April2000
son, Tennessee is hometo the Great Casey
Jones Balloon Classic each October. Last
year’s evenwasall but weathereddue to
high winds. This yearfair skies and favor-
able windsallowedallof thescheduled
flightsand eventstotake place.
Mr. KendallMcCarter andhisstaff
offaith fu lv olun teersworkedman y
months to bringthis event off in a
mannerthatwouldimpressthe
visiting pilots andthe localspon-
sors as well. This event is held as a
fund raiser for the Kiwanis Center
For Child Development and Life-
line Blood Services. Any proceeds
realizedaredividedbetweenthe
two organizations.
Inadditiontoapilotpack
loadedwithlocalgoodies,there
was food availablein the pilot tent.
The chairman of the food commit-
tee, Susan Dowsley, and her crew
put on a superb spread each morn-
ing.Theyhadabuffettablelaid
outbefore 5a.m.Theyalsopro-
videdanother buffettablebefore
the afternoon briefing and another
after the afternoon flight each day.
One thing balloonists like to do is
eatand this alone will bring them
backnextyear.
Inadditiontotheballoons,
whichwasthemainevent,there
wassomethingforeveryfamily
member.LivemusicbyMickey
UtleyandBarndoronFriday,a
petting zoo, skydiving, food vend-
ers,radiocontrolledmodelair-
planes, and over a dozenpowered
flyingandtalkingpeople for
rides.AfireworksshowonSaturday
eveningwasa fitting close tothis year’s
balloon classic.
The first taskonFriday morningin-
volved some complicated rules. The scor-
ingarea was a large rectangle shape with
an X in the middle. A 20 foot tall pole sat
inthe middle of the X. The ringatop the
Balloon Classic
wasworth$10,000.Pilotswere al-
lowedtwopasses atthetarget, however
they would only be allowed to try for the
ringatopthepoleon theirfirst pass.All
wereissued four baggies. On the first pass
they could only toss baggie “A” on the X.
The“B”and“C”baggiesweretobe
thrownat either endof the rectangle and
scoredformaximumdistancefromthe
pole.Ontheirsecondpassthey
couldthrowtheir“D”baggieat
theX.Pilotswererequiredto
launch at least two miles out on the
first pass and one mile on the sec-
ond. $26,000 in prizes were up for
grabs.
Withlightwindsittooka
while for the balloons to reach the
scoring area, which almost all did.
Johnny Petrehn glided in and lifted
theringoff thepole for $10,000
and droppedhisbaggie onthe X.
Most pilots were able tomake the
second pass.
Saturday morning pilots could
onlymakeonepasswiththree
baggiesandaringatopthepole
worth$5,000.Changingwinds
kept most balloons away from the
scoringareaandtheprizering
safe. Saturday afternoon was a hare
and houndsrace.
FinallystandingshadBrian
Rohrinfirst($3,00 0),second,
Mike Chase ($2,000), third, Brian
Beazly($1,000),fourth,Johnny
Petrehnandfifth, WillLaPointe.
Petrehn,ofcourse,wasthebig
winnerwith the$10,000 polegrab.
