If its October it is time for
Fiesta. The 26th annual Kodak Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is the fall convention
for ballooning. Whether its fun flying, competition, meetings, parties,
or just overdosing on ballooning this is the place to be.by Tom Hamilton
If its October it is time for
Fiesta. The 26th annual Kodak Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is the fall convention
for ballooning. Whether its fun flying, competition, meetings, parties,
or just overdosing on ballooning this is the place to be.
More than 1,000 pilots with 841 registered balloons descended on the 278 acre Balloon Fiesta Park. Joining the hot air balloons were 17 gas balloons entered for the Third America's Gas Challenge Race.
Several years ago George Hahn, then President of Fiesta, told Balloon Life that Fiesta was working toward the time when all out of town pilots would receive a free room for the nine day event. This year Fiesta came close to delivering on that promise. Each out of town registered balloon received a $750 hotel voucher, good for room and tax, at any one of the participating hotels. While that changed some of other amenities that pilot's used to receive, and didn't make everybody happy, it was a grand effort to show the balloonists that Fiesta does indeed believe they are the show.
After the event each pilot, primary and secondary, was sent an official Fiesta pin, seems not everyone had one in their pilot pack, and a letter of thanks personally signed by Mark Sullivan, President, and Pat Brake, Balloonmeisteren. That's more than 1,000 letters.
The logistical planning of an event the size of Albuquerque is enormous. Based on last year's experience with the new field many details had to be refined for this year. One of those was negotiating with the Indian Reservation to the north to gain launch access during competition. While the site was small for hundreds of balloons to launch at once it did provide some needed relief.
The week's weather started out
much like last year's, north to south winds with little maneuvering. Fortunately
the box returned for competition on Monday. The box hung around all week
and provided for some awesome flying and the requisite slash 'n dash in
the Rio Grande River.
Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate all week. Competition, although not flying, was canceled on Tuesday. Wednesday was a complete wind blowout. By the closing weekend the weather simply would not cooperate. Although both days were lost to flying, balloons were allowed to fly on the last day if they wanted to. Interestingly, about a dozen balloons did successfully inflate and make short flights. During this time it actually snowed on the field. While that snow was no more than a few flakes, the raging snow storm, visible in the Sandia Mountains, was impressive to watch from the field.
Peter Scherm, Roswell, Georgia, won the overall competition with a perfect score of 3,000 points. He took home a new Cameron Concept 80 hot air balloon. Second place, only five points behind, was Pat Cannon, Lewisville, Texas. Pat won a new Harley Davidson Sportster 1200 motorcycle.
Blackjack playing cards were again used during the flying competitions. The neighboring Indian Gaming Casino matched the $1,000 prize to the daily winner with $1,000 in chips. Yes, they were redeemable for cash.
Flying and competition, while the main attraction, are just part of festivities. A concession row that strengths nearly a mile long affords the balloon enthusiast every opportunity to part with some of their money.
Balloon manufacturers setup booths showing off their latest offerings. Many have special unveilings, demonstrations, or parties.
One of the best, and best kept
secret, of the displays is the Balloon Explorium. This year the Explorium
was given a more prominent placement on concession row with expanded hours.
This marvelous exhibit, primarily oriented to children, features hands-on exhibits where people can participate in computer simulated balloon flights and learn more about how weather patterns affect balloons. A new Global Positioning System display demonstrated how a GPS works. During the week many classes from the Albuquerque school system visited the exhibit.
With several days of non-flying there was ample time for these students to interview the pilots. Being in a launch site near concession row this reporter fielded many questions for school reports and was video taped for one project.
The Big One returns next October for its 27th edition.
