Balloon Fiesta; Balloon Fiesta 47

Oh, sure. Can hear your buddies. Yeah. Ha. Ha. Ha. I just wanted to go back on the flight to be there at the end of the day. Well, being here at Fiesta, it's amazing how full of life for everyone is, smiles on the children's face are amazing. When they see these balloons go up from ear to ear, what else was I saying before, geez. But if you do get ever get a chance to come to the balloon Fiesta, you'll be in awe. You can't explain the thrill of being here amongst all these people and these balloons

and pilots and tourists and they want to ask questions and they're really interested in the balloons and how the balloon works. And that's it's real. So it's real for a balloon pilot to hear that and you get a chance to educate young children. So they understand how beautiful ballooning really is. And can you give me a moment here at Fiesta that is on you, something that will stop you? Stop me. Do you remember anything special, but thinking I can't believe they did that or a glow when you see? Well, yeah, as far as the night glows here, you had a picture about a million candles flickering and glowing.

It's like something you've never seen before. It lights up from complete darkness to flickering candles, just brilliant, it really is, just brilliant. That's one thing I really, really enjoy is the night glows. And people here on the field, they get to stand right beside the balloon. I mean, they get to come right onto the field and we actually stay here on the ground at night glows and the children get to come up, ask questions, and see what it's all about. Is it not typical for people to be next to the balloon? Not. In some events, they have a closed field where you can only watch the balloons from outside of the fence line and Albuquerque has always been on the field and people get involved and that's how some people want to volunteer for the next fiesta, some people get interesting

crewing, and some eventually they love it so much, they become pilots. It's the thrill I can't explain unless you're actually here at fiesta or you've gone for a balloon fly or unbelievable, unbelievable. And describe to me what it does to you how it makes you feel when you see a kid's face light up. Well, it just makes my day go by even better. It heightens my self-worth and that's what we're here, but we're here for the children to make sure everyone has a great time and we enjoy ourselves. I've, over the years, I've met many, many friends, I have really good friends here now in Albuquerque that I come to visit, I love to visit them. And it explains me what it's like when you take a passenger up to the first time.

Well, when you take a passenger up to the first time, they're a little apprehensive, they're a little nervous, and about five minutes into the flight, they start to relax, this is it, you're just so smooth. Well, I thought we'd feel the wind, you don't feel the wind, the only time you will feel the wind is off to take off and landing, because then you have resistance, but when you're going with the wind, you're just floating across the sky, it's unbelievable. And they get more relaxed, and after you land, they said, that was the best thing I've ever done. Even if they were, I've had passengers that are afraid of heights, and one in particular, she lives on a 12-story apartment building, she can't go on her balcony, but she went for a balloon flight. It's not the same sensation, it's just unbelievable. She was so glad that she went for the flight, and she thanked me so much, and that's why, that's why we do what we do. Favorite story? We love stories.

Oh God. It hasn't been related to ballooning, right? I've never heard any of these in a special stage, right? Jeez, I've got a mind block here. I had a thought. It really does. I don't get to look down at earth like that often, or maybe in a plane, but we talk about what it's about, getting up above, and just seeing the world go by down there. Okay. And I'll tell you the difference with the airplane, everything goes by so quickly, the balloon, you have a regular shipping, you have a 300-second view, and you just keep, you're moving fairly, fairly slow, so you get to take it all in. It's not like you're flying an airplane where you have this little window, and it just goes zoop, and zooms by you, and you don't see anything. Photography is huge here, huge because you get to see, you get to get different angles from a balloon that you would never, ever be able to do from the ground.

Looking down at other balloons, looking down at the world, looking down at trees, beautiful. I mean, it's a perspective like no other. And from a balloon, I think it's the best platform you could actually do this. Like I said, airplanes, and you know, allowed helicopters, you just can't do it. Is it kind of like, people ride a motorcycle to get out in the... Enjoy. So is it kind of like the motorcycle of the sky? It is. I guess it is like the motorcycle of the sky. It's freedom. That's what it really is. You're detaching yourself from all the stresses of life, and from the world, like from the earth, and you stop for a moment, and you get to really take it all in and live. You're really, really, you're here and now, and I really, you know, I wish I could really explain this to you.

It's something you have to really do to appreciate it. But down here at Fiesta, if you want to take in the social time and joy, what's going on here, you have to come down here. I mean, you really have to come. It's like, when you're a little kid, okay, and your parents are taking on this trip to wherever it might be, some sort of amusement park, whatever, and that's sensation you get? Well, it's tenfold, okay. It's like you're on a roller coaster, and the feeling you get where that, you know, your heart kind of goes up, or your stomach kind of goes up, and that's what it's all about. It's just beautiful, beautiful, beautiful excitement. That's really, that's what it is. It's a very, very exciting being here. I've had a pilot describe ballooning to me as you generally know where you're taking off from, and you never know where you're going to land.

Generally speaking, that's somewhat true, because you get a forecast wind, the wind direction, the wind speed, and you're trained as far as reading maps, and plotting your flight plan, you actually have a pretty good idea exactly, or close to where you're going to land. Sometimes it's exact. You say, this is the spot I want to land on, and you do, use the different wind currents to actually steer you to these spots, because you've actually got a forecast wind, and at all different levels, and the speed in the direction, okay, and that's how you sail the sky with a balloon. You can actually, on a good day, pick the exact spot you're going to land. Another day is the wind can be not as cooperative, so you come over a nice field and descend, and have a nice, smooth landing. You don't want to see that back foot get caught up on something you didn't see.

Flying a balloon or flying a special shape, one thing you're concerned about when you're taking off or landing is obstructions, mainly power lines, because power lines and balloons don't mix. That's one thing, one of the real dangers of ballooning is power lines, so you avoid those power lines. Another thing, there's obstructions when you come into the land, and whatnot, you want to avoid if there's a fence or a tree or whatnot, because you don't want to rip your balloon or whatnot, and have a very smooth landing for your passenger, so you try to avoid rocky ground and tall obstructions and whatnot, coming into a nice smooth field is perfect. I don't know what else I want, I don't know what else I want. With a special shape, are there any sort of wind conditions that you have?

Oh yes, I'll get into it. There's certain limitations on special shapes, as far as wind speeds, where a conventional shape can fly in stronger winds, well, depending on the shape itself, it usually has a limitation of how fast the wind can be when you're taking off, it's actually a manufacturer stipulation in the flight manual, so you don't want to go above and beyond those sort of conditions. That's why when it gets too windy, sometimes we can't fly the cow and we'll fly what they call the utter balloon or the moon crew balloon, and it's just a conventional shape with the cow patches on it, so we get the best of both worlds when it gets too windy, well, we get to fly another balloon. You're being funny, right? Okay, let me think about this here. Just because I'm tired, I don't know, usually I can, sometimes I can talk a storm up because

I feel very comfortable, but, you know, I guess in front of the camera sometimes you get a little... It's great. Yeah, I can do that again, absolutely. The best part of Fiesta? The best part of Fiesta? I would have to say probably the best part of Fiesta for us is being able to come together with all the other pilots who fly here, you know, no one that there's 750 other balloons that come here, and being able to really spend time with the pilots who come in, there's some people that are from the east coast, or from the west coast, or from the northeast, or southeast that we don't really be able to, that we're not really able to see throughout the year, and be able to come together at one point, and just be able to have a good time together. I think that's probably the best part. The flying albuquerque is great.

We really enjoy the box conditions and so forth. You know, there's still, even though albuquerque has become a little bit more congested, there's still a lot of flying areas, there's still a lot of landing areas and so forth. Flying conditions are pretty good. And just to be able to fly with 750 other balloons is, you know, it's a really unique experience. I would probably say that, God, it's a 50, it, it, coming up the balloon fiesta is probably 50% about the party and the good times of your friends. You need to get out of here to suck off. All right, we're good. So I would say probably balloon fiesta is 50% about the flying and the enjoyment of actually getting up in the area and being able to enjoy the weather and the flying conditions. The other 50% is the, you know, the party. We really get to, you know, get out and enjoy spending time with other balloon pilots,

like, you know, friends we've never met before at the same time get together with old friends that we haven't seen in a long time. So I would have to say that 50% of our time is spent between partying and having good time with our friends, 50% of our time is spent between the beautiful flying conditions here in albuquerque. Talk me through the box scenario. The box condition is really unique to albuquerque. I mean, you can find box winds in other places, but here in albuquerque it's really unique and that you have valley conditions here. So from the, from the east side where you have the mountains and the west side where you have the mesa, the whole piece kind of comes together through the valley. And in the valley you have usually a low level drainage flow that flows to the south in the mornings. It's just a low level drainage wind. And pilots can take off from fiesta park. They can fly south a little bit and as they gain altitude they can actually catch a north wind that will take them out to the north or the northwest while they fly. A lot of pilot who will utilize those winds will actually be able to take off and fly south. They'll be able to come up and fly back north and be able to land relatively close to the place where they took off from.

Tell me about flying the ladybugs this Saturday. The ladybugs a lot of fun. It's a unique balloon and that it has a lot of different appendages. It's a special shape. So there's a couple of cool things about it. One is that it's, you know, it's a lot more hectic to put together at the same time. It's a lot more rewarding in that when you take off there's 100,000 people on the field and you have 100,000 people cheering for you when you take off. So it's definitely unique. You know, it flies really well. It floats really well. It's a good balloon. It flies much like a regular balloon. You get very little difficulty flying it. So we have a good time with it. And what exactly did you experience this first Saturday? Ready for it or you're surprised at the action? I think on some levels I was kind of ready for it, but at the same time a little bit surprised. You know, we've flown a lot of mass ascensions. This is a 15th fiesta that I've flown. I've seen special shapes fly out of here before. I've heard the crowd go crazy about them and to be able to have a brand new special shape and it'd be the first time that a lot of people who are visiting actually be able to experience a shape.

It's really nice to be able to take off and kind of experience a crowd's reaction and see them be happy and enjoy seeing the balloon. It's also cool afterwards to hear people who say, you know, hey, this is my favorite shape or this is something that I really enjoyed seeing or something that I got a lot of reaction out of or that I just really enjoyed participating in. And I know the lady bugs and we've shaped for you, but have you flown special shapes in the past that you've kind of did a relationship with? A little bit. A lot of the, there's two kinds of special shapes. There's one that's basically just they build the shape based on whatever it's built after. The other kinds of balloons are balloons that are built like a regular shape balloon, but they have appendages that come out of them. My balloon actually has appendages that come out of what's almost a regular shape balloon. The great thing about that is that it flies a lot like a regular balloon. You don't deal with a lot of the difficulty from the wind at the same time because it's a special shape. It gets great crowd reaction as well. Yeah. So you're a generational flyer here? Yeah, absolutely.

I had learned how to fly. My uncle had actually gotten his license in the mid 80s and he taught me how to fly. After a few years of flying, I got my commercial license, which allows me to teach other people and take rides for hire and basically what I did was I used my commercial license to teach my dad how to fly. My dad eventually taught my brother how to fly. So in a lot of ways, we've kind of gone uncle to nephew to dad to brother, so it's kind of cool to see the different generations and kind of the mixed level of it in terms of participation. Really see everybody kind of getting involved in it. How is the rest of the brain going together? To us, it's almost a family reunion in a lot of ways. My parents come down. My sister comes down from Phoenix. My brother comes down from Phoenix. I have family and friends who come down from Denver, I have family that comes up from Albuquerque. That's here in Albuquerque that comes up and participates with us. So it's great to be able to have everyone together at the same place, be able to hang out and spend time together. And it's not just the time that we spend out on the field, but after hours, we get the opportunity to be able to go out and kind of enjoy New Mexico together as well.

The great thing about that too is being from New Mexico. We get to go out and kind of enjoy the things that we kind of took for granted as being residents that you can enjoy as a tourist. How did your group lose the best pilot? Oh, that would be me. No, I don't. I'd say we're all probably on an equal skill level to be honest with you. The FAA gives you a certification that says that you have the ability to fly a balloon and the reality is that if the FAA certifies you, you're probably enabling a pilot. You have the ability to be able to navigate your balloon and do what you need to do to get the balloon to the ground safely. So I feel confident both in my brother and my father that they're great pilots. I feel confident in myself, and of course, my uncle who doesn't necessarily participate in the balloon fiesta, but still flies quite a bit in Phoenix, I think all of us kind of have equal skill level. So who has the most style in their flying? That would be me. I wear Gucci things. I got the guest jeans on. Sometimes they wear Express gear.

So I have the most style to be honest with you. Yeah. What about what the way you will be applying your balloon? Oh, that. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not sure to be honest with you. My dad, I think, was a really good student. I think he got a lot of value out of the work that we did together, and yet I think he's picked up the navigation in pretty well. Just over time and over the years where I've actually been able to experience flying and gather up hours and gather up experience, I feel like I've got a certain skill level. But at the same time, I feel like the more hours that you get, the more you need to be present to not being complacent. You need to realize that accidents can happen and you have to be more careful about your flying. So I want to move now into personal experience. I want to check. That's going to be a fun one, six place dropping off, probably for the first place drop out.

I don't know. I don't know. So we've had a couple of really great experiences here a couple of years ago, in 2004, I actually won six place here at the balloon fiesta. The prize was to a round trip airline tickets anywhere American flu, so that was kind of nice. Basically, the way the competitions go is that throughout the week, the pilots are able to fly and participate in different competitions. Your consistency and scoring well is really what factors into whether or not you land in the top 10 or land in the top 30 or whatever, versus whether or not you're totally out of the money. We've also had just numerous flights where we've had incredible experiences. We've had one experience where the clouds actually moved underneath us and it was kind of cool to see the balloons above the clouds. There is an FAA regulation that we don't fly above the clouds, so we ended up descending below them before we were beyond the regulation, but it was pretty cool to see kind of the balloons at the fog below you. That was an interesting experience. And then I think participating in the splashing dashes as well is pretty fun, unique about balloon fiesta as well. A lot of times when the balloons fly out to the west, they cross the Rio Grande River,

and a lot of the balloons will actually drop down into the river and they'll just touch the basket and skim the water and we call that a splashing dash. It's fun to get new passengers up and really have them experience that for the first time. It's not something that a lot of pilots are able to experience at the beginning, so it's good to be able to have the passengers and the pilots be able to enjoy that here now, Bacurrikey. Well, to be honest with you, I sell people that if they have not been to the Albuquerque balloon fiesta, they need to put it on the bucket list. It's something to see. I kind of describe it as being a New York City for the first time where you're surrounded by all these huge buildings. It's just like it's never ending, except to imagine all those buildings moving around you.

So it's really unique to see that many balloons in one particular place. You're not going to find that anywhere else in the world, I don't think. And to have that many people who really get out here and kind of enjoy it and participate in it, it really is a unique experience. The crowds enthusiastic, the pilots are enthusiastic, and you have people from other countries, you have people from here in Albuquerque, you have people from the east and west coast. So to have all those groups together and really kind of that camaraderie is one of the things that I find the most value in experiencing here in Albuquerque. Sorry, now I'm going to have to not problem you. I figured out the train. What was the question again? If you could sum up fiesta in one state. I would say probably the great thing about fiesta is I tell people that if they haven't experienced a fiesta, they definitely need to at some point. For a lot of people, I tell them to put it on the bucket list. It's one of those things in life you have to see. It's like the eighth wonder of the world. Pilots from all over the world come together and there's a lot of camaraderie here in

terms of the pilots. It's also a great place for the spectators to be able to enjoy the actual sport of ballooning, be able to be up front in person with the balloonists. They're able to walk up to pilots and walk up to balloons directly, and then just the sheer beauty of being able to see 700 balloons in one place at the same time, it really is a unique experience. There's very few places if any in the world that you'll be able to actually experience that. I think that's probably one of the greatest things. We spend probably 355 days a year looking forward to this and 10 days of the year actually participating in it, so it's really great to be able to say that you actually take part in that. New York sucks! I hate lens falls! What was the New York part? It's like going to New York and you look up and see the building on the wall. I would probably say that coming and participating in the balloon fiesta in a lot of ways, almost like going to New York for the first time, in that you're surrounded by these buildings

and it just seems to go on for miles. One fiesta in a lot of ways like that is being surrounded by a bunch of really big buildings except the buildings around you are moving. It's just really unique in that you'll have one wave of balloons totally take off and then you turn around behind you and you see another field of balloons inflating. It's really unique to be able to see that many balloons in one place at the same time. And did that work? Or do you need me to redo it? That's good? Yep. Okay. I don't think all pilots have a comment. I would say that one thing that all pilots have in common is they're all alcoholics. I would say most pilots drink, most drink excessively and most pilots are absolutely crazy and party really, really hard. No, I'm just kidding. You guys can go ahead and delete that footage. Sorry, my phone. All right, tell me when you're ready. I would say probably the one thing that most pilots have in common is they really do have

an understanding as to how their aircraft works and how it works around the weather. Weather is one of the things we take very seriously here in the sport. Being able to understand micro-medialogy and meteorology that is direct to one particular area. I think having a really good understanding of that is one of the things that pilots have a lot, you know, pilots have a really solid understanding in. Is there anything that you want to tell me that I missed? I wouldn't know about Fiesta. To be honest, no. Okay, great. Yep. I think we got it. It's really short and smooth, but what's the hardest part about the competition? I would say the hardest part of the competition is navigating around the other balloons. You got 750 other balloons flying into the same target area, especially during key grab days and so forth. So in reality, being able to fly in and drop in around other balloons or rise up around other balloons, sometimes that can get difficult. But the more experience, the more practice the pilot is, the more experience they get around understanding that, you know, there's balloon above you or balloon below you, you

need to know what to watch out for and so forth. But I would say that's probably the most difficult thing. What about a balloon backing up? Do they have that keeping sound over there? Typically, sometimes they do actually have a reverse light, yeah, and they'll flash from time to time. Which stage do you do that again? It just happens. Yeah. Competition, so I would say it's probably the hardest part, tell me when you're ready. Okay, I would say probably the hardest part about the competition really is flying in the congestion of 700 other balloons. In a lot of ways, especially during the key grab and prize grab competitions, there's 700 balloons going for one particular spot. Being able to fly in and drop in around those balloons is probably the most difficult portion of the competition. Probably my favorite personal story about the balloon fiesta was my very first flight by myself.

I was fortunate enough to be able to have a copilot on my first couple of years as a balloon fiesta, so my first flight on my own and being able to kind of break through that threshold of being, you know, having the understanding that somebody else is in the basket and they can help you if you need it, to really knowing that it's just you and, you know, your passengers are reliant on you throughout the flight. I would say that's, you know, being able to break through that threshold and be able to complete that flight safely was probably my best experience at the balloon fiesta. Thank you so much. You got it. Quiet, please. Sorry. And basically what I want to hear is what it was like once you got up and out, and you kind of digest where you are, and what's going on. Okay. First flight, basically to break it down, it kind of started off a little rocky. I was a little nervous, you know, the first time out of fiesta. I really didn't know what to expect. The amount of balloons that were flying, I never flown in congestion quite like that, but I felt pretty confident.

I knew where the layers were. I basically worked it to where I could drop into the river. My first flight ended up being about two hours long. It was kind of by design, kind of not, but basically what ended up happening is I kind of shot up a little bit quick. I wasn't used to taking off from this altitude. I'm used to flying from about 1000 feet above sea level out of Phoenix, and so when I took off, I kind of shot up a little bit quick. I shot to the northwest. I dropped down to the river, took me two passes again to the river because I just kind of getting a feel for the balloon, what it could do at this altitude and whatnot, and I dropped down to the river, sat in the river for about an hour and a half. I actually let it cool enough to where when I landed on a sand bar, I let my passenger actually get out and took a couple of pictures of me, so that was kind of fun. Then I ended up popping up.

I landed about, probably about a half a mile north where my brother landed, but that was also two hours into the flight. It was exciting. It was really nerve-wracking though. The first time going hot, the first time just kind of experienced popping up, I ended up in wave basically. I caught one and a half because I got special permission to take off because I had to pull out mid-inflation, and it was because my burner kept blowing out on me, and it was just I call it new-time jitters. I just kept shutting off the pilot light and didn't realize I was shutting it off. I kept shutting off the pilot light, and every time I kept going hot, it just sucked back in and just shut off. Then I shot raw propane into the balloon, so eventually, I just turned it, basically got a hang of the burner a little bit, and when I was able to actually stand it up, the flight turned out pretty good. What were your thoughts about being in all those other balloons? Once I got up in the air, I was comfortable.

It takes a lot to get me nervous in a balloon, but it's kind of like that first adrenaline when you first take off because you're around 700-plus balloons. We don't fly around balloons like that in Phoenix. There's normally one, two, three of us max, and it's nothing quite like this, so... What kind of jitters were they? What could you confirm, too? Michael, what do you want to do? You look at me like it's on the track. Based on the first time jitters, it's kind of like this is going to sound kind of weird, but it's kind of going on the first date for the first time with someone. You kind of have those little butterflies. You don't really know what to think, you don't know what to expect from everything, but once you get up, you get comfortable. You know how to fly. The biggest thing is flying the balloon, not worrying about basically everything that's going on. You just watch the weather. You watch the congestion. You watch other pies with the doing, and you just fly it.

That's basically what ended up happening. I just pretty much just followed everyone else's lead. I dropped down the river. I played in there a little bit longer than most people did, but I had the fuel to do it. I knew I had the extra fuel, so I played it in there a little bit longer. Most people got about an hour and a half flight. I pulled two hour flight out of it, and I don't know, it was great. Just the experience was amazing. What's the jaw of the river with all the pilots want to dunk in the river with them? It's kind of like the candy. It's like the lollipop everyone wants. You get drawn to it. There's really no rhyme or reason for it. You just get drawn to it. It's just the idea of, hey, can I do this? Can I get right down on top of the river and just barely skin the top of it and just sit in it? I sat in it for 45 minutes, just skinning the top. To the point where the wind was blowing me north, but the river currently was blowing me south, so I actually sat about a 10-foot span for about 45 minutes, just sitting right

on the very tip of the river. It's almost kind of like, do I have the skill to do it, and if you can do it, then you answer your own question. You have the skill to do it, so that's kind of the draw of the river. I hit water everywhere I go. In Chandler, Arizona, when I fly, if I see a little lake in a neighborhood, I'll drop down until the lake, but doing it in the river, it's kind of like, that's the big thing out here, because it's a little bit narrower than a lake, so if you can drop down around all those cotton woods and all the power lines or whatever might be running across the river, if you can get down there and do a safe splashing dash, then there's really nothing to be said. Yeah, there it is. I want to find out what it's like flying with your dad and your brother around. Flying with my dad.

Okay, so the first day we had second wave, because we're all odd numbers. My brother actually, I guess he has a lot of pull with Fiesta. He's done a lot with Kwate, which they have a lot, they're very in depth with Fiesta, so my brother was able to set us up where we're all odds. My ban on numbers 9.30, his is 1.30, my dad's like 3.30. So we're all odd numbers, however I have the smallest balloon, so my dad actually let me squeeze in the first wave. Now, Chris, he's got a special shape, so he's squeezed in the first wave ever chance he can. So I haven't actually gotten to fly with my dad in the air because he was second wave, he did a short hop right to the gravel pits, but with my brother, I saw where he went and my entire goal, the whole entire first flight, was to be right where he was at. It didn't matter how long it took me, I was just going to get to where he was at. And I ended up a little bit north where he was, but if his crew needed help me out, they would have been there.

So it was pretty exciting. And this is kind of our family reunion for you, Fiesta. It is, yeah. My sister comes down out of Phoenix, I come out of Gilbert, Arizona, my brother comes out of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, and my parents come out of Gilbert's as well, so here's a big group of us that come out, and we don't get to see each other all that much during the year, so Fiesta is really a family reunion. And it also happens to land on my grandfather's birthday too, so we get to see him as well, so it's kind of exciting. And how do you feel being the newest one? Do you feel like there's extra pressure? Are they watching you? Actually, I feel the opposite, which is very weird. I don't know. I just, being a new pilot, I kind of feel like everyone's, you know, a little bit watching me where they're kind of like, you know, if we say we're not flying, is he going to fly a type of thing?

And today was a good example of that. And I told my brother at Pilatebrook and today I wasn't flying, and in the end, I didn't. But there was that little bit today where I was like, okay, I'm going to go for it. And everyone else is already, you know, basically settling in, tailgating, just totally relaxing, they've already made it to call, what not, and now I think that's where the experience level differs a little bit. Because those guys already know what the conditions are going to be like, they have the hours, they already have the experience behind them, they know what it's going to be like. For me, it's still a little new, I see 200 plus balloons flying from the field, and I'm thinking, you know what, tail looks great, I can fly. And following basically the lead, I kind of delayed everything. I took my time, and in the end, it was a smart, it was a really smart choice. As the winds kicked up, they were going to horrible this direction, and I know you were born and raised Fiesta.

I was. My parents... I want you to have to be the entire, you know, your mom? Yeah, I want to know you. So your mom and your mom can do today in two minutes less. My entire lifespan of Fiesta? Okay, well, start, my parents found out they were pregnant with me during Fiesta. I mean, it literally starts with that. My parents were, they did a concession down here. My uncle became a pilot in 88. We, as little kids, I was six years old when my uncle became a pilot, and we were really hooked on whole flying aspects and stuff like that, but we weren't really able to go out because we were a little too small for it. By the time I was, you know, 12 years old, my brother and guy is licensed. I started flying with him full time, and I, when my brother first got his license, there was only one of us that was actually legally able to drive, and it was my oldest cousin, and it was just four of us that would go out every single week, and my brother had a little balloon. Oh, man, you guys are stuck. Wait, wait, I wanted to know more about this, you had the cousin?

No, I had my cousin that had a driver's license, and everyone else, no one else was legal even to drive. I was 12 years old, my cousin next to me was 13. My oldest cousin was 17, and Chris was 16. That was it. That was our crew. So I started crewing with Chris when I was 12 years old, but by the time I was able to drive, I mean, I learned how, how he flew so well that I used to be at his landing spot before he was. So crewing actually became more of a passion for me than almost anything else. I've always wanted to fly, I've always kind of had this little dream about crowd around you while you're going high, and they're kind of cheering as the balloon's standing up, and right as you take off, everyone's cheering and whatnot, that's how it was Saturday. I mean, it was amazing feeling. I think I got off the question, but... I like where you took it.

Tell me more about that. People are clapping for you. How does that feel? It was amazing, because it took me a little bit to get off the ground. So I was the only one that was taken off in the whole entire area. Second wave was inflating, and I was the last of first wave. I was in the middle of the field, Channel 4 and Channel 7 are right there, a film, I mean, the whole entire time, and I'm the last one taken off from first wave. As soon as I got off the ground, it's just like a roar just broke out on the field, and it was the coolest thing in the world, and I don't know, I really can't explain how it felt. It was just amazing. I'm going to ask you a favor. I can hear your team every time you're under, so if you can keep your head off the ground. Oh, is that what I thought? I wondered what that was. Yeah. I just noticed you took it off. Sorry guys. I don't get people who want to wake up and chase something that's not there. For me, it was never not mine.

Everything with ballooning was always fine. I used to actually just, was totally drawn to just the size of the balloons. We started flying with these people who taught my uncle out of fly. Now, the woman who taught my uncle out of fly was like one of the first women in balloon pots in the Southwest. I think at this point, she's probably around 35, 37 years flying, and we started chasing her pretty much right away because my uncle lived in Arizona, and oh, man, I really can't explain how it was. We were kind of like the young group of the balloon community. Balloon communities made up a lot of very established people, you know, people who had been doing it for since the 70s and whatnot. We came out in the 90s, and we were kind of like, you know, there's that group of the black sheep, we were kind of the black sheep.

We were the ones that no one accepted because we were, you know, the pilot was 16, you know, the youngest crew member was 12, and it went 12 to 17. That was our crew. And to try and get ourselves accepted by the balloon community took a lot of work. And basically what we did is we just got ourselves involved in different organizations. We worked our way through, and for me, basically what I did is I followed my brother's lead, the whole way up. He started teaching me how to fly when I was, I think, 17 years old. I had a cancel it because school and whatnot. And then eventually my dad picked it up about a year and a half ago. He finally, I finally got through my lessons. I got signed off November 11th, 2007, so I haven't even been flying a year. I got 40 hours coming into Fiesta. So I'm probably one of, I hate saying the most experienced, or the most inexperienced pilot coming in, but I'm definitely one of the most experienced, inexperienced pilots coming

into Fiesta. And it's because my hours, I just don't have the amount of hours that most people do. Um, am I getting off the question here? Um, just, I want to get back to your family. Oh, family? How do we get to this point? How do we get to this point? I'm 12. I'm 12. I'm Chase Crew. You've got this 40 hours and you're coming into Fiesta. What are your thoughts? I'm nerve-wracking. The whole thing's nerve-wracking. Um, even today, it's just, you're driving in from Gilbert, what are you thinking on the drive over here? The whole, the whole time I'm shaking, I'm nervous the whole time coming in. It's like, I had to pull it over a couple of times, just kind of take a deep breath and it's like, okay, I kind of get a hold of myself. This is a lifelong dream of mine coming in, flying Fiesta, and, you know, I've been dreaming about this literally since I was a little kid from when my grandparents were driving me

down when I was two years old and a little crib, and they used to bring me down to the car seat, and I used to watch these big monsters flying in the air and bring that up to Saturday morning, and I'm one of those pilots flying those balloons, and it's just, it's an amazing feeling, just basically being part of the whole thing and feeling like, you know, you're actually a part of this, you're actually, you know, you can see the little kids around you and you can remember being mad, you know, you can remember being, you know, just an awe of the whole thing, and it's like, it's, it hasn't gone away. It's still there, so. Give me one example of when you're watching, you're crueing and you're watching your brother and you're having an envy. I'm having an envy. Okay. So, my favorite Fiesta moment was, I think it was 98, my uncle took me up on a doctoral flight, and he kind of played, he didn't play a trick on us, but he basically, he wanted

us to experience what it was to be like in a gas balloon, so he actually shut off his burner. Now we were actually in an ascent, so it was safe, it was okay to do it, and he shut off his burner, and it was just pitch black, you can see all the flashes and whatnot of all the cameras on the field, and we're right over concessionary row, and it was pure silent, but just seeing all the lights of the city and all the flashes, and it was an amazing moment, so Dom Patrol was probably my absolute favorite part of a balloon Fiesta, so I experienced it as a crew member. Okay.

I'm all good. Great. You look good? Yeah. All right. Nice. I'm rocking a little guy. Set go. Under-to-to-go. Say Jean-Kennner. Way. I see. I want to know about the bees. So where did you get the idea for bees? You know, we didn't. We didn't come up with the idea of the bees. The builder did. Victoria balloons out of Brazil, and they came here in 2003 with the idea of having the most spectacular balloons ever seen at the balloon Fiesta, or any place on Earth, and not only just do one, but to do two, and it worked. And we like to say that we didn't give them life, but we gave them personality. So, even though we didn't come up with the idea, we took the ball and ran with it. And what did we take the ball with? Well, we took the concept of the tandem bees flying together, holding hands and sort of created this performance in the sky of kissing and hugging and dancing and flying tandem together.

A lot of balloons want to separate. You know, you get up and you want to get as far away from the balloon next to you as possible. And what our goal is is to fly together, because that really makes the balloons look like they're taking off an adventure in the sky, holding hands as they depart, and you know, go for their evening or their morning stroll in the sky, and you know, maybe do a little dance, maybe do a little hug, little kiss, you know, between the two balloons. And what's your favorite part of the little balloons? Do you like their personality, or do you like that their bees, what sparks your interest? I think what sparks my interest on the bees is that there's many dynamics to come together. There's the character of the bees, Joey and Lily, boyfriend and girlfriend, you know, not brother and sister, but boyfriend and girlfriend, and you know, the smiles, the eyelashes that Lily has, they flutter in the wind, and sort of the persona that they take on.

And wherever we go, we get told that we're the favorite balloons, and some people like Lily, some people like Joey, for whatever reason, but it's the personality that I think that we like the most, the personality that the balloons have when they're in the air. And so flying a special shape, why did you go into that instead of traditional ones? Well, I think that whenever you're involved in anything you want to do it on the grandest scale, and Blooning in general, you know, has many personas, it has commercial, it has sport, it has gas ballooning, the special shape balloons really, really are sort of the character of Blooning. Bloons are like giant multi-colored Easter eggs as they inflate on the ground. When you look, you just see these Easter eggs all over the place, but when you see a gorilla or a monkey or a dinosaur or a cow or the little bees grow out of the ground, it's something that draws your attention, and it holds it.

And then when you look up and you see the smiling faces looking back at you, it's just something that draws you in. And so I've been flying special shape balloons since the early 90s, and have done it really because of the excitement that special shape balloons bring to the spectators on the ground. And you made the ladybug based off of that spectator excitement? Exactly, you know, when you have a bug like the bees, everybody says, oh, you know, I love the bees, I love unicorns, I love hummingbirds. And you start looking at all these different shapes, and you say, okay, these are all great shapes and people love them, and I really put it into a balloon because a balloon has to have a certain capacity, it has to have a certain shape so that it can fly. And the ladybug was actually sort of inspired by a small garden light, that little plastic light you turn on and you lay it in your garden, it glows, and it's this little cute little ladybug looking up at you. And so we looked at it and we said, you know, that's a balloon.

And we sent it off to the builder, and then we worked with them closely so that they really captured the spirit of that little light. And then we found out once we built the ladybug that there are chapters of ladybug people, you know, there's the red-hat ladies, they have the ladybug chapters, there's the college sorority that uses a ladybug as their logo. And even more than the bees, we found out that ladybugs are really, really liked by a lot of people. And so being in the business that we are in, we felt that the ladybug would be something that would be accepted by a lot of people. And so focusing on special shapes, what does it take to get that shape from here into the air when we're looking at it? When you're inflating a balloon, you know, the process of hooking up the basket and assembling everything together and getting it ready to put in the air generally takes about 10 to 15 minutes. There's a pre-flight inspection that every pilot goes through. When you're dealing with a special shape balloon, there's also, you have to think about how it inflates, how it lifts off the ground when, as you inflate it, and how the air will migrate from the main body into the appendages of the balloon. And so it takes about twice as long to assemble the little bees.

When we put our basket together and we do the pre-flight on that, that's the same as every balloon. When we hook it up to the little bee envelope and we stretch it out, we make it look like a cartoon that's been run over by a steamroller that we were all liked as kids. And then it just sort of like lifts itself off the ground and that's the appearance that we want. So that takes us about twice as long. So we figure about 20 to 25 minutes and from trailer to in the air before we take off. I didn't realize that it wasn't something you could throw out like everything else that you're starting with, you're starting with kind of a template so people get an idea. Chris flies that balloon and he said that it was a really nice balloon fly because it is a special shape that still has a traditional approach about it. There's two categories of special shape balloons. There's the full on special shape balloons like the cow and the dinosaur and the little bees where there really is, you can see the hot air balloon base in there. But it doesn't have the 100% the traditional shape of a hot air balloon.

The ladybug is actually built on the shape of a standard shape balloon just like 99% of all the balloons flying out here at the Albuquerque balloon fiesta. But then you have the legs and the pedals and the head that come off the side of it and we refer to those as appendages. So you sort of have two categories, the special shapes and the special shape of appendages. And that's the category that the ladybug falls in. And you chose that one so it'd be easier or what was your impression? The tension with the ladybug was not only to create a balloon that we could take to festivals and spectators would come out to see them, but also a balloon that we could eventually sort of integrate into the sport world. That somebody down the road when we're done with it from using it as one of our business tools, if you will, that we could sell it to a sport balloonist who maybe likes ladybugs or just wants to have an easy flying special shape balloon. And we would sell it and then create another shape and move on to another one.

How many ladybugs can you fit in that balloon? You know, Bob loves these little lives. There's all the little trivia about special shape balloons. We go to some festivals and you know, there's a carton of milk and I say this thing holds 432 billion gallons of milk. Well, we calculated it out. It holds 30.2 billion ladybugs, live ladybugs. Do you have a number for the bees? Yeah, yeah, we do, but it's in honey. We actually could produce enough honey with the two bees to basically feed the world for about two weeks. So, little, little interesting trivia. So now I want to get into both of you and talk with you what you're doing on Saturday. What was going on there? Well, you know, Saturday was a lot of things. It was the first day of Fiesta. It was Todd's first balloon Fiesta. It was his first day flying with the little bees as my partner balloon.

And you know, there's also the performance aspects. So, you know, we're taking into all of these considerations about what we want to do. I know you got anything to add there. Yeah, well, you know, I'm used to flying a regular shape balloon. I've been to a lot of festivals on the Northeast Coast, New Jersey, St. John, some of the bigger festivals on the East Coast. To take off with probably the most popular shape in the Fiesta in front of 100,000 people, you know, I told Bob after the flight. It was just one of the most amazing flights I have ever had to take off and see 100,000 people yelling and screaming. It's just probably one of the most amazing scenes you could ever imagine. It's not something you can describe to somebody. It's not something you can, you know, write it in a letter or even tell somebody. You actually have to feel that. I mean, to be in the balloon and you're just above the crowd and just see everyone yelling at you. You know, it's just really excited about seeing the balloons. It's not really just about flying a balloon. It's a shell. You know, inflating the balloon with Bob, you know, he was teaching me and it really isn't just about inflating a balloon.

You know, there's a lot more that goes into flying a special shape than just flying a regular shape balloon. People come out, you know, especially see the bees. You know, we go and inflate and it was really funny. I went to inflate and they're like, do you have any bee cards? Do you have any bee cards? And I'm handing out bee cards and I started handing them out. I also, you get thousands of people just surrounding you. Well, that, and in fact, you know, we're thinking about everything. We're thinking about the balloon. We're thinking about the weather, whether it's flabble, whether it's going to be flabble when we want to land. We're thinking about the balloons that are around us. The fiesta is honest as far as launch directors. And you know, they're giving us cues as to when to start the fans and when to heat the balloons up. And then of course, because we're holding hands, we want them to take off as quickly as possible. And the spectators don't realize that. You know, they see us just sort of walking around, you know, prepping the balloon and everything. And their excitement is we want cards. We want your trading cards, you know.

Do you have pins to trade? And so there's sort of a mixture of things that we're, you know, we're dealing with. And I think Todd, you know, I'm really excited about, you know, about having Todd fly with us. And, you know, it was sort of a lesson flight for him. He was with my partner Shane Corey that day. And, you know, Shane was sort of like watching him and coaching him and, you know, giving him cues and everything. And at the same time, Todd's handing out their trading cards and everything. Probably the biggest thing, you know, like I said, I'm used to just flying a regular balloon, where I go out and I set up people watching me. You know, it's a little bit of a show. But, you know, when setting up the bees, I mean, there's just so many people around. The best way I can describe is ambiance. It's an ambiance about it. You know, we inflate it at the same time. You're bringing the bees up at the same time. And just, even just inflating them. When we got done inflating them, people are going crazy. You know, they're like, yeah, you know, and for me, I look back like, wow, I've been inflating a lot of balloons before. I've never had that reception from the crowd before. So, you know, for me, it really was working. It's a team effort.

It's very synchronized. What we do. It's very synchronized. I didn't mean to interrupt. I'm just saying, you know, usually when I inflate a balloon, it's just me. It's my balloon. It's by myself. Here, you know, we're working on two balloons at the same time. It's very much so a team effort. We have to see each other. You know, we give, we give each other cues to when we're going to inflate. So, you do a preinflation, then you do the actual inflation. What kind of hand signals are you guys using? Well, I mean, it's very simple once, once we're inflating the balloon, but we need line of sight. And there's, there's certain stages of the inflation that you can tell by the stripes on the balloon. And the first thing is you look for the neck to be slightly elevated off the ground. And when, when the, when the neck is elevated off the ground, that means the balloon is filled out enough to, to, to hot inflate. You don't want the, the feet to come up soggy or the hands to come up soggy. You want them full of air. And so, you know, we, we told Scott, you know, when the neck is off the ground, that's the time when we're going to start inflation. If the launch director comes around to us and goes, you can cold inflate and the neck start off the ground, we, you know, we need to tell them we, we need a few more minutes.

But so, for the first few minutes of our inflation, we're not concentrating on each other so much as we are the balloons. And the next thing that happens is the black stripe around the neck lifts off. And then the yellow stripe starts to come up. And when the, when the yellow stripe is totally off the ground, then we give the thumbs up signal to each other. Now, during this time, we have two other things that are taking place. One, we're looking at the noses of each other's balloons because you can kind of look up your nose and the nose of the other balloon and see whether one is higher than the other. And so, you can sort of like us, we're just puffing them up and waiting for those stripes to come off the ground. We can sort of get them to the point where they, where they are, are even. But then we're also asking our crownline person. That's the person holding onto the, the rope on the top of the head to hold them down. You know, if they see them coming up one faster than the other. But once we give thumbs up, that means we're bringing the balloons up. You know, it's solid heat, bring the balloons up, get them standing and upright.

So, one thumbs up and deal for it. And I think this one makes the balloons so popular. You know, it'd be okay, one balloon takes off, another balloon takes off. You know, Bob's on the balloon for years and that's what's really made them so popular is, you know, they take off together, they inflate together. They do, they land together. So, everything they do, they do together. So, when it comes down to people who want to see a special shape, it's not just about flying balloons, they turn, they kiss. I mean, it's a whole show and people come out to see that and they, they want to see the kiss. You know, they'll ask for it. I really do. You know, hey, hey, the balloons are going to kiss. What's the secret behind making them kiss? It's magic, you know, and, but we have figured out sort of the elements to what the balloon makes the balloons do, what they do. And you give them up your secrets. Well, it's not really a secret. I mean, first off, the balloons are Velcroed together and Velcro allows them not to be permanently attached, but temporary. And I have a rope that's attached to Lily's hand that I can pull her hand away if we have to separate in any type of situation, but the goal is to keep the hands together.

We've also found that Lily can be slightly higher, which forces her hand to press into Joey's and that'll keep us together longer. If there's a wind turn that comes from the right, then Lily will climb and chances are she will bend and twist into Joey and kiss him. If it's the other way around and Joey comes higher, we stand the chance that the hands might rip loose, but chances are the wind will push him into her. Sometimes it goes the other way and they go feet to feet, but nine times out of ten, they'll go and kiss. And we can generally find a wind change about a hundred feet off the ground, and this is enough that we're still within spectator range. And it's fun to hear that initial, you know, roar of the crowd as we launch, but it's also great then to hear the second roar as they come together and kiss. It just depends on the guy or the girl who wants to kiss who it is. It's the first reaction. It's the first kiss, yeah. It's like all.

So how are you two doing together as a team now? I need to do this. We'll get that back.