October1999
(ISSN 0887-6061) is
published monthly by Balloon Life
Magazine, Inc., 2336 47th Ave SW,
Seattle, WA 98116-2331
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Copyright © 1999 Balloon Life
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MAGAZINE
October 1999
Editor-In-Chief
Publisher
Tom Hamilton
Contributing Editors
Ron Behrmann, George Denniston,
Greg Livadas, Mike Rose, Peter Stekel
Columnists
Don Piccard
Staff Photographer
Ron Behrmann
Paul Brown, Joe Mussulman
Glen Moyer, AlexNagorski
Bill Parks, Anna Simon
Dick Stamberg, Danni Suskin
Jim Trusty
2336 47th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 9811 6
Fax: 206-935-3326
e-mail: tom@balloonlife.com
Internet: http://balloonlife.com/
Phone: 206-935-3649
In lateSeptember Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones were honored once again by the
aviation community during an appearance at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in
Washington, D.C. Part ofthe ceremony included placing their around-the-world capsule
on display inthe museum.
Also in SeptemberNational Geographic magazine published Bertrand’s first hand
accountofthehistoricflight.Thestoryincludedmanyexclusivephotosandthe
Society’s wonderful graphics that add a dimensionto the story, helping to make sense
of such a complex flight.
Every monthNational Geographic poststhree proposed covers for the nextissue
totheir web-site, www.nationalgeographic.com. Viewersare giventhe opportunityto
match wits with the editor and vote for their
favorite cover. While only a straw poll when
theeditorhaslongsincemadehischoice,
votingcan stillbe quite interesting.
TheSeptemberissue,whichhadthe
Breitling Orbiter 3 on the cover, witnessed a
ballot stuffing war between two of the cover
can didates.Ononep articulardaythe
Breitlingcoverwentfrom600-700votes
behind the Kashmir cover to more than600
votes up to more than 600 votes down. In the
end, the ballooning community outvoted all
others to have their cover win the straw poll.
Finalcount wasBreitling9,836;Mongolia
3,225; Kashmir 9,513.
AlexNagorskiandDickStambergcoveredthe 14thHotAir Championshipfor
Balloon LifeheldinBadWaltersdorf, Austria. Jokeof the weekinAustriarevolved
around kangaroos. True, there areno kangaroos in Austria. They live in Australia. Seems
however, thatmanypeople confuse the twocountries,some askingif Austrians bring
their kangaroosinduringthewinter. Don’tlaugh.ManypeoplethinkNewMexico,
where Balloon Fiesta willbe held this month, is another country. Of course, if you are
fromTexas, every place else isanother country.
