Bell, many different aliens, a Noah's Ark with animals watching out the windows, Uncle Sam, even Jesus floating on a cloud.

The best place to see the balloons is at a hot air balloon festival. Anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred balloons congregate for several days of ascents, races, and tethered inflations, where bragging rights are up for grabs.

One of the most wonderful events is the 'balloon glow,' when the balloons are inflated after dark. The flame from the burner illuminates the balloons from inside. Some balloons are designed with that in mind, a phoenix rising from the ashes painted on the side of a jet-black balloon, for instance.

To get pictures of the balloon glow, use 400-speed film, a tripod, and set the camera for a 1-second exposure. Flash bulbs and 400 speed film (or faster - 1000 speed is almost like shooting in daylight) are the best bet if the camera can't be adjusted, but don't expect good results. The flash can't illuminate the balloon long enough or brightly enough to capture it properly.

Here is a list of some of the balloon festivals scheduled for 2001. The Montgolfer brothers never dreamed their idea would rise so high!
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