December 1999
beforeRavenIndustriesinSiou x
Falls helped build the first modern hot-air
balloonin1960 , SouthDakota wasrich
inballooninghistory.
Itactuallybeganmillionsofyears
ago, when swirling waters created a natu-
ralbowlabout12milessouthofwhere
RapidCityno w exists.Settlersin1893
set upa placer goldmineat the site.
Inthe1930s,thebowl,withabout
fiveacresofgrasssurroundedby400-
foot cliffs, provided a perfect natural wind
break.
TheNationalGeographicSociety
sponsoredtwo high-altitude flights from
thebowl.In1935,AlbertStev ensan d
OrvilAnderson set analtituderecordof
72,395feetinExplorer II.
The bowl,surround edbythe Black
Hills National Forest, was then known as
the Stratobowl.
EdYost,regardedastheFatherof
ModernBallooning, hadbeen interested
in aviation and watched that balloon flight.
He was 16 years old at the time. Twenty-
five yearslater, he flew the firstmodern
hot-air balloon inBruning, NE. His next
fli ghtwasNo v.12 ,19 60fromthe
Stratobowl.
A fewballoonists since have flown
fromthehistoricsite,includingSteve
Fossett,wholaunchedanaround-the-
world attemp t from the bowl in 1996. He
lan de d1 ,8 00mi le sl ateri nNew
Brunswick,withinsightof the Atlantic.
Sixh om esh aveb eenbu iltint he
Stratobowl,whichisprivateproperty,
saysPatTomovick,oneoftheowners,
whose grandfather lived at th e site durin g
the Explo rer flights.
“We’vemetsomeinterestingbal-
loonists,” said Tomovick, who has flown
outofthebowlwithballoonistSteve
Bauer, of nearb y Custer. She said Fossett
was“justdelightful todeal with.”
Butsightseers have threatenedtheir
privacy.Tomovicksaidaplaqu ewas
removed a few years ago alongside a road
wherespectatorswatch edtheExplorer
flights.It has notbeen replaced.
“Thepublic hasruineditfor them-
selves,” she said.
Balloon ists who want to fly from the
sitenowareaskedtosignawaiverof
liability.
“We have charged a fee for people to
use this and we’re not advertising it,” she
said.
At the other endof the state, Raven
Industrieswasbusybuildingscientific
research balloons for the Navy, as well as
makingheavyplasticfilmforcoverin g
silage and pond s when they first started in
1956.
JimWinker,whowasseniorengi-
neeran deventuallyvicepresidentof
Ravenbefore retiring in1991, said “one
of the things theysetout todofrom the
beginning was balloons.” Yet the notio n
ofmanufacturingcolorfulballoonsfor
recreation and sport wasn’t on their minds
at the time.
“Intheearlydays,itwasa govern-
mentcontracttosatisfytheneedsthe
Navyhad,” he said. “It wasn’t untillater
we felt this could branch out to somethin g
else.”
Winker recalls his first flight,in 196 1
withEdYost.
“There was no flash of inspiration or
euphoria,”Winkersaid.“Itwasjusta
pleasant sensation coasting over the trees
and watching what was happenin g on the
ground. It was justaddicting.”
Thoseearlyflightswereintention-
ally made awayfromthe public, notbe-
cau seitwasasecretproject,but“we
didn’t want to be bothered. We wanted to
sortoutourproblemsandsuccessesby
ourselves,” he said.
Winker soloedin 1970, using a bas-
kethe b orrowedfromRavenandabal-
loonh issonsbuiltfortheir highschool
science project.
RavenIndustrieschan gedthe name
ofits b alloon division to Aerostar in 198 6
for insurance reasons andtohelp change
thefocusof thecompany, Winkersaid.
Aerostarcontinuestomanufacturehot-
air balloons,coldair inflatables,parade
balloons,researchballoonsandinflat-
able costumes.
They have sold abou t 6,000 ballo ons
sincethatfirstmodelin1961 ,said
with75employeesand$5.5millionin
saleslastyear,sells about100new sys-
tems annually.
Butsport ballooningisjustasmall
partof Raven’s income. Raven employs
about 1,00 0 p eople and had $165 millio n
insales lastyear.
“It’skindofcomicaleventoday,
when employees say they work for Raven,
people go, ‘Oh, you make the balloons.’
They’venev erlosttheassociationthat
made upmuchof that earlyhistory.”
Today,Ravenproducesanarrayof
products,allconnectedtoitsearlybal-
looning days. Those early days ofmakin g
researchballoons also included trackin g
them. So Raven developed an electronics
divisionthatmanufacturescomputer
board assemblies and control systems for
agriculture andbakeries.
Plastic containers, Fiberglas storage
tanksandevensportswearismadeby
Raven.
“Intheearly’70s,a guywhotook
hot-air ballo on fabric made a suit to wear
onhisnew-fangledsnowmob ile,”West
said. The lookcaughton.Ravenmakes
skiclothes,huntingapparelandother
nylon clothin g sold in stores such as L.L.
BeanandEddie Bauer.
“I feel like we’ve always prided our-
selvesonthefactthatiftherearean y
innovations going on in ballooning,we’ve
always been righ t on the lead ingedge of
it,”Westsaid.“Andwe intendtok eep
that position inthe future.”
Livingin the same town as the larg-
est U.S. balloon manufacturer means you
getaccustomedtoseeingoddthingsin
thesky .Aerostarneedstotestflynew
products,especiallyspecialshapebal-
loons,before theyare sold.
“Youseethemflyingaroundtown
onceortwice,”saidShirleyLeimbach,
edito roftheSiouxFallsBalloon ing
Association’s newsletter.
“The birthday cakewas flying around
weekson endbecausetheycouldn’t get
the candles tostandup.”
AndArky,th especialshapeof
Noah’s ark,madethe news when it landed
December 1999
busiest street in South Dakota
during a test flight. We’ve seen bears and
grocery sacks and whales and all kindsof
things fly over.”
The club,formed in 1981,has84
members, including 30 pilots and four
pilotsfrom the Netherlands. But most of
them live in SiouxFalls, Leimbach said.
And all but two or three of the 40
balloonists in the state fly Aerostar bal-
loons.
“I don’t think we’d let anybody in
the club without one,” Winker joked.
TheclubhoststheannualGreatPlains
Balloon Race in June and a group flight
each month.
“There are no paid rides,no sanc-
tionedcompetition,itjustfunstuff,”
Leimbach said. “We have a ton of door
prizes,soeverybodygoeshomewith
something. And wehaveareally nice
banquet and a check-in party with really
good food.”
Thereareabout twodozen active
balloonists around Sioux Falls. Several
are Aerostar employees who don’t own
balloons of their own.
“We’ve gota greatclub, with a lotof
age variety,” Leimbach said. “We have
kids to people in their 70s, housewives,
business people, a painter, and an insur-
ance salesman.”
Eventhestate’sgovernor,Bill
Janklow, is partowner of a red, white and
blue balloon. Other balloonists were in-
vited to fly at his inauguration in Pierre,
the state capital, in 1995 and 1999. No
active balloonistslivein Pierre, alongthe
Missouri River which slices the state in
half.
Theballoonclubholdsmonthlymeet-
ings, which have included guest speak-
ers,mapreadingclasses,toursofthe
weather bureau and airportcontroltower,
and social activities.
Areapilots often fly fromapark
about five miles south of the Sioux Falls
airport. It’s not usually a problem flying
in their Class C airspace.
“Theairportisnotrealbusy,”
Leimbach said. “We always call the air-
port and tell them we’re coming.”
Leimbach said crewing in the area is
easy because the terrain is so flat with a
road every mile or two.
In 1989, Jacques Soukup and Kirk
Thomas, whohave livedinvariousplaces
intheU.S. and inEurope, decided toopen
of ballooning memorabilia. The museum
opened in Tyndall, the childhood home
of Soukup.
Themuseumbearing theirnames
stayed in Tyndall fortwo years before
movingtoMitchell,wheretheywere
promised a new building on MainStreet,
one block from the Corn Palace, a con-
ventioncenter and touristattractiondeco-
rated in a different theme each year en-
tirely with corn cobs. Really.
“Theballoonmuseummovedto
Mitchell about sevenyearsago,” said
DaleOdegaard,Mitchell’sdirectorof
tourism. “Itwas more advantageous here
to be on Route 90. The Corn Palace at-
tracts 300,000 people a year.”
Soukup and Thomas donated their
fleet of special shape balloons - Chick-I-
Boom, Uncle Sam, Chesty,BalloonHilda
and the Matrioshka doll - to the museum,
which was being operated by the City of
Mitchell. The city then donated the bal-
loons to the newly-formed Corn Palace
Balloon Club in Mitchell.
Sixpilots from the Mitchell area fly
the balloons and rent them to appear at
rallies around thecountry. The money
goes intoa restoration fund toreplace the
balloons once they wear out, said board
member Dan Varilek.
The museum has beenlosing money
anditsfuture hasbeen discussed recently.
Soukup andThomasstipulatedshould
themuseum ever close, the collectionhad
tobe donated toanother balloonmuseum
or the Smithsonian Institution.
Odegaard said the museum will re-
open next May through September.
Mitchell also hosts a balloon festi-
val.It used toincludetheGovernor’s
Cup, where the governors from various
states sent a balloonist to the competi-
tion.
South Dakotahas twodesignated
exa minersforballoons:Dave
Hendrickson, one of four active balloon-
ists inRapid City,andKayWest,of
Sioux Falls.
Somebelieveflyingintheopenplains
sounds easy, but pilots there willtellyou
otherwise.
“It’s a real challenge inthe summer-
time because everything’s in crops,”said
OrvinOlivier,ofSioux Falls.“We’re
alwayslookingfor arare pasture here and
there or try to hit a ditch.”
But when the fields are harvested,
you can practically land anywhere.
“It’seasy flying. You justhave to be
smart enoughnotto land in the middle of
a field,” Olivier said. “Thereareroads
every four miles. You just land within a
quarter mile of a road.”
JohnGunderson,wholivesnear
Yankton, says it’s not uncommon to fly
over fields of alfalfa that are up to five
miles long.
“Balloonseasonfor me here starts in
the fall whenthe crops comeout,” he
said. “There’s nothing to hit for 60 to 70
miles, with no controlled airspace and a
virtually unlimited flyingarea. There are
no rocks, no fences, very few people and
very few powerlines. Whatwe call trees,
others call big weeds. It’s so much fun to
fly out here.”
He said summerflying forhimis
bettersouthof theNebraska border,where
therearemoredairy farms with large
pastures.
“We land and give tethered rides for
an hour,” Gunderson said.
Several farms in South Dakota keep
buffalo, which are known to be tempera-
mental and unpredictable.
One pilot landed in the middle of a
field, only tosee a herd of buffalocoming
out of a stand of trees nearby.
The pilotdecidedshe had better take
off again.
“The winds were light, and she was
like 10 feet off the ground and said she
looked down and saw nothing but faces
and horns,” Gunderson said.
Steve Bauer, a professional balloon-
istinCuster, has beenflyingtourists over
the Black Hills for years.Visiting bal-
loonistswanting tofly there are invited to
fly alongside him.
“AnywhereintheBlackHillsistricky
to fly,” he said. “There’s limited landing
spots.”
One of his most common places to
fly isover Custer State Park, with 73,000
acres and home toone of the largest bison
herds in the world.
The Crazy Horse Memorial is easily
seen from flights over the park.
Bauer estimates there are only about
six active balloonists in western South
Dakota. But theballooning population
grows in July, when he invites about a
dozen ballooning friends to fly with him
in an informal, non-publicized rally in
December 1999
In Sturgis, just north of Rapid City,
the Forbes Harley-Davidson balloon in-
flatedlast year when thousandsof motor-
cyclistscame to the annual SturgisFesti-
val.
BadlandsNationalPark,some
244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes,
pinnacles and spires mixed with a pro-
tected grass prairie, can also be found in
the southwest part of the state. Much of
the park, whichis richin fossils, is desig-
nated official wilderness.
Balloons have flown in the park, but
always with prior permission. Pilots are
talking about organizing a night flight in
the Badlands because there is only one
powerline in the region.
Butthe most recognizable feature in
the state is Mt. Rushmore, just south of
Rapid City.
The rocky mountains and thick for-
est surrounding the park makes balloon-
ing around the presidents’ faces a daunt-
ing prospect.
On the Fourth of July in 1991, six
balloonists flew by to commemorate the
50thanniversary and rededication of Mt.
Rushmore.
“We gatheredbehind Mt. Rushmore
to calculate the winds so to take us over
the monument,” said Duane Waack, of
Sioux Falls. “Taking off into the nearly
perfect cloudless blue sky, we knew that
it would be a great day to fly the Black
Hills of South Dakota.”
The balloons flew over the faces and
amphitheater where a large crowd cheered
as they flew by.
“I wasfilledwithpridetobean
American and tobe able toexperience the
memorable event,”Waack said. “We had
to fly 20 miles to find a suitable landing
spot and an end to a perfect morning.”
Corn Palace Balloon Club: Six
pilot members who operate the
Chick-I-Boom, Uncle Sam, Chesty,
BalloonHilda and Matrioschka doll
balloons;occasional meetings,still
working onbylawstoadmit new
members. Contact:P.O. Box 23,
Mitchell, SD 57301.
Sioux Falls BallooningAssocia-
tion, more than80 members, about
30 whoare pilots. Annualduesare
$15, plus$10 per additional family
member andincludesthe monthly
newsletter, Hot Air News. The club
hostsmonthly meetings andattempts
tohave monthly flights, along witha
Christmaspartyandsummer picnic.
Contact: P.O. Box 88824, Sioux
Falls, SD 57105.
MitchellCorn Palace Balloon
Rally,mid-September, upto30
balloons. Four flights scheduled
Friday afternoon throughSunday
morning, fun competition. Contact:
Nila Martinek, 200 West 12thAve.,
Mitchell,SD 57301. 605-996-5597.
The Great Plains Balloon Race
at the Tea airportnear Sioux Falls, 50
balloons flythe secondweekendin
June. Three scheduled flights,
Saturdaymorning andevening, and
Sunday morningwithfuncompeti-
tion. Contact:P.O. Box 88824, Sioux
Falls, SD 57109. 605-371-1740.
a ballo on pilo t and part owner of a hot
air balloon.
Pierre •
• Rapid City
• Badlands
Sioux Falls
