Fire on the Prairie

US National Championship

Or, how to fly a balloon

by Tom Hamilton

This year the U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championship moved to a new venue, the former US Air Force base on the south side of Rantoul, Illinois. Through the year 2000 Rantoul will host the most challenging of competitive events. The competitors are drawn from the previous year's qualifying events. Up to 100 pilots are eligible to enter the championship. The eight day event schedules flights for both the morning and evening. With good weather one can be a very tired individual by the week's end.

Rantoul is a farming community about 15 miles north of Champaign-Urbana, home to the University of Illinois. The former airbase, host to the championship, has been converted to private use with a mix of housing and business use. The airfield continues as an active general aviation facility.

I have been to many towns where the local community was excited about balloons coming to town. Rantoul seems to have outdone them all. There are the ever present signs welcoming the balloons. Whatever store carried balloon flags must have thought it was Christmas time, because I have never seen so many balloon flags hanging from the front porches of homes.

The white sheet signal to land, or launch here, was present throughout the area. This tradition was started in Baton Rouge during the 1989 Nationals. Riding down the road just about every vehicle that passes us gives a thumbs up.

While I didn't observe as many landowners as in Baton Rouge driving the roads to find a balloonist looking for a launch site and inviting them to use their property, the people in Rantoul showed no less a love of balloons. What they did instead was to "chase" the balloons, more so in the evening than on the sunrise flights. Not just a few cars, I am talking hundreds of carseach filled with whole families. This at times created difficulty for the chase crews and with few clear landing spots made some of the road landing nearly impossible for balloons.

Wherever pilots and crews went people, would stop and ask about the balloon competition. I was cornered in restaurants, gas stations, and even the men's room.

One of the nice surprises this year was the official map. When we arrived it had one red zone and four yellow zones. By the end of the week we had two red zones and six yellow zones. Wow! Contrast that to last year with more than 100 red and yellow zones. Technically most of the map was really a yellow zone. You could not land, or take off, in a crop1,000 point penalty. Crops in this area are planted right to the edge of everything. Yards for take off or landing are far and few between. Subsequently, minor roads were allowed for launch and landing.

Shoot out in Rantoul

It is time for the big show down in Rantoul. The winner of this year's event will win more than a title and cash prize, they will represent the US in next year's World Championship in Austria. The last time Austria hosted the event (1987) they held the invitations to three per country. It is unlikely the US will receive any more this time around. Thus, this year's winner and last year's winner will be the first two nominees. If there is a third slot it goes to this year's second place finish. The stakes are high.

The gunslingers have been arriving in town all week. Leading the parade are the Texans who have won six of the last eight National Championships. They are lead by Bubba Cliver (2 time champ and the best competitor in the 90s), Joe Heartsill (2 time champ and defending his title), Steve Jones (2 time champ), Pat Cannon (95 champ), the Bussey brothers, the Sam Edwards, Cheri White, and Al Muir.

They had better not turn their backs on the Albuquerque gang who haven't won a championship since Sid Cutter won his second in 1986. Cutter is joined by Wayne Bond, Mark Sullivan, Jim Ahern, Peter Naumberg, and Bruce Hale.

The Midwest contingent is itching for a fight. They don't like the Texans coming into their back yard and taking home the title. Former champions Al Nels (twice) and David Levin lead a large group from the heart of BFA sanctioned competition country. Al Blount a perennial contender was running Steve Fossett's command center in St. Louis and had to bow out.

The Southern Californians are back lead by the all-time leading money winner in ballooning, Owen Keown (1 championship title). The East and West coasts are lightly represented. Seems like the folks from the two coasts idea of a Western shoot-out is attending a dude ranch in Albuquerque every October where the competition with its one mile targets and luck of the launch is more like riding side-saddle.

Friday is the master briefing. Event Director Dan Sherrill gives the ground rules for the shoot out. The hired guns come armed with a radio on one hip, GPS dangling from the other. Pen and compass swinging from the neck and a large map board tucked under one arm.

A well marked map has more information then the red and yellow zones, major roads, and major powerlines, all mandatory. All the roads that can be used for navigation and target selection should be marked as a minimum. Many competitors ordered their maps early and have marked and recorded potential targets before arriving in town. Once in town they begin riding the roads all week checking targets and finding potential launch spots.

Launch and landing spots are at a premium. Soybeans and corn are planted everywhere.

The observers are a real key to this competition. These people have taken a couple weeks of vacation to ride around in a chase vehicle, occasionally to get a balloon ride. Their job is to make sure all goes according to Hoyle. They make sure the pilot and crew abide by the rules, mark and measure the markers, record all this information and spend hours in a debriefing room waiting to turn in their report. They have a very important job.

High noon

The weather for the start of the event looks miserable at best. The question is asked at the master briefing if we will be canceled at the hotels in the morning should the weather not be favorable. Sherrill says, "No, we will at least do a dry run." Dry does not look like the operable word.

4 a.m. and I log on to get a DUAT briefing. Temperature 70 degrees, dew point 70, humidity 100 percent, winds out of the south at 5-6 knots, visibility, well let's say dismal, but who can see in the dark anyway. There is no way we are going to be flying.

Sure enough, when the doors open for the pilot briefing there is no weather sheet, no task sheet, and no baggies. Ha! I knew it.

"We are sorry that you do not have any information, the copier is broken." This does not sound good. Lou Billones, meteorologist gives the weather briefing and we are put on a one hour hold.

Oh, the weather? 18004 2.0BR (Fog) OVC006 20/20 (68/68) 29.99. We are not going to fly, I know it.

One hour later and we are greeted with a task sheet, baggie, and weather sheet. Not sure where they got the copies, but the task is on. The morning flight is interesting to say the least.

I was not the only pilot who thought we wouldn't fly. At least I brought my balloon to the briefing. One pilot didn't and really had to scramble to get his act together.

Weather really won't improve until midweek. Some of the conditions that competitors are asked to fly in makes one wonder why they don't have a rule about making the event director fly also, sort of like a parachute rigger having to test one of the chutes they packed.

At each briefing the competitor is provided a weather information sheet prepared by the staff meteorologist and his team. Current and forecasted conditions like a pilot would be provided in a standard weather briefing, National Weather Service winds aloft forecasts, and two onsite WindReader pibal tapes. A full briefing is given orally and the pilots may ask questions.

At the Nationals, pilots do their own homework. Prime example is the Monday morning briefing. Briefing sheet says "Radar: CLEAR." Before the event director asks for questions a hand shoots into the air. "The Weather Channel shows cells building not far away." Met people says they didn't see it on their screen. Second hand goes up and brings up the same point. Event Director advises to monitor the recall frequency. Third hand goes into the air requesting the Event Director to use his cell phone, sitting on the table, to call for current weather from Flight Service. Event Director says monitor recall frequency. Not a very happy group of pilots leave the briefing room. The staff goes back and reviews the weather radar and within five minutes the task is canceled. At 8 a.m. a gust front comes through.

The week provides a wide variety of weather conditions. Some flights are challenged by limited visibility, building cumulus clouds, inflight wind speeds below 500 feet AGL at 25 mph, and launch in 10-12 mph winds. The end of the week saw mostly calm conditions, light and variable winds, and some great summer flying. A very diverse week that tests many flying skills.

Weather is only one element that competitors have to contend with. One or more tasks called for each flight cover a wide range of decision making. One of the skills that a pilot must have in this event is the ability to read. Unlike weekend rallies, the rules cover more than a few pages. This year's tome started out at 47 pages with additional rules changes, addendums, supplements, and missives from the director.

Many have lost the championship because of an oversight of one or more rules. For rookie pilots the rule book presents a real challenge. They fly a task and score well. Later when they try to find their name on the result sheet it is much lower down then they expected. Beside the score is one or more rules violations.

Rookies are not the only ones subject to not paying attention to the task sheet and rules applicable to the flight and task. Here is an example that caught about forty percent of the field napping this year.

The event director called a Judge Declared Goal with a Pilot Declared Goal inbound and a Fly On after. Limited scoring area confined by the boundary of the old parade field at the base is given for the JDG. A pretty big area, about one block wide by four blocks long. Now here is the tricky part.

Note: Rule 12.10.1

All markers in the scoring area will be measured by officials.

Guess what Rule 12.10.1 is? Hint, it has nothing to do with who will score the marker. This rule specifies that the marker must be gravity dropped from the edge of the basket. If you throw, no result.

Completely missing the scoring area receives the same result as the 30 odd pilots who threw their baggies.

Another little trap is not recording all the necessary information on a declaration sheet or on the tail of a marker for a goal. Not providing this information, or enough of it, can result in an ambiguous or invalid goal and a poor or no result.

There are other little caveats to achieving a good result. One is an unwritten rule that on a minimum distance task you take the observer with you in the basket. Why? The observer must see the marker leave the basket and land. In the rules, all competitors launch from a common area, fly a minimum length of time, and then attempt to drop their marker as close to the target at the common launch point as possible. Basically you are trying to fly a box to the goal. This task is called when the conditions suggest that this can be accomplished. A typical minimum time aloft is 30 minutes.

If the observer doesn't see the marker leave the basket and land after the minimum time, you will be scored from where you land. Generally there is a Fly On Task following the minimum distance task. Several years ago I broke this unwritten rule and didn't take the observer. I flew a good box and had the ground crew position the observer where he could watch me fly back into the main field. Soon after breaking the perimeter of the large scoring area near the target the wind shifted direction and I started to fly away. I needed to quickly get the marker out of the basket. I radioed the crew that the marker was on its way out of the basket. The observer was on the other side of the van and didn't see the marker land. Forget that he had watched the first 30 minutes and knew I hadn't thrown it early. I was scored 5,000 meters away from where my marker landed, and not the 180 meters we measured after the flight.

None of this has anything to do with flying well. Still, it is part of what separates the top competitors from the rest of the pack.

Flying skill test

All the Mickey Mouse stuff aside, the U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championship is really a test of how balloons should be flown. It starts before the competition even begins. Each competitor has to prepare their maps. While there is a minimum of information that must be recorded, just about everyone places a great deal of information on their maps. Roads, railroads, and potential targets are highlighted. Prominent features visible from the air noted. Compass roses placed on the map in strategic locations. Clear contact paper and/or a plexiglass map board to protect the map. At the Nationals you must have a sectional chart of the area in the basket or the information for the flying area marked on the competition map. Should you have this map information for your local flying area?

Flight planning comes next. Each flight begins with a briefing of weather information and a review of the goals for the flight. Trying to achieve a specific flight destination is recommended for every balloon flight. Do you just float and hope for good landing spots or do you plan to reach a designated landing area?

Permission for launch and landing. At the Nationals you must get permission from the landowner, unless it is considered public property which has blanket permission at the Nationals. The observer has to see this. Isn't it proper for balloonists to get permission before launching or the crew coming onto a property?

The combination of tasks throughout the week at the Nationals will test the flying skills to navigate the balloon to specific goals or to achieve specific results. Whether it is flying to a goal, trying to reverse a line of flight, or arriving at a goal at a specific time. Think about your flight test to earn your pilot certificate. You were required to perform certain maneuvers such as maintaining altitude within certain parameters. Flying to a goal can require very precise flying.

The results

Twelve of the fourteen scheduled competition flights were flown with 22 tasks being completed. John Petrehn, Kansas, won his first championship on the final Fly In task on Saturday morning. Joe Heartsill, Texas and defending champion, was leading going into the last flight. Joe made the limited scoring area, but did not place well enough to hold John off.

At this level of competition you can not afford to have more than one mediocre result. One former champion went into Wednesday morning's four part task leading the competition by 500 points, a sizable lead at this point. By the end of the flight he had fallen to ninth place.

Another former champion twice forgot to have his observer sign his baggie. Failure to do so may result in the pilot not achieving a result.

Another two times champion gambled earlier in the week when he missed flying over the middle of the intersection he selected for his goal. Most tasks required the baggie to be within 25 meters of the center line of a road. As the flight path cut across one of the roads making up his intersection he waited to throw his baggie. Deep in the crop would be closer to the goal then dropping safely on the edge of the road. But, how far is 25 meters in soybeans? In this case the pilot was just a little long. His poor result cost him at least second place and possibly the championship.

Eight of the top pilots have previously won the championship. Coming in number nine was 20 year old Lucas Heartsill, son of defending champion Joe Heartsill. Lucas won Rookie of the Year honors, just beating out long time competitor Steve Lombardi who competed in his first Nationals and finished in eleventh place, 69 points back.

82 pilots competed this year. The number of pilots entering the event has been steadily declining over the last six years. One bright spot this year was the participation by 19 rookies, almost a quarter of the field.

The top 25 are listed in a box nearby. Balloon Life would have listed the prize money as in years past, but the prize amount and distribution was never published.

The awards luncheon was held in a large hangar with Tom Rutherford doing his usual wonderful job as Master of Ceremonies. David Lowe, Competition Chair, addressed the gathering with hope that the CD will be able to become its own autonomous organization. Among the awards presented were the 1997 points championship to Phil Glebe, Al Desmond award to Bill Cunningham, and Spirit of Annie award to Patty Cramer.

Key Grab

As has become tradition at the Nationals, the final flight is a key grab scheduled for Saturday evening. As everyone left the hangar after the awards ceremony spectacular lightening strikes could be observed in every quadrant. Rain would soon follow and it didn't look promising for the scheduled flight.

At the 5 p.m. briefing a hardy 18 or so pilots showed up. Unless you were heading home right away it was the only way to get your voucher for Saturday night's lodging. It is raining outside and we are put on a weather hold until 6:15 p.m. We are told that by 6 p.m. the skies should clear and the winds will be light. Don't you just love optimistic forecasts?

Sure enough, the rains are gone and sky is clear. I watched the WindReader pibal and after 15 minutes it is still straight overhead.

There will be five key grab poles, each with an envelope with $200 in it and one zucchini donated from Ruth Ludwig's garden. Zucchini is worth $250. There are ten envelopes and the poles will be restocked until the money is gone or official sunset.

Rules? Launch at will from the Southeast-Northwest runway, within 200-300 meters of the poles. Crew may assist but may not give help, other than to pull you back to a hard surface runway. Approximately 18 balloons inflate upwind of the pole area. Bruce Bussey is off first and doesn't have a good line. As he drifts East down the runway his chase commander is brought over to tow him back West down the runway for a better line. As other balloons begin to move they are ground handled by their crews to advantageous positions. What takes place over the next hour and quarter is one of the most spectacular aeronautical displays in the history of ballooning.

Talk about a free for all, this was it. Only three rules were enforced. The crew couldn't assist you inbound to a pole; they can only take you back to the hard surface. As the crew ground-handled the balloon toward the grass area with the poles, they had to stop as they reached the grass, "throwing" the balloon toward a pole. Second, if you contacted the ground in the grass area you had to go back to the runway and start over. Three, you could only grab one pole per pass, unlimited passes.

There was a pretty good size spectator crowd to watch this incredible CIRCUS. Tom Rutherford had to be nearly hoarse by the end calling the play by play. Constantly balloons were making passes. It was not unusual for six balloons to be in the target area at once. The greed in pilots' eyes to get an envelope off a pole was intense. The crews were incredible. Time and time again they pulled their balloon back against the light wind and sent their pilot on another run.

Sport flyers

Rantoul proved to be a wonderful facility to hold this championship. There were four or five great target areas on the airfield itself which allowed the championship director to call flights that either originated at the main field or flew through the base. This helped to entertain the paying crowd.

The building housing operations had enough rooms that every function had their own space. In fact, the sport division flyers had their own briefing room and did not have to wait until the competitors were through. A big plus in getting them in the air quicker.

The sport division flyers had prize money on each flight as well as overall prize money. This allowed a pilot to only participate for part of the event and still be able to win money.

The Rantoul committee did a superb job for a major first time event. There were the occasional bugs to be ironed out, but Max Mitchell, Janet Floyd, Ray Boudreaux, and Bill Clinton did an outstanding job.