After the morning flights the first weekend of the Kodak Albuquerque
International Balloon Fiesta spectators and balloonists alike were amazed to see
a balloon basket scooting around the launch field without an envelope above it.
What’s this? The putt-putt-putt of a lawnmower engine instead of the roar of a
burner? And though I’ve heard of balloon tires, I’ve never seen tires on a balloon
basket before. I must be dreaming! Is that a gorilla driving the basket
around?
The object of all this attention was Tucson balloonist and graphic artist Joe Mussulman. When not dressed in his gorilla suit and crewing for Jerry Schell’s balloon, he was often seen in the go-kart basket raising dust and big smiles around the launch field.
Using an old out-of-service balloon basket, the old-inflator-fan-engine powered kart was crafted in Tucson by Jerry Schell and Mario Maza. A garden hose runs up the upright to the burner to fuel it, but with electricity rather than propane. Two knife switches on the bottom of the burner housing control the "flame," actually cellophane strips blown by an electric fan powered by a car battery. At night, the second switch turns on a light in the burner can, allowing Joe’s rig to "glow."
Joe is only too happy to tell people stories about his unlikely craft. How reliable some of his stories are may be indicated by his self-inflicted title of "pile- it" when in the cart. He swears that the reason he can’t carry passengers is that it is an experimental craft and has not yet received its groundworthy certificate. However, Joe has "first drive" cards in production that aren’t unlike the first flight cards many pilots use.
When not being a bal-lunatic, Joe is a talented graphic artist. With wife Chris, they operate Mussulman Graphics and provide a broad range of graphic services from technical engineering and architectural work to logos, cartoons, and one-of-a-kind greeting cards.
