“I can describe water skiing and snow skiing, but there’s no way to describe hot air ballooning,” Jeff Leathead told me.
Jeff is a hot air balloon pilot in his free time, and a business development manager for Hillyard Inc. when he’s on the job. Based in Parma, Mich., Jeff has been involved in ballooning since about 1985, and became a hot air balloon pilot in 1991.
Jeff flies his balloon, named “Midnight Rider,” about 25 times a year, even through the Michigan winter. He got involved in the sport as an “observer” for out-of-town balloon pilots during the annual hot air balloon festival in Jackson, Mich. A balloon festival observer is a local person who follows the balloon in a chase vehicle.

I had never heard of a chase vehicle before, but I found out that all balloons have to have one because a balloon just floats with the wind. The pilot controls the altitude but not the direction, so the chase vehicle follows the balloon and is there to meet it when it lands.

Jeff says there is a lot of work involved in launching a balloon, so he likes to have at least four people on his crew. Amazingly, a hot air balloon (including the envelope, the burner, the gas tanks, and the wicker basket) weighs about 1,000 pounds.

Jeff’s wife, Barb, is his crew chief, and she drives the chase vehicle, instructs passengers and helps Jeff inflate the balloon. Their son Phil, 17, and daughter Jessica, 21, help with the set-up.

One chase-crew mishap stands out in Jeff’s mind. “We were flying along, trying to tell the crew where we were going to land. We asked Barb to turn around in the driveway of a certain farm. She found the farm, turned around as instructed, but ran over the mailbox. It was probably the funniest thing I’ve ever watched from up in the balloon,” Jeff said.

Balloonists fly right after sunrise and right before sunset. That’s when winds are the calmest and weather conditions the most stable. They have to keep their eyes on the weather, because any little variance in the wind makes a big difference. Wind speeds below 8 mph are the best conditions for launching a balloon, while the ideal wind speed at 3,000 feet is between 10 and 20 mph. Jeff said that the lower you fly, the slower you go. He prefers to fly at speeds of 8 to 10 mph.

I must admit that I’d love to see the world from a balloon (ideally, while flying over the vineyards in the Napa Valley). However, I told Jeff I was afraid of heights. He said, “I don’t like being on ladders, but being in the balloon is no problem at all. Because you are moving with the wind, there is no sensation of movement. You can look down and see the ground moving, but you just don’t feel any motion, except during landing and takeoffs. It’s very quiet.”

Piloting a balloon is not as easy as it might appear. Jeff received his private hot air balloon pilot’s license after he attended ground school, flew with a licensed commercial balloon pilot for 10 hours, passed a 400-question written test, took a two-hour oral exam and finally completed a test flight with an FAA inspector successfully.

“Balloonists are interesting people,” Jeff said. “For the most part, they are pretty average folks.” It’s a sport that’s fun, but one that must be taken seriously. “If something goes wrong, a balloon could drop out of the sky.”
I’m not surprised, then, that many balloonists still observe a lovely old 18th century tradition: they end their flights with a champagne toast. Cheers!

Gretchen Roufs, a 15-year janitorial supply industry veteran, owns Auxiliary Marketing Services of San Antonio. To suggest someone you think should be featured in “freetime,” contact her at (210) 601-4572.




POSTED ON: 9/1/2001