Balloon Life,September 2000

26

Billedasthe“NorthAmericanHotAir
Airship Championship 2000,” it was held
on June25, 2000 at Brian Boland’s airport
andballoonmuseum inPostMills, Ver-
mont, a well-known “Mecca” for balloon
homebuilders. Like most Bolandevents,
itwouldhaveatouchof highlyprofes-
sionalplanningbutlotsofunplanned,
impromptu moments as well. There were
full-colort-shirtsandlaminatedbadges
for allattendees. And Fortune magazine
andtheDiscoverychannelwouldhave
photographerstherecoveringtheevent.
But Boland is also something of a throw-
backtothe1960s,
wh encou ntercul-
turety peswo uld
have “happenings,”
looselyorganized
events that relied on
participants to make
it“h ap pen .”
(Woodstock was the
most famous.) With
a bunchof capable,
crazy,andinnova-
tiveballoonistsre-
sp on d in gt o
Boland’s invitation,
itwouldalsobea
hot air airship “hap-
pening.”
Brian described
theeventas“The
largestgathering of
hotairairshipsin
America.”Hesaid
that in the past there
was a National Championship (which he
wasn’tinvitedto) where there were only
two airships. A challenge! Withfive air-
shipsinhis museuminvariousstatesof
airworthiness,andone which wasunder

construction, he could putsixhot air air-
shipsinthe air.
Being thetype who would never trust
my life to anything I personally built, my
attendance at the last five years ofBoland’s
mid-Mayhomebuiltballoonrallieshas
been limited to “bumming burnertime” in
balloons builtbycapablehomebuilders.
(Boland’s only homebuilt rallyrule: “No
store-bou ghtballo ons”.Somytrusty
Aerostar“Peacock”stayshomeinthe
trailer in mid-May.) At PostMills I have
a reputationfor willinglyworking onor
crewing for experimental balloons in ex-

change for some burner time. So I arrived
Saturday afternoon at Post Mills ready to
do anything I couldto assist, but with an
eye toward gettingoff the ground.
Saturday afternoon and evening were

spent working on five Boland airship un-
dercarriages which had been pulled from
the museum. Theyranged froma plastic
lawnchairmountedonaboardwitha
small gas engineto themodified paraplane
with counterrotating props which Boland
flew in the Worlds atGatineau lastyear.
Mostnoteworthywasthe Albatross, the
oldest of Boland’s airships. It had a large
wicker boat-shaped basket with a spoked
wheel for steering, 10 cable attach points,
a rope ladder to enter over the highsides
ofthebasket,andthreeoldburnercan
type burners. On Saturday night it had no
engineor propeller
butonlyanempty
shroud.
Th eb ask ets ,
gondolas,anden-
gineswereinvari-
ousstatesofrepair
anddisrepair.The
airshipsondisplay
atthemuseumare
morestowedthan
preserved,andtak-
ingcare of gasoline
eng in esi sno t
Boland’s strong suit.
Fortu nately,Norm
Metivier worked all
afternoonandwell
intoSaturdaynight
togetallof the en-
gin esinworkin g
order.Norm,now
th es emi -reti red
ownero falimo
business, was a senior engineer at a sew-
ing machine factory in Connecticut about
30yearsagowhenhe firstmetBoland.
Back then Brian was a young high school
artsteacher whohaddecided tohave his

North American
Hot Air Airship
Championship 2000

by James Ellis

Five of the six hot air airships from the Boland collection ta king part in the “North
American Hot Air Airship Champion ships.”

Balloon Life,September 2000

28

class build hot air balloons,and he needed
advice on sewing long pieces of fabric. So
started the Boland legend, and Metivier’s
association with him. (Aerostar Northeast
Regionaldistributor andrepairstation
operator Paul Stumpf was one of Boland’s
star pupils.)
Mostof the engines had notbeen run
for at least a year and some probably not
for probably several years, with old gas
and oil clogging fuel lines and carbure-
tors. By late afternoon, Norm Metivier
had the first of the engines running. At 9
PM he was rebuilding the carburetor on
another. Late Saturday evening, it really
looked questionable if any of the engines
would be running reliably.
Around7:30PMSaturday,Brian
Boland inflated his Galaxy balloon and
tookoff withtwopayingpassengers.I had
regaledthe youngwomanwithtalesofthe
Bolandlegend (suchas hisflyingstripped
down VW vans, outhouses, pianos, and
damn near anything a Boland-built bal-
loon could lift, plus midnight flightsand
world record airship flights), so she was
initiallya bitnervous as the balloonlifted
off. Butshebecame thrilledwiththe flight
from the moment she was aware the bas-
ket was off the ground. I later found out
that she was originally from Taiwan and
her fiancee was Malaysian. They had a

greatfirstflightona
nearlyperfectevening
with one of the world’s
mostillustriousballoon-
ists.
Two other balloons
inflated and flew Satur-
day night. One was vet-
eranNewHampshire
balloonistandexpert
balloonhomebuilder
Ron Cassidy. The other
balloonwasa1974faded
yellowandblue-
trimmedsideventRaven
in poorcondition with
numerous patches. The
pilot inflated wearing a
shortsleeve shirt,shorts,
and no gloves. I wasn’t
invitedalongtoshare
burner timein theRaven
basket,and this is one
timeIprobablywould
have “passed”had Ibeen
asked.Bothballoons
stayedlow and had aniceflight over
nearby Lake Fairlee.
Sunday morning dawned clear and
calm, despite predicted strong southwest
windsandrainforecastfor later inthe day.
Norm Metivier and numerous other help-
ers hadworked a minor miracle. Asprom-
ised, six Boland-built airships would be
inflated and flown, plus two of Brian’s
homebuilt balloons. Among balloonists
who had shown upto observe and partici-
pate were Ken Lovell, who once flew a

balloonhebuilt across theU.S.from
CaliforniatoGeorgia;BFANortheast
RegionDirector Rick Jones; New Hamp-
shire balloon homebuilders Ron and Sue
Cassidy; and veteran airship pilot Rick
Wallace,who arrived all the way from
Santa Monica, California.
The Albatross, theoldestairshipwith
the bignautical-themebasket,smelled
terrible. It was the first time it had been
outof the bag in many years. There was a
velcro seam along the top of the balloon,
and theold velcro opened up near the
front ofthe airship during thefirst at-
tempted inflation. The airship was tilted
nosetothe groundtogetatthe velcroseal,
makingit looklikeablimpthathad
crashed. After resealingthe velcro, itwas
reinflated and lifted off the ground, using
a temporarily-installed Barnes burner as-
sembly attached to a propane tank rather
instead of the three old-style burner cans
on top of the gondola.
Louise Boland inflated and tether-
flew the smallest airship, seated on the
plastic lawn chair mounted on a board.
RickWallace flew a medium-sized pink-
and-blue harlequin-patterned airship. He
alsostayedmostlyontether andnever left
the field.
The Boland’s newest airship,A Fish
Called Wanda, would make its first flight.
It was still a work in progress, and it didn’t
have the gracefulfishliketail finsit will
onedayhave.Steeringwaslimitedto
pointing the small inflator fan which had
pressedintoservice as anairship engine.
RonCassidyflewWanda,whichisin-

Norm Metiviar (right) led a team of balloonists in g etting everything up and runnin g
at the airship “meet.”

29

Balloon Life,September 2000

tended to be Louise Boland’s new airship, over his basket.
The two largestairships actuallyleft the field. The first one
off wasa blue, blimp-shapedairship. Butittookoff before itstail
fins were properly inflated, so it wasn’t steerable. As it climbed
out it knocked one of the small flags off the roof of Boland’s
museum building. Climbing, it got caught up in the increasing
southwest windsandheaded north upthevalley.Thepilot
succeeded inmaking a landing in a field about a half mile away,
where he finally got the tail fins inflated. He took off again and
did some low level flying back toward the airport, getting as far
asthe fieldacrossthe streetfrom the cemeterynexttothe airport.
Brian flew the airship which he had flown in the World
Championships at Gatineau, ared and yellow-striped airship
shaped like a bomb or maybe an old Buck Rogers rocket. His
airship was fully controllable, but it also got caught up in the
strongsouthwestwindswhichata couple hundredfeet upbynow
were faster than the topspeed of the airship. Boland alsoheaded

north up the valley. He eventually had a firm landing behind a
house, next totwo Rottweilerschained totheir doghouses. Those
ofuswhowent tohelphim recoverthe airshipwere quitethankful
that the dogs’ chains were strong!
If gettingsix airshipsin the air together atone time set a new
U.S.record,then arecord was indeedset at Post Mills that
morning. As for the “North American Hot Air Airship Champi-
onship 2000”...Well...Therewerenocompetition rules or
discernible competition, no observers, no score keeping, and no
post-event announcements or presentation of awards.
But it was definitely an interesting, fun, and memorable
event. Likemosteventsthe Bolandsrun, itwasshort onrulesand
long on good old-fashioned fun, and well worth attending. And
yes, Igot my loggable burner time.I got to flyWandaand
Boland’s tetheredSpamballoon,which was being used as a
camera platform.Not for long,but long enough to satisfy a
balloon pilot’s need to “get his hand on a burner!”