| ALBUQUERQUE'S HIGH:
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| "Part of the thrill of ballooning
is not knowing where in the hell you're going," balloon enthusiast
Clayton L. Thomas of Brimfield, Mass. once told me. Sid Cutter,
an Albuquerque balloonist sure didn't know where he was heading
in 1972 when he organized a little balloon rally in a parking lot
to commemorate an anniversary of a local radio station. |
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 Today the International Balloon Fiesta (888-422-7277 aibf.org) attracts about 20 percent of all the balloons in the world. One thousand and nineteen balloons rose overhead in the year 2000 but in 2002 the Fiesta committee limited the attendance to 750. The mass ascents were still so spectacular in October 2002 one wonders what 1000 must have looked like. |
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At one time ballooning attracted eccentrics and I've gone up in the past with pilots who wore bowler hats, "Indian" headdresses or German World War I helmets (all donned to protect from the heat of the flames belching above) but now the sport has settled down and become almost serious. The pilots at the International Fiesta came from all walks of life and, for the 2002 meeting, from 41 states and 25 countries. |
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| There are about 9,000 licensed hot air balloonists
in the United States. Ten hours of flying lessons can cost up to $2,500
and a used balloon might set you back $4,000 to $25,000. The sport
is not all that expensive though one firing up beside us bears the
name Stairway To Poverty. |
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The balloons ready to ascend at Albuquerque, like boats all have names ranging from the enthusiastic, Sweet Escape, the hopeful, Heaven Bound, the cute, Flying Colors, the introspective, Midlife Crisis, and the obvious, the balloon I am in, Asses Aloft. "We got that name right!" grins pilot Gary Michalek from Lafayette, California, with whom I am sharing the small basket. Michalek finds his way to about a dozen balloon events a year. "The scenery varies though often it's the same balloons, the same faces. But Albuquerque is different. It builds its own momentum. And we come because we want to be part of it, the biggest balloon gathering in the world." |
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