1996 marks Hanson’s twentieth year of corporate ballooning. During that time he has booked more than 10,000 ballooning appearances for his various clients, 76% of which have been successful (even the best run into bad weather now and again). He has also purchased 45 balloons in those twenty years. That’s a lot of propane through the burners...
Hanson’s introduction to ballooning was not unlike so many others. It was 1974 and he was attending a high school alumni football game at his home in St. Louis. The half- time entertainment featured the launch of a hot air balloon. That’s all it took.
"It was a beautiful September afternoon and I was enjoying the game when this balloon took off," Hanson recalls for Balloon Life. "I remember thinking, ‘Boy! That’s pretty neat!’"
The next day he was searching the phone directory for information about balloons. When none readily appeared he called the FAA and was given the names Nicki Caplan and Bob Esch. As luck, or fate, would have it Caplan lived a short five miles from Hanson. "I picked up the phone and called Nicki and asked if she sold rides or gave lessons, and one thing led to another. (Hanson proved to be Caplan’s first paying student. She had taught two others to fly but their lessons had been in exchange for crewing.)
At the time Hanson had no idea he had found what would become his new career. "I was a construction foreman at one of the foundries here in St. Louis then with a little free time on my hands so I started crewing and taking lessons." His lessons were in two balloons owned by Caplan at the time, a Piccard and the Unicorn, a Barnes. Hanson’s first landing was in the Piccard and his first solo in the Unicorn a fact he has always been proud of.
"It’s always impressed me that I soloed in the Unicorn because at that time it was a very expensive balloon. But, Nicki’s theory was that if she couldn’t trust me to solo her balloon-no matter how much it cost-she shouldn’t let me solo." Hanson says this is a theory many instructors today should keep in mind.
It wasn’t long before Hanson and Caplan were more than student and instructor- they became business partners, opening the Balloonport of St. Louis. "We had a repair station, a Barnes dealership, we sold pins, we sold patches, we did everything. I quit my job at the foundry because I thought I might do this for a couple of years, have a little fun, then go back to real life," he recalls.
"Well, I ended up working 12-hours a day, 7-days a week and it got to be not a lot of fun. I decided then to specialize in one thing and at the time I thought corporate ballooning was the future so I went out and got a contract with the Seven-Up company."
That was in 1976 and Hanson has had a written contract with Seven-Up for twenty years. The next year he added a balloon for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (now a 19-year contract). His latest acquisition? A special shape birthday cake sold to Turner Broadcasting to celebrate the 20th birthday of Superstation WTBS. And to what does Hanson attribute his long running success?
"First, I try and treat it like a business," says Hanson. "When I call on a client I’m dressed in a business suit and I am there as a businessman. My entire approach is business. I try to talk to them at their level, not about ballooning as a sport or a hobby, but as a business.
"Second, I have their best interest at heart. I work real hard to get their logos out in front of people and for the media exposure that the sponsors want."
Of course with nine or more major clients it’s impossible for Hanson to do it all. He therefore must hire additional pilots, trusting his livelihood to someone else. What does he look for in a pilot?
"I’m a conservative flyer and I want my guys working for me to be conservative. I don’t want to get anybody hurt. I would much rather take it on the chin from the sponsor because somebody didn’t fly than because they took a chance and flew when they weren’t comfortable. My attitude is simply ‘I won’t ever question why you didn’t fly, but I will question why you did fly."
Last year Hanson added an Aerostar distributorship (Southeastern US) to his business, the result of many long years of flying their equipment and a reflection on the importance he places on business relationships.
"My first two balloons were Barnes and Nicki [Caplan] and I had a Barnes dealership when we first opened our balloonport. The fabric on both balloons went bad after 100 hours so I went down to the factory and they brushed me off; and I had the money for three new balloons in my pocket.
"When I got back to St. Louis I called up the local Raven (now Aerostar) dealer and Matt Wiederkehr was down to see me. He knew I had the Seven-Up contract. He didn’t know that I had the money for three more balloons, but he was down [to see me] the very next day."
Twenty years later Hanson looks to the future knowing that he will begin to step out of the basket as pilot and take on more of a management role with his company, The Balloon Incorporated. He also looks to a celebration cementing his long running relationship with Aerostar.
"Larry Manderscheid (of Aerostar) has promised to throw a big party when I purchase my 50th balloon," says Hanson. "So far I’ve had 45 so we’re looking forward to that."
It is a measure of the confidence Hanson has about the future of corporate ballooning when he says he hopes to have that party sometime next year!
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