Balloonmeister

Bill Murtorff

by Tom Hamilton

When asked the question, "How did you get into ballooning," most people will talk about seeing balloons flying overhead or having taken that "free" ride. When Balloon Life put that question to Bill Murtorff he said, "I read an article in a Sunday supplement, I think it was Parade, in 1970 and it had pictures of balloons. One picture showed a balloon in Connecticut going up and down on a rope and charging $5 a person. I had surf board stands on the beach [in Corpus Christi, Texas] and I thought that I could take that out on the beach and get rich. That was my whole idea.

"The article also mentioned a balloon club in California. The article did not mention anyone's name so I wrote a letter addressed Balloon Club, California. I wrote another letter and addressed it Balloon Company, Connecticut. A few months later I got a letter back from Bob Rechs and I got a letter back from Bob Waligunda.

"From there I was able to find a guy in Austin, Texas that had a balloon. I was going to start taking lesson in November, 1970. I didn't get up in a balloon until the following April. I must have driven to Austin a million times. Every time I got there it was foggy or raining or too windy."

Flying, or in Bill's case tethering, on the beach can be difficult because of the sea breezes. "People told me that you couldn't fly a balloon over five or six knots. I'm thinking, `You can't fly when it is over five or six knots: watch me I'm macho I can do this in a hurricane.' Then they told me you couldn't do it on the beach. I thought they were crazy and then I found out. That's how I got started."

Bill went from being a surf board shop operator to a full time balloonist. He got out of surfing because of all the drug problems that he was seeing in the young kids. While he'll admit to not being a "goody-two-shoes" he had given up smoking and alcohol. After he had been in ballooning for a year or so someone made an offer to buy his surf shop. He sold out and moved to Houston where he was doing a lot of his flying.

"I was doing a lot of [balloon] teaching and had a Yellow Pages ad in the Houston directory." He rented a house on five acres just outside of town for $125 month and named it Rainbow's End Balloonport.

In the last 25 years, and more than 3800 flights in a hot air balloon, Murtorff has experienced just about every possible flight condition, from thunderstorms to fog. When asked his most memorable flight he says that he can't single out any one flight. Most of his "exciting" flights were in his mid-ballooning career. He admits to being more cautious now.

Murtorff became very active in ballooning, both in Houston and on the national scene. In the late 70s and early 80s he served two terms on the BFA's board and two years as the organization's President. In the 90s he again served a term on the board where he was best known for challenging the Competition Division to be more open about their finances.

In 1986 when the BFA's Event Committee resigned over a dispute regarding the U.S. National Championship it was Bill Murtorff who stepped forward and volunteered to be the Event Director so that the event could be held.

He is perhaps best known as the editor of the Houston Balloon Association newsletter, which he published for more than 20 years. The HBA newsletter is one of the great classics in ballooning. While it appears to be a rough, slapped together rag on the surface, it contained a wonderful potpourri of material. From true stories to absurd fiction, the hundreds of people who subscribed will tell you that when it arrived in their mailbox they would put everything else aside. Murtorff injected a mix of humor, truth, and tall tales that educated and entertained. Bill's restaurant reviews from Houston and his travels around the country were legend. With his recent retirement to Mexico, publication of the newsletter has ceased.

This month Bill returns to Albuquerque to attend the 25th anniversary of the International Balloon Fiesta. He is the only pilot to have participated in all 25 events. Balloon Life asked him if things have changed since that first event in 1972? "You bet. The principal, and most obvious, change is the number of balloons attending. From 13 to more than 850 is a big change. Other changes have been a bit more subtle, like the balloon fields, the time of year, the stipends paid pilots. Today AIBF keeps a tighter reign and the entire event has become much more structured in recent years. Safety is job one now much more so than it was when we began."