Flying like the wind

Air travel is not one of my favorite activities. The hassle has decreased my enthusiasm for it. One major exception is going up in a hot air balloon.

As I learned on my first flight, you feel no wind because you are traveling at the same rate of speed as the wind — and in the same direction. This, of course, is all due to the nature of balloon travel. There is no rudder, per se, and no control over any movement — except for up and down.

Once one takes off, I believe you lose all concept of losing or gaining altitude, except that objects on the ground become gradually smaller.

For our latest balloon flight with Dreamtime Adventures we had planned more than one itinerary, since any balloon travel can be thwarted by the day's weather.

My wife, Betty, and I originally hoped to travel in the evening. But this year's weather pattern teased us over a period of weeks and then months, so we were talked into a morning flight. To some people this might seem like an evening flight, since we got up at 4:30 a.m. to make it to Springfield for a 6 a.m. scheduled takeoff.

There was one other balloon there — Celebration — that would lift off about 2 minutes before we did in the Dreamtime balloon.

To me, this simple contraption filled with hot air has become more sophisticated over the years. For example, there are great benefits to having a GPS device on board to tell the crew trailing your craft where you are if you're hidden by clouds.

Once you're committed, the challenge awaits. Your fuel can take you only so far, so from the start one should have in mind where to land with minimum damage. One consideration this time of year is the crop harvest. It would be nice to make sure no crops are damaged on landing.

Up we went, at times spinning noticeably. Then, we went south, going higher or lower to try to maintain the desired direction. Although it was still early, it surprised me how we could talk to the folks in the other balloon before they were too far away. No other noises except a faint drone from the highway and the sound of the flame from our burners to take us up higher — to a maximum altitude of about 2,000 feet.

And then we focused on the ground to see where we could land. When the time came, we had to bend our knees and brace for impact. On an earlier flight, we learned that the bottom of our basket becomes the “brakes” when landing, and then we and the basket fall over and are tossed gently together until the wind stops moving us.

This time the landing was almost straight down, yet controllable. After we hit, we watched the balloon fall safely to the ground.

Tradition suggests that once you make it back to your vehicle you celebrate being reacquainted with Mother Earth. This usually means the balloonists' prayer and a toast to another successful voyage. Then the entire crew will share in your joy and head off for some hash browns.

If all of the appropriate factors are right, you can figure on going from just a couple of miles to more than seven miles in an hour's ride.

So, there you have it. It's not that simple, of course. There's a lot of planning before, during and after the flight.

But, for us passengers, it is a trip we will not forget.

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