Although flying balloons always provides the opportunity for new adventures, sometimes the best ones come while training students to fly. This story took place four years ago, but still provides us with much laughter and many good lessons.

One of my favorite students was Adam, my husband Rob's son. He had progressed through flight training with flying colors and was close to taking his check ride. One morning I decided to review several of the emergency procedures we had previously covered.

It was a wonderful morning in Jacksonville, Florida, and the wind direction called for launching from the northwest side of town and flying almost straight south staying on the west side of the St. Johns River. Adam, Natalie (a Russian Missionary), and myself took off in the warmth of a beautiful sunrise.

The flight progressed well, we covered burner failure, leaking tanks, various other situations, and then began to look for a landing site. Missed the first, and realized that with Doctors Lake approaching us to the south, we needed to land or plan on flying over it. Checking his fuel levels Adam had felt it would be better to land before. However, there simply were not any open areas available.

As we drifted over Doctors Lake and began making plans to land on the far shore, the winds stopped. After flying for over an hour our fuel levels had become low, so I asked Adam, "You are in the middle of a large body of water, you are low on fuel, what do you do?"

He replied, "Get closer to shore".

I asked, "How are you going to do that?"

He responded, "I can go up and look for wind, or go down, and get a tow."

With our fuel levels, we opted for a tow. But just as we began down, the winds kicked in and blew us not south to shore, but east towards one of the widest portions of the St. Johns River. We had flown about half way across the river and had our eyes on the distant shore, when the winds stopped again, only to pick up slightly in a slow drift straight south up the middle of the River.

We had now been flying close to two hours and our fuel levels were getting lower. As we realized that our only choice was to settle into the river and hope for a tow, Adam and I began to prepare Natalie for what was about to happen. Natalie was not only experiencing her first balloon ride, but was getting an adventure as well. She was thrilled!

We talked to her about the importance of remaining in the basket, and we all began to pick up the radios and cameras to keep them out of the water. As we prepared to get our feet wet, Adam and I recalled a river encounter one of our fellow Jacksonville pilots had survived several years earlier.

This pilot had flown a perfect flight. However, just as we were experiencing, he ended up becalmed over the river with his fuel running out. He informed his passengers that they were going to settle into the water and drift along until a boat came along to give them a tow. As they touched into the water, one of his passengers panicked thinking the balloon envelope was going to collapse on top of them, and they would all drown. So, she jumped out. Of course the balloon rose in the air from the loss of weight, and as they looked down at the passenger in the river, her friend said "She can't swim."

They descended, and as the Pilot prepared to throw a rope to the woman in the water, the second passenger jumped out to save her friend. With no choice left, the Pilot slipped out of the basket, rescued his two passengers, and watched as the envelope softened, settled, and finally slipped into the waters of the St. Johns River.

While we were reminiscing about this story, a boat appeared carrying two men and their sons. As they approached I asked Adam, "What is the most important thing to tell the people in a boat when you hand them a rope?" So he told them, but they didn't listen. As we got the balloon and boat under control, we were finally moving toward shore. Only this shoreline was solid pine and oak trees completely to the water's end. It became apparent that the only place to land the balloon would be on one of the many 300 foot docks stretching out into the water.

As Adam gently set the balloon perfectly onto a dock, I told the guys in the boat to hold onto the rope, until we could unload and cool the envelope. But as Adam and Natalie got out of the basket, they let go, and I was back in the air.

I reached up to put a little heat in the envelope as we had already begun to pull the Velcro top out of the balloon. The burner just went "pffft". There was absolutely no fuel left. I knew at that point I would either continue along the shore until the balloon landed in the water, or against a dock, or I would drift ashore and land in the trees.

As I was drifting along, Adam jumped on board the boat and followed me. As I came down between two docks, went back up again, and floated down into the next dock, Adam was there. I grabbed the dock and he grabbed the envelope bringing it down the length of the dock. In the end I was wetter than the balloon, and due to Adam's quick thinking less than a fourth of the envelope got wet.

As he was deflating the envelope, he turned to me and asked, "Is this one of the emergency procedures you were talking about?" I just laughed and said, "You pass!"

Adam learned and practiced many things that day. How to be towed in, how to instruct a boat crew, teaching a passenger not to fear being in the water in a balloon. (As long as it is not fast flowing all you do is get wet), and that there is always, eventually, someplace to land.

Since the crew could not get close to the dock due to the trees, we broke the balloon down and loaded it onto the boat for a ride to the nearest Marina.

As we were sharing our champagne with the four people in the boat, and laughing with the crew about the flight and our adventures in the river, Natalie asked me in her Russian accent, "Jetta, were we ever in trouble?"

The crew held their breath, and then held back their giggles, as I replied, "No, Natalie, we just decided to go for a swim."