May 2000
1974-builtandteth-
eredhis 1st balloon
1975-earnedprivate
pilot’slicense
1980-81- launched
Stumpf’sBallooning
Equipmentaccesso-
ries
1982- earned FAA
Repairman’scertifi-
cate
1995- AerostarDis-
tributorship
I still remember walking to school in the dark to take pictures of
this balloon.”
ForPaulStumpf hisintroductiontoballooningwas notafirst
flight, but a first inflation—and it wasn’t even his inflation. In
1974 Stumpf was a high school student in Farmington, Connecti-
cut taking a photography class when his teacher announced that
he had built a hot air balloon and invited the class out to see it’s
first inflation. That high school art teacher was none other than
Brian Boland.
“Thismust have been one of Brian’s very early inflations,”
recalls Stumpf. “It was really quite a circus with no inflator fan
and flapping the balloon full of air. Brian had two guys with big
long rakes holding the throat open and two other guys went inside
to hold the fabric up while he actually fired the burner with all
these people inside. That was how they got the balloon inflated
and it was quite a process.”
Boland went on to incorporate his personal experiments in
balloon building into his art teachings and soon the teacher had
“hooked”his first student. After several of the art classes collabo-
rated with Boland on building a balloon,Stumpf announced to his
parents his intentions to build a balloon of his own.
“I mentioned it to my parents and their reaction was about
what you’d expect—a ‘that’s nice dear.’ It wasn’t until these big
bales of wicker began arrivingalong with rolls and rolls of Tyvek
that Mom and Dad took notice.”
With aborrowed sewing machine, Stumpf and afriend
labored long hours in the basement until, at the tender age of 17,
he had built his first balloon; a one-man 20,000 cubic foot Tyvek
balloon.
Though he had no real interest in a pilot’s license at the time,
Stumpf and his friends would go out almost every weekend and
tether the balloon. “While my friends were saving money for a
car, I’d soldmy coin collection and emptied all myother savings
to do this balloon thing,” he says.
Stumpf didgo onto get hispilot’slicense the followingyear
withBolandashisinstructor. Withalmost 40hours of tether time
already logged his was a short learning curve.
FollowinghighschoolStumpf wenton tocollege andearned
a degree in photography. During those years he built a second,
then a third balloon, earned his commercial license and began
flyingregularlyin the area aroundProvidence, RhodeIsland. By
graduation he had purchased his first manufactured balloon, a
Raven (Aerostar),had launcheda smallride business, was doing
some commercial contract flying for Bob Waligunda and had
ballooning one had to be a jack of all trades.
Asthe ballooningpopulation around Providence grew there
soon was a demand for someone to repair balloons. Although
Stumpf could buildthem, he couldnot legally repair them. “That
wasthe impetusfor myenteringthe serviceendof thesport,”says
Stumpf.
While the FAA was notterribly impressed with “thisyoung
kid”who wanted to establish a repair station, Stumpf wasable to
overcome the few barriers placed in his way and received his
repairman’s certificate in 1982.
Today Stumpfisbestknownforhiscatalog business(alsoon
theInternet: www.stumpfballoons.com)thatoffersawide
varietyof custom tailored ballooningaccessories. However, like
so much of his involvement in ballooning, this too seemed to
evolve from his home-buildinghabits.
“Again I was building theseaccessories,the drop lines,
pouches, tank covers and other nifty gizmos that, at that time,
there was just no one else making them. First I started making
them for myself, then for the new ballooningguysinmyareathen
I decided to run a little teaser ad offering drop lines for sale, and
that launched my catalog business.”
While that business has thrived for morethan 20 years,
Stumpf has had to continually update and expand his product
line. He says that he has seen much of his original product line
copiedasthe manufacturers beganto offermoreand more
“standard” equipment in their balloons. Soon he branched into
