Wake Up to Missouri U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championship

Missouri is a land of green rolling hills, farms, and field after field of corn. Mark Twain, Jesse James, and Harry Truman called Missouri home. Lewis and Clark began their exploration of the west from St. Louis where The Gateway Arch and museum of Westward Expansion stand. Today visitors come to enjoy such attractions as Branson, Silver Dollar City, St. Joseph (the jumping off point for the Pony Express and Oregon Trail), Arthur Bryant's (perhaps the most famous barbecue joint in the land), and the 1996 U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championship.

Columbia, the host city, is in the middle of its three year contract to host the Nationals. The inaugural event last year became infamous for a record number of red zones. Rumors have circulated that the Competition Division was looking for a new home for the championship next year.

My last Nationals was 1991 in Baton Rouge. Given the recent history of failed Nationals organizers and the unfavorable rumors making the rounds in the balloon community, I wondered what I would find in Columbia.

The red zones were impressive-110 by week's end. But, down from last year's 130.

Map work is always a big part of any National Championship with red zones, yellow zones, red roads (major highways), major powerlines, and congested areas to mark. Add to the list highlighting paved roads. Many hours of painstaking work.

This year a new element was added, at the last minute. About a week before the event was to begin a letter from the Chairman of the Competition Division arrived, along with a list of 234 "approved targets." The Division Board received approval from the Jury to add this list of targets in an attempt to "level the playing field." These targets would be theonly allowable goals that a competitor could use for a Pilot Declared Goal or Fly On Task. Marking the 234 targets added another hard day of map work-assuming you wanted to be fully prepared.

For a recounting of the competition tasks flown see Glen Moyer's article, My Rookie Year at the U.S. Nationals, on page 22.

Weather aside, the success of any balloon event depends greatly on the organization. At the Nationals that involves two staffs that work closely together. One is the Competition Director's staff, the people who will actually run the flying event. The other is the Organizer's staff; they handle the logistics of housing, hospitality, field events, community relations, and general event support functions.

A major balloon event, like the Nationals, requires major logistical support. The Missouri Balloon Corporation was up to the task. Dan Sherrill, Championship Director, put it best when he said, "Several areas of support in Columbia have established new levels of achievement. These areas are models that I would hope will be adopted by future balloon event organizations."

What did Columbia do? Landowner relations: both the BFA and the local landowner relations committee worked hard, going door to door in some cases, to lower the number of red areas. While 110 red zones seems like a large number there was still plenty of places to fly and targets to choose. The white sheets welcoming balloonists definitely out numbered the red areas. Those red areas, for the most part, contained livestock. This is farm country after all.

What made the landowner relations committee exemplary, and a model for other communities, was their presence in the field during flying. Committee members where chasing the balloons around the countryside, ready to assist when necessary. In a number of cases where a balloon's crew was not able to make a landowner contact the landowner committee was able to provide additional assistance or even give permission for the crew to enter property. Very important because, at the Nationals the rules state that the crew may not enter private property without gaining permission. The observer assigned to each balloon must verify the permission.

Columbia took there landowner relations committee business very seriously. In fact, the chair of the committee is also the presiding commissioner on the Boone County Commission.

The electric utility company provided each pilot with a map of Boone County that had every electrical powerline marked. While one would not try to fly with this map, it did drive home the point that electric lines were everywhere and to exercise caution when close to the ground.

In the 1995 event there were seven powerline strikes (the FAA says there were 12). This year there were only two powerline strikes. One on takeoff from a farmer's field that broke a line and cut service to some homes for a short period and one that resulted in minor injuries and loss of some equipment.

In the later incident Dan Sherrill praised the emergency services. They were able to get Dan and his staff to the location in 20 minutes. More important, the emergency response team was on-site in a matter of minutes. The crash site was far from the main field.

The emergency services were able to respond quickly because they were already rolling. When the balloons flew the emergency equipment was chasing along.

The police, fire, and electric company were nearby should their services be needed. On my last flight I had to clear a major powerline and then make a steep approach to a small yard displaying a white sheet. Within minutes of my landing an electric company truck appeared in the driveway, just to make sure everything was OK.

The city, county, and state police were active throughout the flying area. Returning from one flight the state police were directing traffic for a balloon team that was measuring a marker drop.

Propane was another area where Columbia did an excellent job. The refueling site was set up at the fire training facility. Sixteen stations were in place, each where the balloon vehicle pulled straight through, no backing necessary. When the balloon finished refueling the crew pulled straight ahead to leave.

Fuel hoses were buried under the asphalt. No worrying about running over the fuel lines. When fueling was complete the lines vented through a pipe extending ten feet in the air.

The fire department had a snorkel truck primed and ready to use. A second fire hose and nozzle stood guard on the ground. If something went wrong the fire department was ready for immediate action.

There were indications before the event that the FAA monitor would be keeping a close eye on the balloon flying. Balloon Life asked Sherrill what the FAA's reaction to the week was. According to Sherrill, "The FAA felt that the event went well. There were no [FAA] low flying problems. One powerline hit will likely result in some remedial training for the pilot. Action on the other, because of damage, has yet to be decided."

The major changes at this year's Nationals were the addition of 234 targets and allowing pilots to use Global Positioning System devices. The numbered targets were identified with eight digit grid coordinates and by longitude and latitude.

The decision to "provide" targets, which had to be used for PDG and FOTs, was made by the Competition Board and approved by the Nationals Jury. Competition Director Dan Sherrill was not involved in the process. In a letter to the competitors the target list was explained as, "an effort to level the playing field and provide equal access to accurate information relative to potential goal intersections."

Of course, that did not mean that each and every one of the assigned goals was a valid target. Some were to close to red zones, red roads, or other landmarks that, if selected, would result in a violation of the rules. At the Nationals, knowing the rules is a big part of winning the championship.

How did the competitors feel about the assigned targets? Some who had helped provide the target information were not particularly happy with the targets selected and the limitation to only the targets provided. Others liked the idea that a ready list was available. It made for easier decision making, especially while in flight.

Bill Arras, who finished in second place and a former Competition Division board member, did not feel that the target list accomplished its objective. "I thought the [list] was way off base. It made it more difficult because of the extra map work. More helpful would have been to provide everybody with the most comprehensive information possible. In the future every competitor should be provided a map that contains everything a pilot will need during the competition. This would include the current roads, targets, red zones, etc. With technology available today it would be possible to have these maps up-to-date and printed out just days before the competition is to begin."

The use of technology is making inroads in competition. One competitor told Balloon Life that next year a local crew member is planning to scan in the competition map and overlay the current county road map.

Owen Keown, and others, had laptop computers and were experimenting with them at Columbia. Some pilots are connecting their GPS units to the computer. New programs are providing real time, in-flight, output. With technology it is possible to have the laptop, connected to a GPS, tell the pilot where the target is, how far away, and what if any corrections need to be made. It is possible for the computer to remember where the most favorable winds are (or were) based the flight profile the balloon has already flown.

Arras likes the idea of being able to use technology. "What the championship is measuring is how well you fly the balloon," says Arras. "What we are doing is flying balloons and making decisions related to flying balloons. Leveling the playing field helps to measure that skill."

Arras did not come in loaded to the teeth with technology. In fact, his second place finish is remarkable. Arras arrived two days early, flew a home-built balloon, used local crew he had not met before, and communicated in the air using a CB radio. His one "luxury" was a GPS that broke about midweek. Here the camaraderie of ballooning came to the fore. Two competitors in the top ten loaned Arras a GPS unit. Arras did not feel that the GPS gave him any competitive edge, rather it helped him confirm decisions that he made.

Although Arras has flown balloons all over the globe he did not come in as one of the favorites to win the championship. He was ranked 257 in the country last year. He demonstrated that technology itself is not necessary to do well, or even win.

What if the use of technology becomes more and more important? Not everyone can, or would want to, afford it. Arras suggests that if technology plays a more important role that it would be possible to see different classes of competition. Class A, for example, using unlimited technology and Class B a pure seat-of-the-pants flying. Only time will tell how competition might continue to evolve.

What might the future look like? With technology in the basket a pilot might actually be flying with a "heads up" display mask connected to an onboard computer and GPS. The competition map would be loaded in the computer with all targets, red zones, red roads, powerlines, roads, and other pertinent information. Processing real time information from the GPS along with information on tasks the computer can tell the pilot, and make decisions, on where to fly-winds providing. The main function of the pilot would be to control the balloon using the burner and vent. While it may never come to that, it is possible.

Following on his line of reasoning that the championship should measure flying skills, Arras was disappointed that the competition did not use any gravity drops. "Gravity drops should be used on all Judge Declared Goals," argues Arras. "The scoring officials are at the target and can see if someone throws or drops. Otherwise, we should change the name of the competition to the U.S. National Hot Air Balloon and Throwing Championship."

That said, there were still lots of mistakes made by top ranked pilots. Throwing the wrong color marker got some. A more common mistake this year was to write the coordinates of several targets on the marker declaring a FOT goal and then forgetting to cross out the ones the pilot did not want. Preselecting multiple targets and writing them down on the marker tail in advance can save valuable time once in the air.

Arras lead from the first flight until midweek. Slowly, Harold "Bubba" Cliver made his move. Cliver has been the most consistent competitor at the Nationals over the last five years. When he won the Championship in 1993 he told Balloon Life that he attributed his success to finding a great place in Middletown, Ohio that had jug root beer. When asked what he attributed this year's win to he laughed and said, "I don't know. We haven't found that perfect restaurant with jug root beer in Columbia yet."

Bubba did share a few of his secrets. He and his family come to town a week or so early. "It gives me time to deprogram from work," says Cliver. "It is important to refocus on flying the balloon and preparing. Winning [the Championship] is 95 percent skills and five percent luck. You have to put yourself in position to win. Last year and this year I did that. Last year it didn't happen, this year it did." Cliver finished second in 1995.

In his remarks at the awards banquet Cliver expressed what ballooning is about to him:

"I would like to close by offering a challenge. We need to challenge ourselves as a group to continue to further develop the sport of hot air ballooning and the fellowship of those associated with it so that it will continue to grow."

Nationals Top 25

Rank    Pilot             State         Score
1       Harold Cliver     Texas         14589   $15,000
2       Bill Arras        Oregon        14116    10,000
3       Brian Beazly      Indiana       14076     7,500
4       Bill Cunningham   Tennessee     13803     5,000
5       David Levin       Colorado      13396     3,000
6       John Petrehn      Kansas        13391     2,000
7       Bill Bussey       Texas         13271     1,500
8       Pat Cannon        Texas         12913     1,400
9       Joe Heartsill     Texas         12757     1,300
10      Phil Glebe        Michigan      12404     1,200
11      Pat Fogue         Iowa          12229
12      Mark Sullivan     New Mexico    12175
13      Ed Vande Hoef     Colorado      12018
14      Jeff Menchhofer   Indiana       11933
15      Woody Watson      Michigan      11815
16      Mike Bauwens      Utah          11785
17      Steve Wilkinson   California    11736
18      Al Nels           Ohio          11687
19      Dick Goss         Texas         11472
20      William Walker    New Mexico    11432
21      Owen Keown        California    11425
22      Harold Graves     Wisconsin     11124
23      Sam Edwards       Texas         10911
24      Jack Holland      Illinois      10732
25      Jim Neill         Illinois      10504

Rookie of the Year
36      Mark Yonker       Michigan      9861
1995 Points Champion
        Sid Cutter
All 86 pilots competing in the Championship received prize money.

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