June2000
Flying
byGeorgeDenniston
Governor’sFlight
winter weekendmarkedthe inaugural
ofWilliamJanklow,part-timeballoon
owner, as Governor of the State of South
Dakota.To celebrate thatfact, a number
ofballoonistswenttothestatecapital,
Pierre (pronounced pier) to fly. Pierre is a
smallplace,surroundedbywo nderful
countrythatisgreatforballooning.No
trees, no wires, large flat fields to land in,
andthesceneryiswonderful.There are
two lakes, averylarge one tothe north-
westoftown,createdbyadamonthe
Missouri River,that was frozen and one to
the southeast of townthat was not. (You
may wonder howa lake can remain unfro-
zeninSouthDakotainthewinterafter
twoweeksof sub-zerocoldandalotof
wind!Well,thatisanotherstory.)The
lakesandtheriverarelikeanhourglass
lyingata45degreeangletothenorth/
south line. East ofthe line, the pilot has the
advantage of roadsfor the retrieve. If an
intrepid pilot strays west of the river, it is
usefultorememberthatthereareonly
TWO roads in the next 35miles. I’m not
kidding.
Whenwe lefthome it was a balmy -
5º F, under a clear sky. By the time we got
toPierre,three andahalf hourslater,it
was snowing, and blowing. “Lake Effect”
I was told. We found a place to plug in the
balloonandthenwenttotheCapitolto
greet old friends. My son Andy, aged 16,
wasmycrewchief.Wewereprovided
four locals as crew andpassengers. After
a very short pilot briefing and photos with
Gov.Janklow,welaidouttheballoon.
Thiswastobemyfirsttime flyingina
flock. Also my regular crew chief and all
aroundgoodfriendAnnwasrecovering
footsurgery.Theairtemperature
had warmed to about 15ºF or 20º F, nice
and warm. The wind was very light at the
surface—280degreesat3knots,butat
1500 AGLit was 300 degrees at 25 knots!
Ohmy.AlsoI am notusedto settingup
the balloon in a crowd. I’mreallynot used
to setting up the balloon in a crowd, when
in addition little kids whoosh by on sleds.
We were at the base of the local sledding
hill....
I hadpulled into a goodspot. When
inflated,therewouldbeatleast15feet
between my balloon and the balloons next
tome. We hadjustlaid outthe envelope
when two balloons moved in right next to
us, one on each side. They were faster and
had bigger fans. My balloon looked like a
nylon hourglass! I decided that discretion
wasthebetterpartofvalor,andslowed
down the cold inflation. When the balloon
onmyleftstoodup,myballoonwas
almostready. I signaled that I wasgoing
toburn.
Justthen ithappened! It was a loud,
CRACK BANG sort of a noise. Lisa,on
the skirt of the balloon jumped and then I
saw “IT” lyingonthe snow.“IT”wasa
piece of wood, about 18 inches long. “IT”
was not asled. “IT” was thefan blade. The
fan motor was running a bit fast. Lisa was
startled and unhurt, but puzzled. Mary, on
the fan, was a little pale, but unhurt. None
of the people standingnear were injured.
Wealljuststoppedandstaredateach
other,shocked.ThenIstartedtoinflate
theballoon.Oncewehadtheballoon
standing up, we got the fan turned off and
againcheckedthat everyone was unhurt.
The blade was shattered andbroken. The
article in Balloon Life about using hose
clamps to hold your fan shrouds on. The
blade had gone through the fan shroud.
The blade used up most of its energy
punching through the wires. It then struck
the ground and bounced forward into
Lisa’s leg. There was no injury, not even
a bruise. I took a minute and got my head
back into pilot mode. I rechecked every-
thing, twice. After loading passengers,
we took off. I was almost the last off the
field. We stayed low, since any climb
would take us out in the direction of the
river and lakes. No roads, no ice; just cold
water. We flew over Pierre climb in g
slowly. Once we got outside the city lim-
its we started to do a series of touch and
go’s. My first one was in a cemetery.
After flying for 45 minutes I stopped and
exchanged passengers. Away we went.
One of the passengers, Mary, had never
been up before and was very nervous. She
was just starting to have fun when Lisa
began to wonder where all the other bal-
loons had gone. I had made a very careful
study of the maps and knew that there
were roads ahead. I could also see ranch
buildings a mile ahead and knew we had
not flown beyond civilization.That’s when
Lisa explained that she was the desig-
nated driver for a carload going to the
Inaugural Ball. She had just two hours to
get home, get cleaned up, get her hair
done.... We landed at the next road, a
perfect landing in alfalfa. The landowner
drove up within two minutes. He thanked
us for the wonderful show! I had tried to
contact the chase, but the radio had not
worked except during the exchange of
