On the air
Aug. 11—TOP FLIGHT
The state's (and probably one of the nation's) biggest gathering for balloon fanatics is the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, which this year is October 7-15 (balloonfiesta.com). But it's not the only event. Others include:
White Sands Balloon and Music Festival: As many as 60 balloons launch in the national park and are followed by evening concerts at Ed Brabson Balloon Park in Alamogordo. September 15-17. Park entry fee $25 per car. White Sands National Park, 19955 Highway 70 West, Alamogordo. 575-437-6120 or 800-826-0294; balloonmusicfestival.com.[NOTE site is not currently working].
Taos Mountain Balloon Rally: Evening balloon glows, morning mass ascensions, tethered rides, and other activities. October 27-29. Free. Launch field is located on Albright Street. taosballoonrally.com.
Red Rock Balloon Rally: Balloons float above the scenic, 640-acre Red Rock Park. December (2023 dates are TBD). Free admission (with parking fee). 5757 Red Rock Park Drive, Churchrock. 800-380-4989; redrockballoonrally.com.
Elephant Butte Balloon Regatta: Watch about 20 hot-air balloons launch from Elephant Butte beaches and dip to the surface of the lake. Event usually takes place annually in early August. $5 per car state park admission fee. Elephant Butte Lake State Park, 101 NM-195, Elephant Butte. 575-894-1968; sfnm.co/regatta.
For more information about Rainbow Ryders flights, call 505-823-1111 or visit rainbowryders.com. Flights start at $159 for adults and $99 for children.
The preparation for Albuquerque's most famous tourist activity begins while most of the city's inhabitants are still asleep. There's only one launch per day for most of the year for Rainbow Ryders, the largest ballooning company in Albuquerque, and check-in takes place at 5:15 a.m.
That means it's likely still dark when you pull into the company's parking lot, and you might still be half-asleep when you begin reading the liability form presented to you. Here, before breakfast, you might have to consider the many ways your bucket list activity could also do you in — by electrocution or hypothermia, being immersed in water, or falling out of the balloon.
Poor Dorothy didn't know these things when she tried to hitch a balloon back to Kansas, but you're here at the crack of dawn because you're bold and you've already clocked the risks. Yes, you might be flying at about 1,000 feet in the air or higher, but you will only be moving a couple miles per hour.
Eyeballs on pie balls
After some hurried introductions between the passengers, the balloon pilots begin herding everyone into a van to the launch site. But the pilot says that if the air doesn't feel right, you may head to a different spot. Most of the passengers stay in the vans; but a few get out to watch the preparations.
The pilots assemble and release a helium balloon. It looks exactly as you imagine — like a child letting go of a balloon at a birthday party. The balloon drifts up, up, and away, and it's hard to see where it's going. But there's science happening that is imperceptible to the untrained eye.
Scott Appelman, owner of Rainbow Ryders, explains what the pilots are looking for when they release their test balloons.
"When we put up our helium balloons — or what we call pie balls — we can see exactly what's happening at our launch site," he says. "We're looking at how fast the wind speeds are traveling and in what direction and also to see what kind of steering there is. When you go on your ride, you go up 200 feet and all of a sudden, you're going to the west, and in another 500 feet, you could be heading back to the north. There's all those different layers of wind up there. It's like layers of the cake or think about currents in an ocean; the air is doing the exact same thing. The pie ball helps identify those for us before we do our flight."
Just add air
For most morning flights, the conditions are favorable, and Rainbow Ryders flights go off as scheduled 80 to 90 percent of the time. So it's time for the crew to unpack the equipment. Two people have the task of wrestling the 1,200-pound basket, 600-pound balloon, and 150-pound cart off the back of the van.
The balloon resembles a large party tent at this point; it's completely inert on the ground, and the crew lays it out lengthwise. They then ask passengers to hold open the corners of the envelope as two giant inflation fans fill the balloons with 275,000 cubic feet of air, enough to fill 275,000 basketballs.
The balloons begin to swell and take shape, and when the process is nearly done, the pilot lights up the burner to round out the balloon.
At this point, the balloon resembles a full Jiffy Pop bag, which means it's ready for passengers to climb aboard.
Super fly
At first, you barely feel like you're moving.
This isn't the hyperkinetic push of a jet taking off on a runway — it's more like the light and gradual lift you get in an elevator.
You can see the other balloons rising around you, and it takes a few minutes before you realize that you're pretty far off the ground. From here, you can see the entire city and the mountains and valleys that frame it. The cars and houses look like Legos.
Appelman, who has been ballooning for 40 years, says that a number of factors make Albuquerque an ideal place to fly. First, he says, the surrounding community is friendly to the phenomenon of balloons in the sky that could potentially land in their backyard. Second, the conditions are good year-round.
"Albuquerque is extremely unique because of the Rio Grande Valley and the Sandia Mountains," he says. "And then with Santa Fe and the Jemez Mountains, you basically get what we call drainage, a north-to-south flow of air. You have cool air that settles during the nighttime, and when the sun comes up, it's warming the air up and the air goes downhill coming from Santa Fe down to Albuquerque and through the Rio Grande Valley."
We take off from Chamisa Hills, and you can see huge expanses where homes are about to be built. The other balloons are distant blips on the horizon, but they're all around you, floating on the same currents and on the same blasts of heat.
Shoot the breeze
The pilot stays busy but will engage with passengers during moments of air time. Troy Bradley, the pilot on my flight, says he's been flying for 43 years but the methodology for ballooning has remained unchanged for 200 years.
"You heat the air and let it go up," he says. "You cool the air and let it come down."
Appelman confirms that the science remains the same, but technology has made ballooning much more predictable.
"I think the principles are the same; hot air rises. But technology has given us much better burners and fabrics," he says. "Also, you can imagine that when I first started flying 40 years ago, they didn't have cell phones. Today, there's a wealth of knowledge we can access with WeatherBug and all these different weather applications we can get on our phones. I can see, 'Am I going to go up to Rio Rancho or am I going to fly the South Valley today?' Then you look at your phone, and you see the winds are softer in Rio Rancho. We have an extra level of safety and managing the best of doing the balloon rides due to technology."
They've also improved their efficiency in unfurling the balloons and getting people inside the baskets. The teams operate like NASCAR pit crews; they effortlessly haul the heavy equipment around, help the passengers into the baskets, and take everything apart after landing.
Back burner
The pilot isn't really steering when he's in the air; he's using the burner to control up and down, and the wind is doing the rest.
Passengers are not belted in but stand together in the sectioned basket, where you can hang onto the side walls.
The flight (despite the initial warning of potential hazards) is tame.
The scariest moments are when you allow yourself to look directly down at the ground below — and you become aware of how high you are. But the balloon lightly floats on air, barely moving to or fro.
On the day I fly, we stay in the air one hour and two minutes. We reach a top altitude of 2,300 feet and move three miles over the course of our time in the air. The van tracks us from the ground, and when we're ready to come down, it's in place where we're ready to land.
We've been warned that the landing might not be soft; after all, there are no wheels or landing gear on the flat-bottomed basket. But Bradley sticks the landing perfectly, and we barely feel impact with the ground. We're all out a few moments later, scampering from the basket onto the hot sand.
The crew gets the equipment back together while passengers enjoy a champagne toast. Bradley explains that in the early days of ballooning, the pilots carried a bottle of champagne to toast the sometimes irate farmers who owned the fields where they'd land. But no one is mad upon our arrival today — just a bunch of happy fliers drinking a morning mimosa.
Big air
Appelman expanded Rainbow Ryders to Phoenix, Arizona, in 2008 and to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2015, and says the industry has successfully weathered a couple recessions. His company now employs 110 people between the three areas and flies 45,000 passengers each year.
The busiest time by far is during Balloon Fiesta, which can sell out several months ahead. During the nine-day event that attracts thousands of people, Appelman says the company may get 400 passengers up in balloons in a single day.
"We literally have people calling us the day after Fiesta saying they want to reserve a flight for next year," he says.
How do they get that many people up in the air? Do they take shifts?
No, they just bring more balloons.
Rainbow Ryders may get as many as 38 balloons in the air during a single Fiesta day, and Appelman says the business challenge is getting people to realize that they can go up in a hot-air balloon anytime during the year.
"Making people aware of the fact that we're doing balloon flights on a year-round basis, especially in Albuquerque, has always been a big goal of our marketing," he says. "But there's always something here, whether it's a corporate group coming in or a family reunion or a bachelorette party, maybe a wedding proposal; we get all different types of special events and conventions that come into town. It's one of those unique things that you're going to get in Albuquerque and eight out of 10 times, you're gonna get to fly when you go out and do it."
