Under the cover of dark clouds, the hot air balloons of the Ashland Balloonfest were grounded from flying on Thursday evening but spirits were still high. Hundreds of attendees to the festival enjoyed games, food and good company as the night wore on and the sky began to clear just in time for the popular Balloon Glow at dusk.
For the past 24 years, even through the unpredictability of the weather, the Ashland Balloonfest has been a memorable weekend for the community of Ashland.
“It’s dependent on the weather so much, but it’s a fun thing to do,” said David Donatini, recently retired store manager of Hawkins Market in Ashland. “You just come out and chill out; if the balloons don’t go up they don’t go up, but you enjoy the camaraderie and enjoy being with the community. It’s a good feeling.”
Donatini and Hawkins Market have provided a delicious benefit barbeque for Balloonfest over the last 14 years, with all proceeds going back to Balloonfest. Recently Donatini partnered with Belly Busters BBQ in Ashland to provide their special recipe of pulled pork, along with homemade potato and macaroni salad and a choice of dessert.
“Every year we’ve been able to donate a good sum of money to help this go, because in Ashland this is a free event,” said Donatini. “It takes a lot of money, a lot of expenses are incurred, and of course the weather has a lot to do with the success of it.”
There are many weather factors to consider before the balloons get off the ground, as explained by Balloonfest’s pilot liaison Sue Kelley. Wind, stormy weather, cloud cover and time of day are all important aspects to a balloon flight.
“If the wind is too fast the pilot can’t handle the balloon, it makes for a rocky ride, and not only that but it makes for an even rockier landing,” said Kelley. “And it makes it hard for a crew to keep up with somebody, and you need somebody to help get your balloon down. If you come down and it’s windy and you’re trying to land, it’s like trying to chase a paper in the wind.
“We like winds less than 10 miles an hour but we need some wind, because otherwise if there’s no wind you come up and you go right back down,” she continued.
With a low cloud ceiling such as the ceiling on Thursday evening, balloon pilots cannot fly because there is no visibility. Also, if storms are within 50 miles of the area flights are automatically grounded.
“It’s kind of the whole Ben Franklin and the kite thing,” said Kelley.
Pilots for the Balloonfest come from all over the country; Kelley noted she had one pilot from Chicago, Illinois, two pilots from Jackson, Mississippi, and one pilot all the way from Albuquerque, New Mexico. That pilot was Hank Humiston and his balloon “Sunday Cruise,” one of the most unique balloons in that a car is shown to be traveling through the balloon itself.
Humiston said he received his private pilot license in 2003 after experiencing the craft of ballooning through a friend.
“He got a balloon, invited me to be on his crew, and it’s just ballooned since then, so to speak,” said Humiston. “They say the first ride can be free, but the next one costs $20,000 cause you buy your own balloon.”
The Ashland Balloonfest is the farthest Humiston and his crew has traveled with “Sunday Cruise,” usually staying within an eight-hour radius of Albuquerque. Humstion said he thinks the science of the flight is the neatest thing about ballooning.
“You see these guys drive out there and they take the balloon out of the vehicle, assemble it, and make an aircraft,” he said. “Then they pack it up and drive off. The fabric of that balloon probably weighs 250 pounds, and the basket weighs probably another 400 pounds. And it’s flying by hot air.”
First there’s the science – then there’s the experience of the flight itself.
“It is like nothing else in the fact that you float,” said Humiston. “There’s no vibration, there’s very little noise except for the burner. You’re just floating along, so you have no real sense of motion unless you look right straight down at the ground. And the higher you go the less you have that sense. All you do is float. There’s nothing to it.”
“It is like nothing else in the fact that you float,” said Humiston. “There’s no vibration, there’s very little noise except for the burner. You’re just floating along, so you have no real sense of motion unless you look right straight down at the ground. And the higher you go the less you have that sense. All you do is float. There’s nothing to it.”
