BalloonLife,
December 1999
GuessI willbeginbycallingthisstory
“ET.” As a matter of fact, Bud Throop and
Bill Whelannamedmynew gasballoon
Snowball, probably because this balloon
is all white and because I live North of the
49parallel. Well, afterencounteringse-
vere weatherin Southern Texas and people
shootingatusinthe
REMAXGasBalloon
eventwhileBudandI
wereap p roach in g
Chamberlaine,So uth
Dakota youwillunder-
stand why I changed the
name of my gas balloon
fromSnowballtoETand
nowwiththe“Restof
the Story.”
ThefirstGasbal-
loonflightoftheyear
tookplacefromAlbu-
querque,NewMexico.
RonMartinandI were
participating in the Gor-
donBennettGasBal-
loonEvent. There were
20comp et itorsfrom
Germany, UK, England,
USAandafewothers
includingCanada.The
oth erCanadianTeamcompetin gwas
Danielle Francoeurand Leo Burman from
Montreal, Quebec.
The initiallaunchonOctober 2was
delayeddue towinds. RonMartinandI
finallygottolaunchourgasballoonat
22:30 (10:30) p.m. Ourflight profile right
afterliftoff took us overthe SandiaMoun-
tainpeakseastof Albuquerque continu-
ingwestboundat analtitude ofapproxi-
mately 12,000 feet. After flyingall night
andintothe next day our trackwas now
becomingmoreeasterly,proceedingto-
wardsOklahomaCityandontowards
Tulsa.
AsRonandIwereverycloseto
leavingTexasandenteringOklahoma,
we checked enroute weather. The lower
winds had reversed 180 degrees and at
lower levels our track would be towards
the SW. In other words, traveling back-
wards. We were also watching develop-
ing Cumulous Nimbus clouds towards the
East and SE Texas.
wardsthe southwest,towardsLubbock,
Texas.After nearlyreachingthe Texas-
Oklahomaborder,RonandI werenow
flying backwards losing preciousmiles.
Flying Southwesterly, twohours af-
terdarkness,Iwassoundasleepwhen
Ron Martin woke me up. Ron was saying,
“Stan,Stangetup.We
havetolandtheballoon
as quicklyas possible.”
I asked him, “What is
the problem?”
Ron’sresponse was,
“Look over to theeast and
southeast.”
Icouldnotbelieve
what we were seeing. Cu-
mulous Nimbus as farand
wide asthe eye could see
inexcessof50,000feet
lightinguplikeandin-
candescentligh tbulbs.
What an incredible, scary
light show. We were only
60milesawayfromthe
thunderstorm.
Ron and I brought all
ofthesandballastand
other equipmentintothe
basketandnow were an-
ticipating a night landing in 20 knotwinds.
What ahell of athought. In themean time,
and after taking a deep breath and relaxing
for approximately 30 minutes, it appeared
thatRonandIwere movingawayform
this hugethunderstorm activity. We would
continuetoflythroughoutthesecond
night and anticipate a landing in daylight
hours.
Weonlyhadtwo-30poundbagsof
sandand5gallonsof waterandapproxi-
mately40poundsofbatteriesandfood.
Certainly getting down on our ballast.
Upon reachingLubbockandcheck-
ingthe weather again, we were informed
thatwe wouldbeflyinginlow ceilings,
rain and mist and towards some thunder-
Gas balloon flights fromAlbuquerque and Denver.
Stan Wereschuk (l) and Bud Throop (r) flank their crew.
BalloonLife,December 1999
storm activity to the west. However, the
weather informationwe received saidthe
thunderstorm activity would be dissipat-
ing. Wehad also changed direction at
Lubbock to a more westerly direction for
approximately 50 miles.
Afterapproximately 50miles,we
changed direction 90 degrees and were
nowflyingstraightnorth.We werenow in
solid mist at approximately 1000-1500
above theground.RonandI flew approxi-
mately 5 hours IFRand would occasion-
allyseethe oddfarm lightsdownbelowus.
Daylight was approaching and at 7
a.m. we descended clear of the clouds at
analtitude of500feet.Wecouldsee
smoke on the ground going straight up.
Our GPSwas indicating2.8knots. Which
would make for a standup landing.
The terrain around uswasabsolutely
perfect. Lots of farm land. By the time
Ron and I descended from an altitude of
500above groundtothesurface,the winds
had changed 180 degrees and speed in-
creased to15knots. Nota problem though
aswe landed in a cuthay field witha local
farmerwatchingusland.Amazingly
enough,Ron andIonly ballasted1/2
gallon of water all night long.
I have to say that where we landed,
close to Mule Shoe, Texas, was not the
firsttime I had landeda gasballoonthere.
Dave Gleed and I landed there three years
ago.Interestingly enough,Ron Martin
and I flew over Mule Shoe, Texas on our
way toOklahoma. The localpeople inthe
community certainly know me on a first
name basis.
So after 32.1 hours of flight and the
first time Ron and I have ever flown into
a second night, Ihaveto say with the
exception of the “ELECTRIFYING” ex-
perience, we had a great flight, however,
at one point intime I was ready to sellthe
GasBalloon orperhaps evengive the
Balloonaway. Unfortunately, we lost200
miles and only ended up in 18 place. We
did have a safe flight with no damage to
ourselves and equipment.
Now for the second part of the story
- RE/MAX Gas Balloon Event.
Bud ThroopfromRichmond Hill,
Ontario,would bemy co-pilot on this
flight. Again a similar situation to Albu-
querque, surface winds would become a
factor in the inflation of my gas balloon.
Inflationofgasballoonswasdelayed.
Unfortunately once we started our infla-
tionwindshadincreasedto 12knots. This
made things rather difficult to inflate a
“Quick Fill”gas balloon, however, with
an excellent crew under the leadershipof
myexcellentandveryknowledgeable
Crew chief, Bill Whelan, the gas balloon
was inflated, only for the windsto pick up
to 18 - 20 knots.
Outof 20balloons, four balloonsdid
not launch, due to many problems, from
an8 inchtear inone balloon, tothebottom
of another balloon blowing out toa prob-
lem with the helium valve at the top of
another balloon blowing out. Talk about
dancingballoons.Everybodywas
weighted down with approximately 2000
poundsof sand and itgot toa pointwhere
we evenhad totie off. We were justbeing
beaten to death by the strong winds.
I was nineteenth in order to launch.
Because of the conditions it would take
over two hours to launch the 16 balloons
that were stillinflated.
When it came to my turn to launch, I
had now become quite hesitant to fly and
wasveryclosefromdeflating my gas
balloon. The pressure was on and only to
the graces of my crew, Bud and I decided
tofly. Actually, Bud had already decided
to fly. It was only I that had to be con-
vinced. We were still tied off to a truck
and now at least 12-15 people holdingthe
balloondown,withlaunchdirector,Steven
Shope, moving usoff thetarmac toa grass
area for a safe launch.
I can onlytell you, Ihave never inmy
entiregasballooncareer,witnesseda
“Running-WeighOFF.”Mybiggestcon-
cern was not having another experienced
piloton board. I would have certainlyfelt
more comfortable flyingwithRonMartin
at that moment. In any event we did have
asuccessfullaunch, however, BudThroop
and I had thrown over 2-30 poundbagsof
sand immediately after lift off. Man, did
weclimb—toanaltitude ofjust over
10,500 feet MSL. We were to stay below
8000 feet. Air Traffic Control did make a
comment, onlyto be veryhelpfulafter we
brieflyexplainedouruniquesituationwith
the lift off.
Bud Throop becameveryquickly
acquainted with flying the gas balloon.
This was good as I would need tobe able
to sleep at various times throughout the
flight. Our flight profile would take us in
aNortheasterlydirection.Weflewall
night, all the next day and now Bud and I
had decided to fly into our second night.
Incidentallywe onlytookoff with14bags
of sand of which two bags was immedi-
ately thrown over board. That leftus with
12 bags of sand and 6 gallons of water
ballast. Although we did have pop, juice
and drinkingwater that could be used for
ballast if it became necessary.
We were now proceedingNortheast-
erlyandapproachingChamberlain,South
Dakota. At 18:20 hours (6:20p.m.) I no-
ticed somebodybelowshininga spotlight
at the balloon. Moments later, Bud and I
heard 3 rapid, high caliber rifle gun shots
comingin our direction. Then there wasa
few seconds of silence. Bud and I could
hearpeopleon the ground talking and
laughing as our altitude at this particular
time was approximately 1500 feet above
groundlevel.Then,weheardanother
volley of between 5 to 7 shots from the
same high caliber rifle.
Budimmediatelypulledupthestrobe
lightand I grabbed and started toballasta
30-pound bag of sand. We quicklystarted
to climb to a higher—safer altitude. As
quickly as I could I wrote down the GPS
co-ordinates of the shooting location on
my map. Talkaboutbeing scaredto death.
Whata hell ofan experience.I had a
Satellite telephone on board and called
the RE/MAX Command Center and ad-
vised them of the shooting and I also had
advised our crew via UHF radio.
Now that things have settled down,
Bud and I continued flying into our sec-
ond night and would land at early sunrise.
We would land just 5 miles SE of Staples,
Minnesota afterflying32.1hours.We
stillhad8-30poundbagsofsand,5
gallons of waterballast and approximately
30 poun ds of drinking water, pop, food,
batteries, etc. that could be used as emer-
gency ballast. We landed in a very nice,
cut hay field with our crew watching the
landing. The pack up of equipment was
real easy. It was possibleto fly all day an d
possibly even a third nigh t, however, our
track was taking us towards Lake Supe-
riorand than into Canada (no man’s land).
I had later learned that David Levin wh o
was on our same flight profile flew a little
west of Thunder Bay. That, in my opinio n
would have beenour lastsafe place to
land without going in to Bush Country. I
was not prepared to fly over Lake Supe-
rior or for that matter beyond, into highly
forestedcountry.Manyballoo nsflew
BalloonLife,December 1999
The current situation regarding the
investigation of the shooting is now in the
hands of the FAA and FBI. Hopefully the
person or persons involved will eventu-
ally get caught.
Editor’s update: The FBI has an-
nounced that they have suspects in the
shooting incident. At press time no arrests
had been made.
