SMOKING, BELCHING, FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON

That's what the farmers in France believed they saw in the sky during the Montgolfier brother's first ventures into hot air ballooning back in the late 1700's. You see, one day the brothers noticed ashes rising up into the air over a fire, so they applied the principle to making the first hot air balloon. The first balloons were made of fabric suspended over a fire pit, so they had a tendency to catch on fire. Therefore, the test flights usually carried animals instead of people.

When it came time for the first manned flight, a count by the name of Roziere volunteered. Remember.. this was WAY back in 1783, and nothing like this had ever been seen before. As Roziere floated over the French countryside, the soot from the fire pit fell on him, making him quite dirty. Then.. the balloon envelope started to catch on fire, so he had to land. When farmers first saw Roziere falling out of the air, they mistook the balloon for a SMOKING, BELCHING, FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON... with a FRENCHMAN IN HIS CLUTCHES!! Thinking they were saving the unfortunate soul captured by the SMOKING, BELCHING, FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON, the farmers raced toward the balloon, armed with scythes and pitchforks.

KILL THE DRAGON
KILL THE DRAGON

In order to prove he was NOT a SMOKING, BELCHING, FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON, Roziere quickly produced a bottle of champagne he had brought on the flight, announcing "Hey we have champagne! We are friends! Come- we will drink champagne together."
And to this day, it is a ballooning tradition to offer up The Balloonist's Prayer and a bottle of champagne at the end of a flight, complete with the story of the Montgolfier brothers and Count Roziere's first flight.

"May the winds welcome you with softness.
May the sun bless you with its warm hands.
May you fly so high and so well that God
joins you in laughter and sets you gently
back into the loving arms of Mother Earth."

I am fortunate enough to know a couple of pilots (friends of my parents), and got to go ballooning Sunday night. I absolutely LOVE it. LOVE IT. Enjoy the pictures!


A little blurry, but this special shape is a 120 foot tree, complete with three 30 foot tall parrots. The tallest balloon I've ever worked with was the Korbel Champagne bottle special shape balloon, which is 150 feet tall. Other special shapes I've seen include a high-top tennis shoe, a can of Pepsi, a helium balloon bouquet, Noah's Ark, two piggy banks, sports balls, bumble bees, a grocery cart, a cow, a yellow submarine- complete with The Beatles looking out of the peepholes, and countless others.


Our balloon is the "Hauser Concrete" balloon. It holds about 100 cubic feet of air, just a tad bit smaller than the tree balloon, believe it or not. See the yellow stair-step balloon to the left? We're all chasing that balloon. He's the "hare" balloon, and everyone else is a "hound". The hare balloon takes off first, and when he lands, the crew sets out a big target. The rest of the balloons try to fly in the same track and toss a bean bag into the center of the target. The pilot whose throw gets closest to the center, wins the race. I do not know who won Sunday night.



After the balloon lands, crew members (in this case, my Dad and I), hold the straps on top of the balloon nice and tight, so that the balloon will collapse as stretched out as possible. We're also holding on tight to prevent the envelope from rolling around on the ground. While we're holding the straps on the top, other crew members are bleeding the hot air out of the balloon- toward us- and yes, it's HOT.


Here's two other crew members bleeding the hot air out of the balloon, as I mentioned above.


After the hot air is bled, you pull the top of the balloon back towards the basket. Balloons are stored in giant canvas bags, with the top of the balloon going in first.


My parents, posing in front of the bagged balloon. As you can see, it's about 3 feet in diameter and about 3 1/2 feet tall- rather large and heavy. It took 5 adults to hoist it into the trailer.