An APR news feature
People in south Baldwin County had a chance last weekend to see a colorful display of more than 50 hot air balloons taking to the skies around Foley. Many of the balloonists taking part came from around the country for a chance to fly, display their aircraft and get together with old friends.
Tethered balloons lifted off the ground just after dawn last Friday at the start of the Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon Festival. After being called off last year during the pandemic, pilots and visitors flocked to the OWA Amusement Park.
”It was a wonderful turnout,” said Rachel Spear, events coordinator for the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce. “It was a wonderful weekend there. The weather was perfect.”
The festival drew more just visitors from a wide area. It also attracted fifty five balloonists and crews from as far away as Utah. It was a chance for them to get together with old friends and another adventure in the air.
“Ballooning is like a big family,” said Cheri White, a balloon pilot from Austin, Texas.
She’s been coming to the Foley festival since the first one in 17 years ago. Friday she flew the balloon for Touchstone Energy.
“I’ve been in it over 40 years and I go all around and you see the same people and you all have a common interest,” White said. “You all love adventure. You all love being up in the air and you all watch out for each other. The sun’s coming up. You can hear the birds singing. For me to get up early in the morning and take off and fly over beautiful fields and seeing deer and all kinds of animals and then flying over people’s houses and they’re coming out in their pajamas or whatever and they’re waving to you and it’s just a really nice sport.”
White has been flying around the country and in Europe for more than 40 years. She admitted she didn’t have a choice when she started.
“Well, I didn’t actually pick the sport,” she admitted. “I was 13 years old and my father started flying and my sister and I were his crew, so I grew up in the sport and then when I was 16, started lessons and bought my first balloon at 19 and I just turned 60, so I’ve been doing it a long, long time.”
“I love the aspect of flying and it’s a team sport,” said Scott Wogge, from St. Louis.
He said he and his wife, Cynthia, got their start in the early 1980s as crew members. Today, they not only fly balloons, but also have a business selling and repairing them. He said piloting a balloon is amazing. But, being a crew member is also a challenge.
“It takes everybody to do it,” Wogge said.
“The pilot gets all the credit, but more so in ballooning, you need those other team members to drive the chase vehicle, to help you put it away, pack it up and it’s very fun to accomplish something as a team and you’re in control of this team and working hard, but really having a good time," he said. "The chase crew’s whole job is to be there when you land. Now, does a pilot have a clue where they’re going to land, absolutely no clue when they take off. They’re going in that general direction and our job is to be there to catch them. That’s the strategy part of it. You learn navigation. You learn how to read a map in a hurry and all the technology has made it easier, but you’ve still got to think and you’ve got to think ahead. You’ve got to outsmart the pilot. You make mistakes and you laugh and you land behind locked gates and you figure out how to get it out and how to contact the police department or fire department and stuff like that.”
Wogge has flown in 30 states, Europe and Australia. He said south Baldwin is unique. When you can’t control where you’re going, having the Gulf of Mexico just to the south can be interesting.
“It’s very peaceful up there. We enjoy flying,” Wogge said. “There’s nothing like it. This is the only event that I’ve flown in where as soon as I get off the ground and you look to the south and you see a large body of water and for us, that’s very interesting and scary when you get up there because you know you can’t go that way. That’s the only place I’ve experienced that large body of water. I’ve flown over lakes and the flooded Mississippi. In 1993 in St. Louis when the Mississippi was four miles wide at St. Louis. I’ve flown across that, but never flying this close to a big, large body of water.”
Joel Studevant is from Kansas City, Missouri. He’s has been flying for 40 years this month.
“This is a great flying area. You usually have really good weather down here,” he said.
Studevent now pilots the ReMax balloon. He said the festival and the region are among the best for balloonists.
“Lots of open area,” he said. “You’ve got great landowners that understand the balloons. Tommy Rachel, the local balloon pilot down here has done a great job of maintaining that good relationship with the landowners.”
Studevant said it’s hard to describe the sensation of balloon flight to someone who’s never gone up in one.
“It’s almost impossible to describe to people,” he said. “It’s one of those things that you have to do. It’s kind of like if I had to describe it, I’d say it’s up there floating along watching the world go by below you. It’s very peaceful, very calm, and you’re basically just floating along. Sounds, you can hear people from the ground. Sound travels very easily because there’s nothing to obstruct the sound. You’re moving with the wind so it’s a very calm and gentle flight.”
The next Hot Air Balloon Festival is scheduled for May 6-8, 2022.