Ups and Downs
The last words you want to hear during a hot air balloon ride are "The flame went out."
I've never been in a hot air balloon before. To be honest, I never really wanted to. Coming from one of the balloon capitals of the world, Sedona, I've seen plenty of them flying through red-rock country. Riding in the oldest form of air transportation never interested me.
There was even a time back in 2001 when a balloon floated by my apartment window. I grabbed my camera and chased it down the street, into someone's backyard.
I remembered that story Wednesday, shortly after my hot air balloon took off.
My morning assignment was a balloon ride put on by the organizers of the Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival to hype the upcoming extravaganza next weekend. I flew with Fred Bookwalter of Tranquil Sensations, a guy named Joe and the crew from KYMA-TV.
I didn't even know we left the ground at Kennedy Park, our meeting place. And I was late, so I had to sprint to the balloon.
We toured the southern part of Yuma at sunrise, and it was awesome. The way the golden light lit up MCAS while flying at 2,000 feet was incredible. You couldn't even tell you were in a balloon, floating across the landscape.
It was crazy.
We spent close to 45 minutes in the air, flying over sheep, pigeons at Circle K, fields and the airport. Got plenty of aerial shots of Yuma during that time.
The rest of the ballooners were ahead of our group and most of them were landing. Bookwalter decided it was time to do the same. We descended from our 3,000-foot range.
Then, those fateful words that nobody on a balloon ride wants to hear came. Not good words.
"The flame went out."
The flame produces the hot air that makes the balloon rise and fall, and keeps those in the wicker basket comfortable. When that goes out, the pilot has very little control. Luckily, very little is just enough.
With no flame, we in the wicker basket started to feel very uncomfortable, and our slow descent turned into a crash landing. Bookwalter's no rookie. He's flown for 13 years, so he knew how to handle the situation. This has happened before.
He tugged a few ropes and kept our crash impact very low. We smashed into a tree, the ground and a barbed-wire fence before coming to a stop. Then we went up again, then came down again.
It was kind of like a car accident, but continuous. Our basket was dragged across the landscape we once flew over. We were all beat into the ground, each other.
Bookwalter got the flame back and we went up one last time, to land. The landing on the third go-around was pretty nice. You could see why people do this kind of thing for fun.
I'm feeling pretty rough, but alive. I never felt my life was in danger, and that's kudos to Bookwalter.
The chase car showed up close to 15 minutes after the landing to pick us up, and the balloon.
It was crazy.
Sometimes, things go wrong. Sometimes they go right. Sometimes, you just hold on to the wicker basket and hope for the best.
I've never been in a hot air balloon before. To be honest, I never really wanted to. Coming from one of the balloon capitals of the world, Sedona, I've seen plenty of them flying through red-rock country. Riding in the oldest form of air transportation never interested me.
There was even a time back in 2001 when a balloon floated by my apartment window. I grabbed my camera and chased it down the street, into someone's backyard.
I remembered that story Wednesday, shortly after my hot air balloon took off.
My morning assignment was a balloon ride put on by the organizers of the Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival to hype the upcoming extravaganza next weekend. I flew with Fred Bookwalter of Tranquil Sensations, a guy named Joe and the crew from KYMA-TV.
I didn't even know we left the ground at Kennedy Park, our meeting place. And I was late, so I had to sprint to the balloon.
We toured the southern part of Yuma at sunrise, and it was awesome. The way the golden light lit up MCAS while flying at 2,000 feet was incredible. You couldn't even tell you were in a balloon, floating across the landscape.
It was crazy.
We spent close to 45 minutes in the air, flying over sheep, pigeons at Circle K, fields and the airport. Got plenty of aerial shots of Yuma during that time.
The rest of the ballooners were ahead of our group and most of them were landing. Bookwalter decided it was time to do the same. We descended from our 3,000-foot range.
Then, those fateful words that nobody on a balloon ride wants to hear came. Not good words.
"The flame went out."
The flame produces the hot air that makes the balloon rise and fall, and keeps those in the wicker basket comfortable. When that goes out, the pilot has very little control. Luckily, very little is just enough.
With no flame, we in the wicker basket started to feel very uncomfortable, and our slow descent turned into a crash landing. Bookwalter's no rookie. He's flown for 13 years, so he knew how to handle the situation. This has happened before.
He tugged a few ropes and kept our crash impact very low. We smashed into a tree, the ground and a barbed-wire fence before coming to a stop. Then we went up again, then came down again.
It was kind of like a car accident, but continuous. Our basket was dragged across the landscape we once flew over. We were all beat into the ground, each other.
Bookwalter got the flame back and we went up one last time, to land. The landing on the third go-around was pretty nice. You could see why people do this kind of thing for fun.
I'm feeling pretty rough, but alive. I never felt my life was in danger, and that's kudos to Bookwalter.
The chase car showed up close to 15 minutes after the landing to pick us up, and the balloon.
It was crazy.
Sometimes, things go wrong. Sometimes they go right. Sometimes, you just hold on to the wicker basket and hope for the best.
posted by Dort at
3:47 PM
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