The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
Every October in Albuquerque hundreds of thousands of people arrive to see the largest collection of balloons in one place. Typically the Fiesta begins on the first week in October. This year will be the 38th Fiesta.
Balloon Fiesta began in 1972 when Sid Cutter organized a group of fellow balloonists to join in the 50th anniversary celebrations of KOB Radio. There were 13 balloons at this first Fiesta - in the year 2000 there were more than 1,000. Since then the number of balloons
participating in the event has been limited to 600 - but this is still the largest balloon event in the world. The event began in the parking lot of Coronado Mall on the east side of Albuquerque. It soon outgrew this venue and now has it’s own area, Balloon Fiesta Park, a huge site on the Northwest side of Albuquerque. In 2005 the Anderson Abruzzo Balloon Museum was built to the south of Fiesta field.
The first week end of Fiesta begins with the ascent of the Dawn Patrol. This is an amazing event - quite visually dramatic and, as I discovered, very well choreographed (and it shows!). As ballooning is strictly aVFR sport, the Dawn Patrol pilots need special permission from the FAA for their IFR Flights. In addition to flying with special FAA approved lights hanging from their baskets, each pilot must have three take offs and landings in the dark before participating in the event.
I spoke to Scott Veseley who has been a Dawn Patrol pilot for 12 years about what being a Dawn Patrol pilot involves. The Dawn Patrol was begun by Ken Kennedy. Thirteen years ago, his son, Craig, took over and began co-ordinating the group to make it into the spectacle it is today. The pilots participating (there are twelve of them and belonging to this select group is by invitation only). The Dawn Patrol has its own weather briefing in the mornings and then decide as a group whether or not to fly on a specific morning. The weather conditions are especially important to the Dawn Patrol as ideally they will fly for at least an hour - this way they can land when it is light. The pilots try to burn every three minutes and stay together for thirty minutes - and, of course, staying over the field makes the day absolutely perfect especially for the spectators.
During the week of Fiesta there are various piloting, skill and competition events - some involve flying on to the field from a pre-determined spot off-field, others involve taking off from the field and throwing “baggies” (sand-filled cloth bags) on to targets positioned offfield.
One can literally spend the day at Fiesta Field - there are vendors of souvenirs and food on concessions row. There are bands, visiting helicopters, chainsaw carving competitions and car shows, just to name a few of the things happening. Mid-week, the Americas Challenge gas balloons begin inflating. The winner of this race is the team that flies the furthest distance and all countries may participate. It was started in 1995 by Mark Sullivan, a former Balloon Fiesta president. The Americas Challenge was cancelled in 2009 but was won in 2008 by Mark Sullivan and Cheri White who flew a great circle distance of 881 miles.
As you would expect, an event of this magnitude the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta needs careful organization and acute attention to detail. The event is completely orchestrated and has to move like clockwork.The morning begins for all pilots with the pilot’s briefing. The events of the previous day are reviewed, people are chastised or praised and problems encountered are discussed. This is followed by a weather briefing and a balloon is set free. By this time, though, the dawn patrol has taken off so one can simply watch them to see the wind conditions. Of course, by the time we regular pilots are told to take off, everything could well have changed.Then we return to our balloons and wait until we are told we can inflate.
The field is divided into squares. Each row has a letter and each square in that row has a number. For example, last year I was in P2 - coincidentally this is also the row used by the Dawn Patrol. Usually, the balloons in Row A begin inflating first - these balloons include the Fiesta balloon and the balloon of the day’s sponsor. At the same time, the ride balloons - located from Row R back - begin inflating. These two ends of Fiesta Field will take off first.
How do we know when to take off? The air is incredibly crowded at Fiesta and from the basket of your balloon, you cannot see the balloon traffic overhead. Our guides to when to go cold, go hot and take off - or not are the Zebras. These individuals are dressed like umpires, which in essence they are. There are many unusual and amusing variations on their uniforms - and often their faces are painted to match - or even their hair! Once we are inflated, we wait for a Zebra to come to us. They may well tell us through a set of predetermined had gestures to walk out a bit or keep us in place until another balloon has passed overhead. Once we take off, we try to keep a steady ascent of 200 feet a minute. In the air, the balloon above must always yield to the balloon below - pretty obvious really as the balloon below cannot look up through their envelope. I have found that it is a good idea to have one passenger always looking for balloons coming up, especially too quickly, below us.
So, we have managed to take off from the field - now, depending on the weather, we have two options. Bearing in mind that Fiesta is for the spectators on the field, one can simply take the first available landing spot. The other option is to have a long leisurely flight. The predominant direction of the day plays a large part in making this decision also, when one took off. If you are one of the first to take off, you have a choice of landing spots - if you are later, they may already be full. Sometimes one is very lucky and the famed Albuquerque Box is in place. This is a weather phenomenon whereby at one altitude you can go north and at another come back to the south. It is one of the things that makes Albuquerque an especially fun place to fly. If the box is prevalent that day, it is possible to fly back to the field and land there - which will please your chase crew. The roads around Fiesta Field become congested with chase crews very quickly. On one particularly brisk day, we had flown some 20 miles before our chase crew was clear of the field traffic. This is why it is a good idea to take a cell phone with you in the balloon. In this instance we were completely out of range of the walkie-talkies very quickly and our crew had no idea where we were.
Our day at Fiesta is nearly over - we have flown, we have landed, we have packed up the balloon and gone back to the field for propane. Definitely time for a bit of well-deserved tailgating - not to mention swapping stories!
By Mardi Cone