Living in Michigan it wasn't hard for Cannon to locate and visit with Tucker Comstock. "Tucker and I would sit in her kitchen and visit and talk about balloons. There was a repair station in the basement and always a variety of balloons imported from Don Cameron out in the garage." Cannon bought a used Cameron for his first balloon and has been flying Cameron's ever since. Jim Koch was his instructor pilot and Ted Gauthier his examiner.
It may have been destined for Cannon to enter lighter than air flight. He was among the leagues of young men taught to fly helicopters (rotorcraft) for duty in Vietnam. Returning to the States, Cannon stayed in aviation, working as general manager of a fixed base operator in Michigan while obtaining a wide variety of other fixed-wing ratings. Koch, from whom he bought that first fateful ride, worked for him as an instructor pilot.
Though his early years in ballooning were spent in Michigan, Cannon has since become one of the respected veterans in the Texas community of balloonists. It was an opportunity to go to work for Mitsubishi Aircraft as a demonstration pilot that took the Cannons first to California for a brief two year stopover before their final relocation to Texas.
With his vast aviation experience it is probably no surprise that Cannon has always spent time as a designated examiner and accident prevention counselor for both fixed wing and lighter-than-air pilots. "I don't know what drew me to it," says Cannon, "but I get a great deal of satisfaction from it. I enjoy seeing people succeed and do well. I like to watch the progression of people from a student pilot to getting their certificate or a rating. I really feel it is an accomplishment when I give a successful checkride. And I like to follow their careers and I always try to maintain some kind of contact with those individuals."
Competitive ballooning has always played a significant role in Cannon's flying. Balloon Life recently asked him why? "I think the answer to that is obvious; through competition you learn your limitations and your balloon's limitations much more than in just flying for fun and pleasure. I think if you know how to steer the winds, how to make decisions on if you should fly, how long you should fly, how high you should fly and so forth, then you do a much more efficient job of providing what you're there to provide to your riders-an enjoyable, safe flight."
Cannon stresses that competition teaches important piloting skills beyond good judgement. "When you get into areas where there are fewer and fewer landing areas, some planing is important because you need to have some idea of where you are going and what you have available for landing sites, rather than just bouncing from field to field to field. Then when you see these fields in flight, you need to be able to do something to steer toward them."
Not surprisingly, Cannon says he strongly believes the competitive side of the sport has every much as right to exist as does the pleasure side of the sport. And, he questions those who point fingers at competitive flying and competitive pilots without having participated in top level competition. Plus he believes competitive pilots are among the closest friends in all of ballooning.
"The camaraderie among competitive pilots I think ranks very high among the camaraderie in our sport," says Cannon. "Every community where there are a lot of balloons has group A, group B, and maybe group C and in many cases they don't see eye to eye or may have differences based on the type balloons they fly. In competitive flying those differences don't exist; all the competitors are one."
With the National Championship now behind him Cannon, like so many others who have won the title, now looks to the future of his ballooning career with a sharp eye toward giving something back to the sport.
"I'd like very much to get involved in the organization and operation of the national championships, maybe even as the championship director," he says. Cannon has also made two unsuccessful bids for election to the BFA Board of Directors and turned down a request that he run a third time. "I'm prepared to wait the organization out a bit. There's is going to be a shaking out of some people and of some of the old attitudes and I think the BFA and the Competition Division are going to have to work closer together. I hope to be a part of that, but I am unwilling to take sides, not that I prefer to walk the middle, I would prefer to see the two groups working together."
1979-80: bought first balloon/received pilot certificates