1999 US National Hot Air Balloon Championship

BalloonLife,September 1999

Fire on the Prairie

1999 US National Hot Air

Balloon Championship

byGlenMoyer
photographs by Dean Ekdahl

The1999ChampaignCountyUSNa-
tionalHotAirBalloonChampionships
openedinRantoul,Illinoistofairskies
andmore thanabasketfullof questions.
Howwouldthedissolutionoftheold
BFA CD effect the organization? Would
the newly formed NABA and its National
event“steal” the topBFApilots? Could
theChampaignCountyorganizerspull
theeventbacktogetherafter seriousfi-
nancial losses lastyear?
Earlyon opening day there were an-
swerstothese and many other questions.
Sixty-sixpilotsenteredthecompetitive
ranks, far from the Top 100 in the country
but the number of competitors at Nation-
als had begun shrinking for years prior to
thedissolutionoftheCD.Therewere
somenotable namesmissingamongthe
pi lo trank s-Owe nKeown ,Bil l
Cunningham, Pat Fogue, SteveWilkinson
andWayneBondamongothers.How-
ever, there were just as many notablesin
attendance, including defending National
ChampionJohnnyPetrehn,andformer

natio nalchampionsSteveJones,Joe
Heartsill,PhilGlebe,AlanBlount,Al
Nels and David Levin.
Whilethe financial success ofthe event
can’tbejudgeduntilwellafter thegates
closeforthefinaltime,thereweregood
signs, such as one company that offered to
forgiveseveral thousand dollars owed them
inreturnforahandfulofballoonrides.
Openingnightgatereceiptsalsowerere-
portedly double those of 1998.
Moregoodnewscameinanan-
nouncementthattherewere 30new ob-
servers signed up, and so many observers
overallthatmanypilotswereaskedto
take two—allowingfor someonthe job
training of the new observers.
Other changes could be found in vari-
ousareasofthe event.for example,ad-
missionsthisyeararechargedbythe
carload,$10foruptosixadultsandno
parking fee. Plus, admission to the morn-
ing flights is free. Spectators are provided
armbandsshowingthey’vepaidanad-
mission. Anyonewithout anarmbandis

escortedbacktothegate.Ithadbeen
reported last year that thousands of spec-
tatorsgainedfree entrytotheeventand
this was in part the cause of the Nationals
financial losses in1998.
After weeks of ablistering heat wave,
even Mother Nature was smiling on open-
ingday—winds were calm and tempera-
turescool—60’satnightand80’sday-
time. Thusthe stage was set for an open-
ing night mass ascension oftheballoons—
competitive and sport—anda chance for
manyneededsponsor ridestobedeliv-
ered. Thoughprimarilya media event, a
good sized crowd was on hand and coupled
withanlateafternoonairshowpreview
(including a dramatic F-16, Fighting Fal-
con, display) organizersseemedpleased
withopeningday.
Thesewarmfuzziescontinuedinto
thefirstcompetitiveflightonSaturday
morningasclearskiesandcalmwinds
again ruled.Whilethesport pilots launched
fromthefield,thecompetitorsleftto
locate a launchsite for a fly-intask, fol-

BalloonLife,September 1999

lowed by two fly-on events to pilot de-
clared goals. Unfortunately an increase in
wind speed and a shift in directionfooled
almost all of the competitors, the great
majority of whom missed the field target
by awidemargin.Afew,ledby Jim
Ahern of Albuquerque, found a needed
turn several thousand feet up, but even
those few,except Ahern,failed to get
down before they too were wide to the
oppositeside of thetarget. Onlya handful
of pilotsrecognized the wind shiftin time
torelocate before launch andthe smallbut
appreciativecrowdapplaudedasSam
Edwards,CheriEdwardsWhite,andDick
Gossputmarkersinthegrasssurrounding
the target.It wasn’t until thelast four
balloons—JoeHeartsill,sonLucasHeart-
sill, Steve Jones and Bill Walker—that
the crowd had something to cheer about
as these four pounded the target.
Withthepassage oftime enroutetothe
fly on targets came an increasein wind
speed.One pilotreportedreading42miles-
per-hour on a GPS. Stilleveryone landed
safelydespiteonesportpilotwhoseballoon
druginto a powerline causing some minor
damage.
BillWalker’saccuracydemonstrated
at the first target held true in the two fly-
on tasksand he took the early lead for the
championship. Cheri White was the top
scoring female pilot after the first three
flights and thus help the lead for the 1st
Women’sNationalChampionship.Seven
femalepilots werecompetingforthis
honor whilefive first timepilots were
vying for Rookie of the Year honors.
Unfortunatelythisfaststart was soon
slowedasmid-dayrainsdelayedthe day’s
airshow activities and though theskies
cleared the winds also sped up. After an
almost90 minute weather hold the Satur-
day evening flights were canceled.
Apassingfrontbrought rainshowers
tothe Champaign/Rantoularea overnight
Saturday, butthe precipitationclearedthe
area enough for Championship Director
Dan Sherrill to call a two part task to be
played out against a cloudy and overcast
skyon Sunday morning. Launchingfrom
the field thecompetitors faced apilot
declaredgoal and afly ontask. Brian
Beazly won the PDG with a 1,000 point
score and hit for 954 additional points on
the FOT to puthim into the early lead for
the title.
The sun did shine later that day with

publishedreportsconfirmingthatthe State
of Illinois had approved a grant of more
than85,000dollarsinmatchingfundstothe
event. Thesefundswere from a fundset up
toassistprivate andpublicgroupsworking
toattract nationalor internationalconven-
tions,trade showsandsportingevents.The
funds were earmarked to help defray the
costs of the first US Women’s National
BalloonChampionship.
That evening, Sherrillgave the pilots
aone-partGordonBennett Memorial.
Flyingin to the usual field target the task
was changed slightlyas pilotsnow had to
ignorethe white“X” prominently dis-
playedagainst thegreengrassand re-
member to put their markers on the hard
surface of the long east/west runway of
Frank Elliot Field. Brian Beazly kept up
his string of 900+ points on every task
with a score of 999 to hold on to his 1st
place ranking. Only Lucas Heartsill was
better—a mere .3 metersbetter—totake a
1,000 pointscore and move into4thplace
overall. David Levin forged his way into
second place while in whatis developing
into a classic father-son duel, Joe Heart-
sillstood in 3rd.
Monday morning dawned clear and
unexpectedly cool—overnight tempera-
tures dipped intothe 50’s and would later
snake-bite a few competitors. At briefing
thecompetitorswere metwitha tasksheet
clearlymeanttobegintheprocess of
separating the pretenders from the con-
tenders... as it read ELBO, MNDD, FIT,
FOT and sent several pilots looking for
the rule book. On the field the FIT target
was an orange “X”placed at the intersec-
tionof the east/west and north/south run-
ways. On the diagonal to this target were
two scoring areas for the minimum dis-
tancedoubledroptask.Asthepilotsfloated
by it was white, orange, white marker in
that order and then they spread acrossthe
sky like a man-made rainbow—each in
search of a fly-on targetthatwouldallow
them to achieve the largestbend possible
for the elbow task.
At least two veteran pilots, Sam Ed-
wards and Dale Wong, suffered penalty
points for touching down in the scoring
areas.On approachtothefieldtarget
Edwardsventedhard “hopingtodrop just
a little to get a better line on the target.”
Suddenly Sam’s Texas Twist was falling
out of the sky and his effortsto pour heat
into the balloon was too little, too late and

BalloonLife,September 1999

progressed, thanks in part to the free ad-
mission—thiswould have been great fun
to watch but the location of the target on
the parade grounds left those of us at the
primaryfield little to dobut watch as
balloons fly by enroute to their second
and third targets.
Wednesdaynight’sschedulepro-
videdanightoffforthecompetitors,
while the sport division was to stage a
launch from the main field prior to the
first of two special shape glows. Sadly a
passing rain shower forced cancellation
of the sport flight but the weather stabi-
lized in time for an outstanding special
shapes balloon glow. The crowd was the
largestof the week to date and thrilled to
thismidwestversionof theballoonglow—
dubbed “Fire on the Prairie!”
Unfortunately the passing show that
canceled the Wednesday evening flight
was an omen of thingsto come. The rain
thathadearlierbeenexpectedaround
Tuesday evening arrived instead in the
wee hours of Thursday morning. A pour-
ingrainmeantpilotsandstaffwere greeted
with notices at the hotel doorway Thurs-
day morning that the morning flight was
canceled. Indeed, the balloons would not
make itback intotheairuntilthe final task
was called on Saturday morning.
However the two day break gave the
scoring teamtime to review and revise
some earlierresults,especiallyintheTues-
day A.M. four part task that involved the
elbow. The newly revised scores placed
Joe Heartsill in first while close friend
Steve Jones and son Lucas Heartsillwere
tiedfor second. The competitionbetween
these three had been somethingspecial to
see allweek. As Jones noted, “Ever since
Joe and I began flying together so many
years ago, we’ve always dreamed of fin-
ishing one-twoat theNationals.” This
pair of two-time NationalChampionshad
achieved the goal once before in Battle
Creek,butneverattheNationals.Of
course,addingJoe’sson Lucasto the
equationmadethecompetition all the
sweeter.
Thus the scene was set fora final
task,asingle fly-in goal,on Saturday
morning. Joneswould winthe task buthis
totalpoints of 13,351 were not enough to
upset his close friend’s bid for a third US
Nationaltitle(JoeHeartsill,14,007).Lucas
Heartsill veered tothe east onhis ap-
proach to the target just enough to break
the tie with Jones and this exceptional

he bounced off thegroundwithauthority.
Later Edwards toldBalloon Life, “I just
went brain dead.” Actually, Edwards felt
the uncommonly cool temperatures were
to blame as he had failed to heat his tanks
overnightandfoundhedidn’thavethe
power when he neededit.
Sherrillcontinuedtochallengethe
competitorswitha grabbag of tasks with
Mondayevening’s challenge a maximum
distance flight within a large grid just north
and east of the launch field.
Tuesday morning found the competi-
tors on the field but not for long. The small
crowd onhandexpecteda great flight as
the sky was clearand winds on the surface
were lighter than they had been all week.
Unfortunatelyitwasonlyamatterof
minutes beforethe black flag was raised at
signals point. The problem? Winds at 500
feetwere 30mph. Once the windswere
confirmed by a spotter aircraft, everyone
wenthome for an earlybreakfast.
Tuesdaynightwassupposedtobe
thetaskthatwouldnothappen.Since
opening day all the forecasts showed Tues-
daynight as the time the weatherwould
giveeveryoneadayoff.Surprise!Blue
skies and winds at 10 mph at 6 p.m. found
the sport pilots on the field launching for
a JDG while the competitors faced a fly-
in—once again withthe orange target at
the intersection of the east/west and north/
southrunways.Theeveningscalming
windsshiftedfrom030degreesto310
and slowed from 10 to8 mph and less as
thesunsettledinthewest.Mostofthe
competitors missed the target wideby 100
yards or more, even though most did get a
markerontherunwayforascore.The
most frustrated pilot of the day had to be
JodieSmithof California as heflew the
perfectapproachandpassedrightover
target center. Unfortunately the target had
beenpulledlessthantwominutesear-
lier—Smith had just missed the 7:42 p.m.
closingof the scoring window!
The clear weather held into Wednes-
day morning when Competition Director
Dan Sherrill sprung another surprise, a 3-
taskflight,beginningwithafly-intoa
target atthe parade groundson the base,
butwithatwist.Thistaskrequireda
gravitydropwithhandskeptinsidethe
basket—truly a test of flying skill without
theusualad van tageofthrowingthe
marker.Thenitwasontotwofly-on
targets.Forthecrowdofspectators—
whichgreweachmorningastheweek

youngpilotfinishedthirdwith13,023
points.
Defending champion Johnny Petrehn
finished in fourth with 12,869 points while
the Louisville Slugger,Brian Beazly,who
led much of the early competition, would
end upfifth.
In a year when the US Nationals, the
BFAand theChampaign County National
Balloon Championships organizing com-
mitteefaced numerous challenges theearly
results appear good. Thoughthe field of
competitorswassmallerthanusual, and
minusafewnotable names, thismerely
openedthefieldtoafewnewcomers,
many of whom showed they are contend-
ers to be reckoned with in the future. The
16tasks flownwere ascomplexanddi-
verse as at any recent Nationals. From an
organizationalstandpointchangeswere
madewhich seemingly haveput this event
backonthetracktofinancialsuccess.
Withthreeyearstorunonthe first ever
five-yearcontractfor theUSNationals,
everyoneheaded homethis year with high
hopes for the future.