Mark Megahan
The 50th Annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta kicked off in colorful style on Saturday, October 1. This year, hundreds of vibrantly hued airships took flight. Some of them were unusually crafted examples of lighter than air sculpture in silk.
Balloon Fiesta takes flight
Pilots and spectators are drawn like a magnet to the New Mexico desert from every arc of the globe. It’s easy to see why this is “one of the most photographed events in the world.”
Not only that, Albuquerque’s International Balloon Fiesta is “an economic driver for the state’s largest city.” Most folks are there for the colorful opportunity for “enthusiasts to be within arm’s reach” as the giant envelopes are unpacked and inflated.
To mark the 50 year milestone, three of the “original pilots who participated in the first fiesta in 1972 and the family members of others are among this year’s attendees.” Back on that historic day, “13 balloons launched from an open lot near a shopping center on what was then the edge of Albuquerque.”
Things have expanded like one of the silk balloon envelopes. “It has since grown into a multimillion-dollar production.”
Not everyone wants to get up off the ground in a balloon but everyone can enjoy the colorful craft themselves. Pilot Gene Dennis wouldn’t miss it. The 78-year-old veteran aeronaut “remembers the snow storm that almost caused him to miss that first fiesta. He had to rearrange his flight plans from Michigan so he could make it to Albuquerque in time.”
By the time “Captain Phairweather” touched down in New Mexico, “the weather was perfect.” He got quoted in the press telling everyone he “had brought good weather with him.”
Bitten by the bug
Flying a balloon is “infectious,” Dennis asserts. He says being aloft is a lot like “drifting in a dream, quietly observing the countryside below.” Roman Müller will be flying in the fiesta for the very first time this year.
“He’s piloting a special-shaped balloon that was modeled after a chalet at the top of a famous Swiss bobsled run. One of his goals will be flying over the Rio Grande and getting low enough to dip the gondola into the river.”
He admits that having goals like that and accomplishing them in a balloon are two different things.
“This is my plan,” he grins. It helps that a weather phenomenon called the Albuquerque box happens when “the wind blows in opposite directions at different elevations, allowing skillful pilots to bring a balloon back to near the point of takeoff.”
The reason Albuquerque is the place to be at this time of year with a hot air balloon is the “predictability of the wind patterns allowed for balloons to remain close to the launch field, giving spectators quite a show.” Denise Wiederkehr McDonald “was a passenger in her father’s balloon during the first fiesta.”
She made the pilgimage this year “to participate in a re-enactment of that 1972 flight on Friday.” Her father, Matt Wiederkehr, “was one of the first 10 hot air balloon pilots in the U.S. and held numerous world records for distance and duration and built a successful advertising business with his fleet of balloons.“
