May 16, 2025 • 36 mins
You’ve seen them floating gracefully across the sky—those dreamy hot air balloons that look like they belong in a storybook. A big puff of color, a little basket, and poof! You’re flying. Easy, right? Not so fast, Diva. Behind that peaceful ride is a whole world of serious science, sky-high strategy, and major skill.
This week, we’re pulling back the curtain with Damian from Get Loft Hot Air Balloons, and trust us—this is not your cousin’s DIY backyard balloon. “People think we build these in our garages and just go barnstorming for fun,” Damian laughs. But no ma’am. These balloons are real-deal aircraft, regulated by the FAA, professionally manufactured, and flown by trained, certified pilots who know their altitudes from their attitude.
From weather stalking a week before launch to choreographing the whole inflation-to-landing process like a Broadway show, ballooning is an art and a science. And steering? Let’s just say balloons don’t exactly come with a steering wheel. Instead, pilots ride the layers of wind at different altitudes, catching the currents like an airbending boss. (Ever heard of "boxing the field"? You will.)
Oh, and get this—Damian’s background? Skydiving. Yep, he made the leap from jumping out of planes to flying the thing people jump out of. Turns out, ballooning is a skydiver’s dream, but it also comes with some wild logistics. Like planning for sudden weight shifts when the jumpers go whoosh out of the basket. It's all about timing and precision.
And let’s not forget our favorite part: the post-flight champagne toast. It’s not just for the ‘Gram. This bubbly tradition started back in 18th-century France to keep angry farmers from stabbing balloons with pitchforks (true story). Nothing says “please don’t destroy my balloon” like a bottle of good wine.
So whether you're dreaming of your first balloon ride or just here for the fun facts, this episode will have you floating with fascination. These gentle giants are more than just eye candy—they're a full-on adventure in the sky.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hey guys, so welcome, welcome.
We have a special guest today,damian from Get Loft Hot Air
Balloons.
Welcome, damian, how are youdoing today?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I'm doing well, how are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Excellent, excellent.
Well, I just want to just jumpright into it.
How did you get into thisbusiness and what does it take
to become a balloon operator?
Like this is kind of stuff thatwe're not used to, but it seems
very cool, so we want you togive us the lowdown.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
That's a great question.
Most people think we buildthese aircraft in our garages
and we're just barnstorming.
People think we build theseaircraft in our garages and
we're just barnstorming.
There are manufacturers, thereis training involved, FAA
oversight and that kind of thing.
But to get involved you wouldtypically find a pilot in your
area and become a crew member.
It does take a team to set upand break down the aircraft and
(01:01):
to conduct the flight operation,so that's the perfect way to
start getting involved For me.
There was a factory locally inStatesville, North Carolina
called Firefly used to be calledthe Balloon Works and they make
the aircraft from basket fueltanks.
The envelope is what we callthe balloon portion of that.
(01:24):
All of that has oversightthrough the FAA.
There's material controls,material approval, engineering
and all that, Of course, yearsand years ago in the 60s, all
that was done when that companystarted by Tracy Barnes and now
that it's called Firefly, all ofthose continue and occasionally
(01:45):
they file for changes whenthere's new materials or updated
equipment and parts and thingslike that.
Or also discontinuation ofparts, like if materials aren't
made anymore and they have tomove to a different material,
then they do that.
So as a result, there were lotsof pilots in the area and my
(02:07):
father, when I was in highschool, actually bought one.
It was part of a Pantera'spizza chain and it was a logoed
balloon for the advertisement.
So he ended up with that andlearned how to fly them, and I
was a crew as a teenager yearsand years ago, of course, and
then about 11 years ago Idecided to try to learn how to
(02:30):
fly instead.
I started my early aviationcareer as a skydiver and didn't
want to have anything to do withflying aircraft, but leaving
them was the passion instead.
But we can't do that foreverand, of course, as you get older
, that takes a toll.
So you find something else todo to maintain your love of the
sky, and that's even though Istill jump, it's not as often,
(02:56):
so balloon flying is taking overmore and more.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
That seems like a cool transition.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, so what does the overall process look like of
a hot air, hot air balloonflight from like beginning to
end on your process.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, the process starts about a week before the
decision to fly.
So if somebody wants to book aflight and they've picked a
weekend starting sunday night,monday morning, possibly Monday
evening, I start looking at theweather.
That is like the number onething, of course, because it's
(03:33):
so sensitive to the wind,especially speeds, gusts.
There's also some FAA minimumflight requirements that we have
to adhere to as well, andthat's strictly because balloons
are flown with what's calledvisual flight rules and a lot of
aircraft are capable ofinstrument flight rules, which
(03:55):
means the pilots of thoseaircraft are not looking out
their windshield, they'rewatching their instruments,
which means they're never goingto see you All right.
So if you've ever heard of um,uh, what is it recently?
The helicopter that ran into theairplane near right up North Um
yeah they're supposed to bewhat's called an ADS B uh piece
(04:18):
of equipment in those aircraftthat tell each other where they
are so they can fly instrumentand avoid other aircraft.
The balloon doesn't have thatcapability so their instruments
aren't there for that.
So we are limited to what'scalled visual flight rules only
and we must maintain cloudclearances in certain airspaces.
We must avoid where it'sdedicated instrument flight only
(04:41):
.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, that's got to be trickier.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Right, for instance, over Charlotte Douglas
International Airport.
Most of that is what's calledClass B airspace and that's
dedicated instrument flightrules, so we're not allowed to
venture into that.
So we have to be careful aboutwind direction, wind speed.
So if I leave Monroe, northCarolina, and it's going south,
southwest the wind, and it'sgoing at a very fast rate, I may
(05:07):
end up in class B airspace, andso I have to watch that and
avoid it and plan accordingly,so that weather phenomenon has
to be paid attention to verystrictly, just just for those
small reasons.
Then there's some safetyinvolved too.
Balloons are gentle giants andthey harness the wind.
(05:27):
It can be very dangerous if nothandled appropriately.
So the team has to be educatedand it's up to the pilot to
educate the crew on what to doin certain events.
But it's also up to us to makethe go-no-go decision based on
that weather criteria.
That is, you shouldn't justeven bring it out of the van and
(05:51):
put it on the ground, let alonebreak it out and start to try
to inflate it if the windconditions aren't proper.
So you have to be very careful.
We respect it.
They're pretty, they'rebeautiful and it's very hard to
be unhappy around one, but thatcan very quickly go south if
you're not making good decisions.
And all of this training happenswhen you're a student learning
(06:12):
how to fly, and it also happenswhen you're a crew member,
because you start to learn.
The pilots go and no godecisions and everybody has
their own personal riskacceptance threshold and as you
get experience you can push thata little bit more.
But in my opinion it's just notthat wise.
(06:33):
You should probably be asconservative as possible.
You know, it is like I said,they're gentle giants and it is
possible to hurt someone anddestroy things with them, even
though they look like they can'tharm a thing.
They absolutely will.
So that process again, itstarts from, say, sunday evening
(06:55):
, monday morning, possiblyMonday, looking at the weather
trend that goes every day, twicea day, and we're looking for
accuracy in the general weatherreport.
The more accurate that is dayafter day, the more we can rely
on that being the case.
Around Thursday evening, fridaymorning, we start looking at
(07:18):
details and there's a lot ofweather tools that your local
news channel won't give you.
That'll tell you what the windsare going to be at about every
hundred feet, which is what weneed in order to have a
successful flight.
It'll also tell you what thecloud ceilings are going to be,
because we have to avoid that,whether or not it's going to be
(07:39):
a foggy morning and it may bepossible to fly in the afternoon
instead, so that whole processstarts at least a week before
Afterwards when it's time tomake the decision to actually
bring the balloon to the field.
We pick a time based on sunrisebecause, again, it's a visual
flight rules, we're not supposedto be flying at night, and we
(08:01):
brief the crew, brief thepassengers, on what the setup
process looks like, so they stayin a safe area away from the
setup process.
The inflation fan, which is atool that's used to pack the
envelope with air before it'sheated, is kind of a dangerous
tool.
You could consider it avertical lawnmower or a
(08:24):
horizontal lawnmower and ifyou're, if it breaks free, the
cage is supposed to keep allthat debris, fan bits and
whatever went through it awayfrom everybody, but that may not
always be the case.
So we have to make sure thatthey're sitting in a safe zone
so they don't accidentally bendover with their scarf and have
that get wrapped in the fan andtake them right, try to pull
(08:47):
them into it or have somethingelse fly through.
No smoking, of course.
We have to brief them on thatVaping is okay, but the spark of
the cigarette lighter aroundpropane systems is not a good
idea.
Fair enough.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It makes sense to me yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So we've got to brief the passengers on where safe
zones are and what to do andwhat not to do, and then the
crew gets their um instructions,um reminders and things like
that, and then we move on.
The rest of that process takesabout 20 minutes before the
balloon can be ready to launch,and then the passengers get
another briefing after enteringthe basket on what they're
(09:28):
allowed to touch and whatthey're not allowed to touch.
All right, because there's someoperations on controls, like
ropes and things like that, thatif you pull on certain ones it
can send you to the ground andpretty much kill everybody.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
So we have to make sure that keep your hands to
yourself.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yes, so, but there are certain places you can hold
on to.
And then there's a thirdbriefing after the flight for
the landing.
And the reason why we don't getthat ahead of time is because
people forget after about 45minutes what to do.
They're in such awe of theviews and the quiet, the
(10:08):
peacefulness and everything likethat that to expect them to
remember everything up frontisn't realistic.
So there's a third briefing weprep them for the landing, have
a small discussion before doingso, warn the crew we're making
an approach to land and then wedo our landing.
Then, about 20 or 30 minutesafter that, depending on how
(10:30):
long it takes the crew to showup we do the pack up and then we
head back to the start, geteverybody back to their vehicles
and do whatever champagne,toast and things like that.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
How do you control the balloon once it's up in the
air?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
So back to the weather, the weather reports.
I mentioned that we get themabout every 100 feet.
So in most aviation they giveit every 3,000 feet, so 3,000,
6,000, 9,000, and 12,000 andbeyond, depending on the
aircraft and where it's going tofly.
So for us we need every 100feet.
(11:10):
The balloon stands about 100feet tall as it is, so we need
every 100 feet, and every 100feet the wind direction can
change and if we remember thatforecast, then we can pick our
elevation, which may give us adirection to go In some rare
(11:30):
cases, considering the balloonfestivals like Albuquerque, new
Mexico not Mexico, but NewMexico they the festival there
in November, no October, excuseme, that one's in October and
there's a weather phenomenonthat exists, called boxing,
where there's a 180 degree windshear.
(11:51):
So at one altitude the winddirection is going 180 degrees
differently than it is at adifferent altitude.
So you can basically circle thefield by flying in the lower
elevation and going onedirection, going higher and
coming back the opposite way,then dropping back down to the
lower elevation and crossingagain and just continually
(12:14):
making this racetrack circle inthe sky until you're ready to
land.
So you can get that anywhere inthe country.
It doesn't exist all the time,but when you do, it's really
awesome to be able to fly overthe same piece of land over and
over and over again.
In the eastern mountains ofTennessee, in the valleys,
(12:35):
there's another festival thathappens in late October and we
get what's called a drainageeffect, where up high the wind
can be going away from the lakethat's nearby that park that we
use and in the valley the winddrains, coming back the other
direction.
So if you go up high you can go, let's say, west, and if you
(12:56):
drop below into the valley youcan take the drainage wind and
come back east and completelymake that circle over and over
again over the same piece ofland.
That's really cool.
This is what's typical and thisis why we have to have the
support vehicle and the crew tofollow along and meet you
(13:18):
wherever you land, becausetypically you're not going to
come back, but you can makesteerage left and right
depending on what that weatherforecast gave you and how many
degrees of separation thosewinds are giving you at the time
.
And that plans our flight.
So if we have the choice, wecan plan to pick a spot upwind.
(13:41):
So thinking of a river upstream, right, and you would follow
the water downstream where wefollow the wind downwind.
So we would pick a spot upwindbased on where we want to land
downwind.
So we start with the landing,reverse planet, pick a field
upwind and then that can give usall the safety we need to avoid
(14:04):
certain airspace and congestionover cities and towns and
things like that.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
But are you guys at any time in touch with each
other via walkie-talkie or cellphone, or you guys are just kind
of figuring it out as you'regetting closer to the point of
where you're going to land?
Speaker 1 (14:21):
we use both, so, okay , we have a walkie talkie so I
can communicate.
Um, the roadmap is.
I can see that from the air, soif it looks like the crew's
going someplace that theyshouldn't, I can tell them to
turn around and go back.
I can also tell them what thewinds are doing and what I plan
to do, and to stay put and notgo anywhere because I might be
(14:42):
coming back to them.
But there's also a tracking appwe use in the cell phone so I
can share my location and theycan track on their phones on a
map where my location is, tomake it a lot easier.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Okay, yeah, kind of like a life 360 or whatever.
They can just see where you arebut it's not as similar.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Oh, interesting, that was one of my questions that I
how you coordinated where youlanded, cause you said so many
factors when we were talkingabout before the pre-interview
determine, like, how thetrajectory you go.
I was always curious afterwardsthinking about it, like how you
, the two you know you're up inthe hot air balloon, you've got
(15:21):
your support vehicle, like yousaid, it's very, it seems to be
very visual.
And now we do have a little bitmore technology with the life
through 60 things tracking.
How was it before stuff likethat?
Like, I'm guessing thetechnology has progressed, so
how was that?
Speaker 1 (15:38):
A lot more a lot more speaking over the radio.
Um, and some of the olderpilots still use those
techniques.
Um, at festivals, if you happento be on the same frequency as
somebody else, you can hearanother pilot talking to the
crew and giving them roaddirections.
Um, I don't tend to do that.
I try to stay quiet and nottalk that much and let the
(15:59):
technology do the work.
I kind of need to focus onwhat's going on in the air and
not give direction to the crew.
So it's just, I'm a youngerpilot compared to most and I
just prefer to use the newertechniques rather than try to
split my focus and tell the crewwhat to do.
(16:22):
You know they're trained.
They should know how to driveand how to do that safely and
watch.
It takes two to do that,Somebody to watch the air and
somebody to watch the road, youknow, and I don't need to watch
the road when they're on it todo that for themselves.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
So so when you say you have a crew, what, what
would you say Like how manypeople?
But you said two in the in thesupport vehicle.
You're in the basket.
Is there anybody else in thebasket that's on your crew with
you.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
No, um, that would be passengers only, Okay, unless
we're doing a fun flight andthen we'll split the crew and
you know, kind of give them joyrides and stuff, okay.
But the crew is two at aminimum, just because of the
safety factor of driving.
But it does take more of a teamreally to set that up and
sometimes we'll use passengersfor simple tasks to help with
(17:12):
the setup.
You can do two people.
I've done it with one otherperson and myself and set the
whole aircraft up with just twoof us.
It's a little bit moredifficult to do it, but four is
preferred, okay.
So you really need three downat the basket one to operate the
fan and to protect the fan fromforeign objects and debris in
the field and from yourpassengers in case they want to
(17:34):
get close and take pictures anddo weird things and get their
scarf tangled in it, you know,or whatever there's a scarf
story somewhere along the way.
I'm picking up what you'reputting down yeah, so, and then
there's two people to hold it,the, what do we call the throat
or the skirt open so the fan canactually get the air inside.
And then there's someone at theother end, at the top of the
(17:57):
balloon, while it's horizontal,to handle what's called the
crown handling line to keep itstable during setup.
Okay, so that's preferred is tohave a crew of four to be able
to do that.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Nice, cool.
So how many trips would you saythat you do every year, like
what's your average number oftrips that you do every year?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Oh gosh, without looking at the logbook, let's
see, I just applied to afestival a couple of weeks ago
and I think that they wantedlike the number of hours that
you fly.
So typically a balloon flightwould be about an hour and I
think I told them in the last 12months that I did 20 to 25
(18:39):
hours over the last 12 months.
Nice.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
So about 25 flights or so.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Sweet.
So how many people usually fitin the?
Or, ideally, the number ofpeople you'd have in a basket?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Well, that varies from aircraft to aircraft.
Mine in particular will handlethree plus myself.
Mine in particular will handlethree plus myself.
That's about as comfortable oras tight as I like to make it,
you know, of course.
One, there's just a lot of room.
Two you've got a friend andthere's still plenty of room.
Three is about the max you canput five in it, you know, but
(19:18):
I'm not going to put fourpassengers in myself.
It just makes things morecomfortable.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Well, and does it go by weight too, so like if you've
got a big six foot five personversus, you know, a five foot
petite girl.
That's probably going to factorinto how many people can have
in that basket.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Yes, weight does matter.
Um for sure, the aircraft isalmost a thousand pounds.
Um, one of them will have, Iremember specifically being
about 850 pounds.
That is a smaller balloon thanthe one that's pictured in my
background right now.
So the lift power there is notas much right, it's measured in
(19:52):
cubic square feet.
That balloon in the backgroundis measured at 105,000 cubic
feet.
Picture a basketball being onecubic foot and 105,000
basketballs is supposed to fitinside that balloon.
The other one is 90, so 90,000basketballs inside.
Right, the lift power is alittle bit different there.
(20:12):
So, yes, we do have to payattention to weight.
So we're not only lifting theweight of the aircraft but we're
trying to overcome theatmospheric temperature in order
to do so.
And then you throw on another600 pounds of people,
considering that the average guyis about 200 pounds, all right.
So you have to be careful.
You can.
(20:33):
You do have to limit physicalcapability, as kind of a thing,
to the basket's not wheelchairaccessible, all right.
So that's sort of a problem,right?
Somebody who may have cerebralpalsy and it affects their legs.
They may not be able to climbin and out without having step
stools and things like that.
So we do have to kind ofconsider the athletic ability of
(20:57):
the passenger Landings.
We do pay attention to theweather, of course.
Again, that's the most criticalthing, but it can change while
in flight.
The landing may be a little bitmore brisk than just stepping
off the bottom stair of yourfront porch like we usually try
to make it.
So, uh, you have someone who'sa little more elderly and may
(21:22):
have a problem and for thelanding, and they break their
hip, you know.
So we do have to kind ofconsider who's flying with us,
their physical ability, um, forgetting in and out, taking the
landing, in case it changes, uh,to be a little bit more tough,
and things like that.
Also, walking out of a field Imean, not everything has road
(21:45):
access and we might have to walkout of some rough terrain too.
So that's another factor.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
So like don't wear my cute heels.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yeah, Clothing has everything to do with it.
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, Heels, you're going toaerate the farmer's lawn.
You know, wearing your six inch.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
That was a joke.
I don't wear big heels anymore,so okay.
So here's the thing we knowthat so much goes into it and we
know that it takes you so muchtime to learn to fly it and a
lot of preparation goes into it.
And the unit, the, aircraft.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
That still blows my mind.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I'm always picturing, yeah or I'm thinking like an
either an alien pod or or anaircraft, but so for me that
takes a hot minute to think ofan aircraft as a hot air balloon
, but it makes sense, itabsolutely does.
Um, so I think what everybodythe elephant in the room that
everybody's wanting to know ishow much does a trip cost on a
hot air balloon?
Speaker 1 (22:42):
so what I charge is five hundred dollars and that's
up to three passengers.
So if you have three people andyou want to split to 500, and
that's good, you know that'sactually way more affordable
than I thought you were gonnasay I agree, yeah right sure we
might be cleaning this trip yeahno, and it depends.
There are other companies thathave bigger balloons, bigger
(23:03):
baskets, more crew.
Sometimes they're paying theircrew.
It just depends on theirspecific business plan and
things like that.
So not just because that's whatI charge doesn't mean that's
what you're going to get.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
If you go to, say, iredell County, closer to
Statesville, where some of theother pilots are, and things
like that, um, but well, that'swhy we're gonna give all your
information at the end, becauseyou seem like a very good, very
good price point to start withand you had mentioned that you
also like to exit the vehicle oraircraft.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Sorry, um, so you work with skydivers, correct?
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yeah, quite frequently.
Actually, that's because I wasa skydiver before a hot air
balloon pilot.
And the minute that everybodyknew that I was training to do
this, that's the first thingthat they wanted me to do was to
fly them so they could jump outof it.
It's not skydivers are a uniquebreed, I'll say.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
We've met a little bit of slow-mo, so we know.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Just for the sake of pushing yourself out of what
most call a perfectly goodairplane.
That by itself already peoplethink you're crazy and all that.
All that stuff aside and therisk involved and all that.
They're just a unique bunch.
And it's one thing to jump outof a Cessna 182 like they used
(24:24):
to do in the 60s and early 80s,all the way through that point.
But now there's big aircraftwith tailgates that can hold 20,
30 people and they do biggerformations and they actually now
fly formation aircraft information so they can have even
more people in the air togetherand things like that.
(24:44):
But the specialty aircraftbecause it's so rare the
airplane is commonplace.
You can go to any what theycall drop zone that's United
States Parachute Associationmember.
Get your training, do a tandemjump where somebody else is
involved and you can pretty muchgo along for the ride and enjoy
yourself and get out of anairplane almost any good weather
(25:08):
weekend.
It's so commonplace anymore.
All right.
So what they look for arespecially aircraft the biplane
that has an open cockpit, thethe uh biplane that has an open
cockpit.
They want the hotter balloon.
They want weird lookingaircraft that you're just never
going to see again.
Helicopters.
Right, it was another one.
Um, so the minute they all knewthat I was getting trained to
(25:32):
do this, the first thing theywanted me to do was fly them all
.
And so, uh, I did, and Icontinue to do that to this day,
to a point now where that'smost of the flights I even do
anymore.
I used to half the year used tobe festivals on in other
passengers locally, and thenthat kind of changed because so
(25:55):
many skydivers were asking thatnow I mostly do that.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Interesting.
Well, so, like when you have to, when you have a regular
passenger, you probably are safeat a certain elevation.
With skydivers, do you have togo now at a higher elevation so
they can therefore jump out assafe elevation in order to land?
Or would you say it's the samewhether it's regular passengers
versus skydivers?
Speaker 1 (26:21):
No, they definitely need a higher altitude.
So most of the time when we flypassengers, we very rarely go
over a thousand feet.
If we need the steerage becausewe're trying to look for a
certain place to land, we may gohigher, but skydivers need the
altitude.
Time is your friend when you'rea meat missile toward the
(26:42):
planet, so you have to.
You have to be able to havetime yeah, well, that's
essentially what it is.
I mean, they're moving at about120 miles an hour at terminal
velocity after they've exited.
So, um, you know, with aballoon it starts dead and it's
very slow and it builds up speedas gravity takes over.
But they need that time.
(27:04):
They need the time for theequipment to work, they need
time to set up for their landing, they need time to make
decisions in case that firstparachute doesn't open very well
and they have to do what'scalled a cutaway, use the
reserve, the second one.
So time is your friend and wetry to target them to have
enough time to do it.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
So what elevation would you say skydivers have to
be at before they can exit theballoon?
Speaker 1 (27:28):
the aircraft.
At a minimum we try to go to3,000 feet.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
That's a lot more.
That is, opening directly offthe basket.
I mean right away they'reinitiating their parachute
opening and they can still havetime for a decision if the
parachute doesn't open properly.
But the target is 5,000 feet,because they like to enjoy the
(27:55):
jump and not just the parachuteride.
So we try to go a little bithigher, but the manipulation of
the aircraft sometimes takesthem a little lower.
So we start at five and becausewe have to allow for the loss
of weight when somebody leaves,we must start the balloon into a
descent.
And about the third person thatleaves they'll be out probably
(28:21):
around 4 000 feet instead offive.
But the first one to go istypically around, uh, 4 800 feet
or so so the newbie gets to gofirst.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
You get out you need the most time fun so I'm just
imagining, and I guess I can't.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
At first, when we first started talking about it,
I, when they jump out, I'massuming there's some shifting.
That's what I was thinking.
There would be some shifting inthe basket, but I didn't even
think about.
As the weight changes you're,you're also then having to
navigate the balloon.
Does the balloon automaticallywant to go up once the weight
starts to get lighter, or areyou controlling that so that it
(29:05):
continues to descend?
Speaker 1 (29:08):
We are controlling the loss of weight.
So one person at a time.
And if we did nothing, juststayed at what's called
equilibrium, and no, we're notascending and we're not
descending either.
And we lose 200 pounds, we'regoing to ascend.
That makes sense, right, andprobably at a semi rapid rate,
(29:32):
right.
It's not desirable.
It puts stresses on theenvelope that we don't like
that's additional wear and tear,all right.
Envelope that we don't like,that's additional wear and tear,
all right.
Which means the life of theenvelope doesn't last as long as
you want it to for the cost ittakes to even have one.
So we put it into an intentionaldescent to compensate for that
loss of weight.
So when the person does jump,we hope that the balloon comes
(29:56):
to equilibrium rather than goingto an ascension that we, that
we're not in control of so inthat scenario there would be no
tandem jumping off of a hot airballoon you, can you still, but
the descent rate must be higherright, because you're losing for
you're losing 400 450 poundsall at once.
(30:18):
So so, rather than having it.
Well, most people aren't goingto understand this because
they're not pilots.
But the descent rate goes infeet per second, all right.
So if I want to lose one sportsskydiver, which their rig is
about 30 pounds or so, they mayweigh 170 to 200 pounds
themselves.
So they're about 200 pounds,210 pounds total.
(30:41):
I can.
I really need the balloon to bein the descent at about 600
feet per minute.
So if you double that number,right, that kind of needs to be
at about 800 to 1000 feet perminute, right to lose a tandem
pair if that's have you donethat a tandem pair, because that
sounds really tricky.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, I have not.
Um, I was gonna be like it willbe it will be tricky.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Um, the parachute equipment is very large all
right it's.
It has to accommodate theweight of two people.
Um, there's some extra safetyfeatures and things on it.
Uh, that adds more weight andstuff like that.
So instead of having threepeople in the basket, I've
basically got a parachute andtwo people.
It's about the same weight.
(31:24):
It's about the parachute rig isalmost about the size of a
small child.
So it's, you know, it justtakes up room in the basket and
then for the tandem pair hookedup together, because the student
or the passenger on theparachute tandem has their own
harness.
That harness gets hooked up tothe parachute, what they call
instructor's harness, which isthe also the container.
(31:48):
It has both the reserve and themain parachute in it.
Um, for those two to leavetogether it's very tricky and
that basket doesn't have a door,so it isn't like they can just
open a door and walk off.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Right, yeah, that would be tricky, for sure.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Yeah, so it would take a little bit of extra
coordination there to be able todeal with that.
Well, don't worry.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Cheryl and I aren't like ready.
We're not asking you, we'rejust wondering the scenario.
Our alley is you mentionedsomething about a champagne
toast oh, yes, yeah, yeah,champagne, uh, all that.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
So that has a long, long history with it.
Um, but that's supposed to be,for we've had a great flight and
, uh, and we're just gonna havea good time in the in the
landing field afterwards.
And toast to such a greatweather day and the privilege of
being able to do this, andyou're back down on ground, so
let's toast to that starts inthe 1700s France with a couple
(32:59):
of guys called the Montgapierbrothers who thought that the
smoke from a fire was the powerand not the hot air.
What they did was built awooden frame with canvas.
They coated it in animal fat,which is basically wax, right To
seal it, stoked the smokiestfire they could make because
they thought the smoke was thepower, and sent that off into
(33:19):
the smokiest fire they couldmake because they thought the
smoke was the power, and sentthat off into the air anytime it
had landed someplace.
In 1700s france, of course,this is when the king took
orders from the pope, soeverything was very religious
then and they would pitchfork it, thinking it was the devil,
because what else would sendthat right, big smoky you know,
(33:40):
contraption, you know to landinto their fields or whatever.
So the king gets an idea andsays I want to showcase this in
my festival.
And they told him about theproblem.
Right, the, the research in, inengineering wasn't there,
because they have, they keephaving to repair, rebuild their,
their device.
So he says here's champagnewith my wax seal.
(34:04):
Give this to the farmers.
They will leave it alone,thinking it belongs to me.
And so now we have champagnetoast uh based on that, that
story.
Uh for a good, successfulflight that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I it, I'll take it.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
This is so this has been so interesting to learn
about.
Where can our listeners findout more information on where
you'll be, cause I know you hadmentioned some festivals
upcoming and if they wereinterested in a in a flight?
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Well, they can always message me on on Facebook
through the business page whichis get Loft Balloons, hot Air
Adventures of the Carolina.
So go in there, search for thatstuff.
It'll pop right up.
So Hot Air Adventures of theCarolinas or Hot Air Balloon
Adventures of the Carolinas, getLoft L-O-F-T.
Is the front part of thatbusiness name.
(34:56):
Is the front part of thatbusiness name.
I usually respond within 24hours, if not sooner, on those
messages, so that's the easiestway to find me there.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
And we'll put that in all of our links.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
We'll share the links to it.
Well, thank you so much, Damian,for joining us and giving this
has been such a very eye-openingyeah and learning experience,
because I've only ever seen, um,a hot air balloon, like at a
festival or a carnival of somesort where they just take you up
(35:32):
and down.
I had no idea, I think I whatyou had mentioned before.
We all think it's super easy toget People just order it on
Amazon and go up.
I had no idea the FAA wasinvolved, the licensing and all
that certifications that you get.
So this has been veryinteresting and exciting to
learn about.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
So thank you for coming and telling us that.
We appreciate you taking thetime out of your day to tell us
a little bit more about what youdo, or day to tell us a little
bit more about what you do, andwe'll definitely get the
information out.
If anybody is interested in ahot air balloon ride in the
Carolinas, local to us, thenreach out to Damien and we're
excited to have you here and wehope you guys have a good rest
(36:11):
of the day.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Yeah, thanks for having me, guys you.
Hey guys, so welcome, welcome.
We have a special guest today,damian from Get Loft Hot Air
Balloons.
Welcome, damian, how are youdoing today?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I'm doing well, how are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Excellent, excellent.
Well, I just want to just jumpright into it.
How did you get into thisbusiness and what does it take
to become a balloon operator?
Like this is kind of stuff thatwe're not used to, but it seems
very cool, so we want you togive us the lowdown.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
That's a great question.
Most people think we buildthese aircraft in our garages
and we're just barnstorming.
People think we build theseaircraft in our garages and
we're just barnstorming.
There are manufacturers, thereis training involved, FAA
oversight and that kind of thing.
But to get involved you wouldtypically find a pilot in your
area and become a crew member.
It does take a team to set upand break down the aircraft and
(01:01):
to conduct the flight operation,so that's the perfect way to
start getting involved For me.
There was a factory locally inStatesville, North Carolina
called Firefly used to be calledthe Balloon Works and they make
the aircraft from basket fueltanks.
The envelope is what we callthe balloon portion of that.
(01:24):
All of that has oversightthrough the FAA.
There's material controls,material approval, engineering
and all that, Of course, yearsand years ago in the 60s, all
that was done when that companystarted by Tracy Barnes and now
that it's called Firefly, all ofthose continue and occasionally
(01:45):
they file for changes whenthere's new materials or updated
equipment and parts and thingslike that.
Or also discontinuation ofparts, like if materials aren't
made anymore and they have tomove to a different material,
then they do that.
So as a result, there were lotsof pilots in the area and my
(02:07):
father, when I was in highschool, actually bought one.
It was part of a Pantera'spizza chain and it was a logoed
balloon for the advertisement.
So he ended up with that andlearned how to fly them, and I
was a crew as a teenager yearsand years ago, of course, and
then about 11 years ago Idecided to try to learn how to
(02:30):
fly instead.
I started my early aviationcareer as a skydiver and didn't
want to have anything to do withflying aircraft, but leaving
them was the passion instead.
But we can't do that foreverand, of course, as you get older
, that takes a toll.
So you find something else todo to maintain your love of the
sky, and that's even though Istill jump, it's not as often,
(02:56):
so balloon flying is taking overmore and more.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
That seems like a cool transition.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, so what does the overall process look like of
a hot air, hot air balloonflight from like beginning to
end on your process.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, the process starts about a week before the
decision to fly.
So if somebody wants to book aflight and they've picked a
weekend starting sunday night,monday morning, possibly Monday
evening, I start looking at theweather.
That is like the number onething, of course, because it's
(03:33):
so sensitive to the wind,especially speeds, gusts.
There's also some FAA minimumflight requirements that we have
to adhere to as well, andthat's strictly because balloons
are flown with what's calledvisual flight rules and a lot of
aircraft are capable ofinstrument flight rules, which
(03:55):
means the pilots of thoseaircraft are not looking out
their windshield, they'rewatching their instruments,
which means they're never goingto see you All right.
So if you've ever heard of um,uh, what is it recently?
The helicopter that ran into theairplane near right up North Um
yeah they're supposed to bewhat's called an ADS B uh piece
(04:18):
of equipment in those aircraftthat tell each other where they
are so they can fly instrumentand avoid other aircraft.
The balloon doesn't have thatcapability so their instruments
aren't there for that.
So we are limited to what'scalled visual flight rules only
and we must maintain cloudclearances in certain airspaces.
We must avoid where it'sdedicated instrument flight only
(04:41):
.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, that's got to be trickier.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Right, for instance, over Charlotte Douglas
International Airport.
Most of that is what's calledClass B airspace and that's
dedicated instrument flightrules, so we're not allowed to
venture into that.
So we have to be careful aboutwind direction, wind speed.
So if I leave Monroe, northCarolina, and it's going south,
southwest the wind, and it'sgoing at a very fast rate, I may
(05:07):
end up in class B airspace, andso I have to watch that and
avoid it and plan accordingly,so that weather phenomenon has
to be paid attention to verystrictly, just just for those
small reasons.
Then there's some safetyinvolved too.
Balloons are gentle giants andthey harness the wind.
(05:27):
It can be very dangerous if nothandled appropriately.
So the team has to be educatedand it's up to the pilot to
educate the crew on what to doin certain events.
But it's also up to us to makethe go-no-go decision based on
that weather criteria.
That is, you shouldn't justeven bring it out of the van and
(05:51):
put it on the ground, let alonebreak it out and start to try
to inflate it if the windconditions aren't proper.
So you have to be very careful.
We respect it.
They're pretty, they'rebeautiful and it's very hard to
be unhappy around one, but thatcan very quickly go south if
you're not making good decisions.
And all of this training happenswhen you're a student learning
(06:12):
how to fly, and it also happenswhen you're a crew member,
because you start to learn.
The pilots go and no godecisions and everybody has
their own personal riskacceptance threshold and as you
get experience you can push thata little bit more.
But in my opinion it's just notthat wise.
(06:33):
You should probably be asconservative as possible.
You know, it is like I said,they're gentle giants and it is
possible to hurt someone anddestroy things with them, even
though they look like they can'tharm a thing.
They absolutely will.
So that process again, itstarts from, say, sunday evening
(06:55):
, monday morning, possiblyMonday, looking at the weather
trend that goes every day, twicea day, and we're looking for
accuracy in the general weatherreport.
The more accurate that is dayafter day, the more we can rely
on that being the case.
Around Thursday evening, fridaymorning, we start looking at
(07:18):
details and there's a lot ofweather tools that your local
news channel won't give you.
That'll tell you what the windsare going to be at about every
hundred feet, which is what weneed in order to have a
successful flight.
It'll also tell you what thecloud ceilings are going to be,
because we have to avoid that,whether or not it's going to be
(07:39):
a foggy morning and it may bepossible to fly in the afternoon
instead, so that whole processstarts at least a week before
Afterwards when it's time tomake the decision to actually
bring the balloon to the field.
We pick a time based on sunrisebecause, again, it's a visual
flight rules, we're not supposedto be flying at night, and we
(08:01):
brief the crew, brief thepassengers, on what the setup
process looks like, so they stayin a safe area away from the
setup process.
The inflation fan, which is atool that's used to pack the
envelope with air before it'sheated, is kind of a dangerous
tool.
You could consider it avertical lawnmower or a
(08:24):
horizontal lawnmower and ifyou're, if it breaks free, the
cage is supposed to keep allthat debris, fan bits and
whatever went through it awayfrom everybody, but that may not
always be the case.
So we have to make sure thatthey're sitting in a safe zone
so they don't accidentally bendover with their scarf and have
that get wrapped in the fan andtake them right, try to pull
(08:47):
them into it or have somethingelse fly through.
No smoking, of course.
We have to brief them on thatVaping is okay, but the spark of
the cigarette lighter aroundpropane systems is not a good
idea.
Fair enough.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It makes sense to me yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So we've got to brief the passengers on where safe
zones are and what to do andwhat not to do, and then the
crew gets their um instructions,um reminders and things like
that, and then we move on.
The rest of that process takesabout 20 minutes before the
balloon can be ready to launch,and then the passengers get
another briefing after enteringthe basket on what they're
(09:28):
allowed to touch and whatthey're not allowed to touch.
All right, because there's someoperations on controls, like
ropes and things like that, thatif you pull on certain ones it
can send you to the ground andpretty much kill everybody.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
So we have to make sure that keep your hands to
yourself.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yes, so, but there are certain places you can hold
on to.
And then there's a thirdbriefing after the flight for
the landing.
And the reason why we don't getthat ahead of time is because
people forget after about 45minutes what to do.
They're in such awe of theviews and the quiet, the
(10:08):
peacefulness and everything likethat that to expect them to
remember everything up frontisn't realistic.
So there's a third briefing weprep them for the landing, have
a small discussion before doingso, warn the crew we're making
an approach to land and then wedo our landing.
Then, about 20 or 30 minutesafter that, depending on how
(10:30):
long it takes the crew to showup we do the pack up and then we
head back to the start, geteverybody back to their vehicles
and do whatever champagne,toast and things like that.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
How do you control the balloon once it's up in the
air?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
So back to the weather, the weather reports.
I mentioned that we get themabout every 100 feet.
So in most aviation they giveit every 3,000 feet, so 3,000,
6,000, 9,000, and 12,000 andbeyond, depending on the
aircraft and where it's going tofly.
So for us we need every 100feet.
(11:10):
The balloon stands about 100feet tall as it is, so we need
every 100 feet, and every 100feet the wind direction can
change and if we remember thatforecast, then we can pick our
elevation, which may give us adirection to go In some rare
(11:30):
cases, considering the balloonfestivals like Albuquerque, new
Mexico not Mexico, but NewMexico they the festival there
in November, no October, excuseme, that one's in October and
there's a weather phenomenonthat exists, called boxing,
where there's a 180 degree windshear.
(11:51):
So at one altitude the winddirection is going 180 degrees
differently than it is at adifferent altitude.
So you can basically circle thefield by flying in the lower
elevation and going onedirection, going higher and
coming back the opposite way,then dropping back down to the
lower elevation and crossingagain and just continually
(12:14):
making this racetrack circle inthe sky until you're ready to
land.
So you can get that anywhere inthe country.
It doesn't exist all the time,but when you do, it's really
awesome to be able to fly overthe same piece of land over and
over and over again.
In the eastern mountains ofTennessee, in the valleys,
(12:35):
there's another festival thathappens in late October and we
get what's called a drainageeffect, where up high the wind
can be going away from the lakethat's nearby that park that we
use and in the valley the winddrains, coming back the other
direction.
So if you go up high you can go, let's say, west, and if you
(12:56):
drop below into the valley youcan take the drainage wind and
come back east and completelymake that circle over and over
again over the same piece ofland.
That's really cool.
This is what's typical and thisis why we have to have the
support vehicle and the crew tofollow along and meet you
(13:18):
wherever you land, becausetypically you're not going to
come back, but you can makesteerage left and right
depending on what that weatherforecast gave you and how many
degrees of separation thosewinds are giving you at the time
.
And that plans our flight.
So if we have the choice, wecan plan to pick a spot upwind.
(13:41):
So thinking of a river upstream, right, and you would follow
the water downstream where wefollow the wind downwind.
So we would pick a spot upwindbased on where we want to land
downwind.
So we start with the landing,reverse planet, pick a field
upwind and then that can give usall the safety we need to avoid
(14:04):
certain airspace and congestionover cities and towns and
things like that.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
But are you guys at any time in touch with each
other via walkie-talkie or cellphone, or you guys are just kind
of figuring it out as you'regetting closer to the point of
where you're going to land?
Speaker 1 (14:21):
we use both, so, okay , we have a walkie talkie so I
can communicate.
Um, the roadmap is.
I can see that from the air, soif it looks like the crew's
going someplace that theyshouldn't, I can tell them to
turn around and go back.
I can also tell them what thewinds are doing and what I plan
to do, and to stay put and notgo anywhere because I might be
(14:42):
coming back to them.
But there's also a tracking appwe use in the cell phone so I
can share my location and theycan track on their phones on a
map where my location is, tomake it a lot easier.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Okay, yeah, kind of like a life 360 or whatever.
They can just see where you arebut it's not as similar.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Oh, interesting, that was one of my questions that I
how you coordinated where youlanded, cause you said so many
factors when we were talkingabout before the pre-interview
determine, like, how thetrajectory you go.
I was always curious afterwardsthinking about it, like how you
, the two you know you're up inthe hot air balloon, you've got
(15:21):
your support vehicle, like yousaid, it's very, it seems to be
very visual.
And now we do have a little bitmore technology with the life
through 60 things tracking.
How was it before stuff likethat?
Like, I'm guessing thetechnology has progressed, so
how was that?
Speaker 1 (15:38):
A lot more a lot more speaking over the radio.
Um, and some of the olderpilots still use those
techniques.
Um, at festivals, if you happento be on the same frequency as
somebody else, you can hearanother pilot talking to the
crew and giving them roaddirections.
Um, I don't tend to do that.
I try to stay quiet and nottalk that much and let the
(15:59):
technology do the work.
I kind of need to focus onwhat's going on in the air and
not give direction to the crew.
So it's just, I'm a youngerpilot compared to most and I
just prefer to use the newertechniques rather than try to
split my focus and tell the crewwhat to do.
(16:22):
You know they're trained.
They should know how to driveand how to do that safely and
watch.
It takes two to do that,Somebody to watch the air and
somebody to watch the road, youknow, and I don't need to watch
the road when they're on it todo that for themselves.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
So so when you say you have a crew, what, what
would you say Like how manypeople?
But you said two in the in thesupport vehicle.
You're in the basket.
Is there anybody else in thebasket that's on your crew with
you.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
No, um, that would be passengers only, Okay, unless
we're doing a fun flight andthen we'll split the crew and
you know, kind of give them joyrides and stuff, okay.
But the crew is two at aminimum, just because of the
safety factor of driving.
But it does take more of a teamreally to set that up and
sometimes we'll use passengersfor simple tasks to help with
(17:12):
the setup.
You can do two people.
I've done it with one otherperson and myself and set the
whole aircraft up with just twoof us.
It's a little bit moredifficult to do it, but four is
preferred, okay.
So you really need three downat the basket one to operate the
fan and to protect the fan fromforeign objects and debris in
the field and from yourpassengers in case they want to
(17:34):
get close and take pictures anddo weird things and get their
scarf tangled in it, you know,or whatever there's a scarf
story somewhere along the way.
I'm picking up what you'reputting down yeah, so, and then
there's two people to hold it,the, what do we call the throat
or the skirt open so the fan canactually get the air inside.
And then there's someone at theother end, at the top of the
(17:57):
balloon, while it's horizontal,to handle what's called the
crown handling line to keep itstable during setup.
Okay, so that's preferred is tohave a crew of four to be able
to do that.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Nice, cool.
So how many trips would you saythat you do every year, like
what's your average number oftrips that you do every year?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Oh gosh, without looking at the logbook, let's
see, I just applied to afestival a couple of weeks ago
and I think that they wantedlike the number of hours that
you fly.
So typically a balloon flightwould be about an hour and I
think I told them in the last 12months that I did 20 to 25
(18:39):
hours over the last 12 months.
Nice.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
So about 25 flights or so.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Sweet.
So how many people usually fitin the?
Or, ideally, the number ofpeople you'd have in a basket?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Well, that varies from aircraft to aircraft.
Mine in particular will handlethree plus myself.
Mine in particular will handlethree plus myself.
That's about as comfortable oras tight as I like to make it,
you know, of course.
One, there's just a lot of room.
Two you've got a friend andthere's still plenty of room.
Three is about the max you canput five in it, you know, but
(19:18):
I'm not going to put fourpassengers in myself.
It just makes things morecomfortable.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Well, and does it go by weight too, so like if you've
got a big six foot five personversus, you know, a five foot
petite girl.
That's probably going to factorinto how many people can have
in that basket.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Yes, weight does matter.
Um for sure, the aircraft isalmost a thousand pounds.
Um, one of them will have, Iremember specifically being
about 850 pounds.
That is a smaller balloon thanthe one that's pictured in my
background right now.
So the lift power there is notas much right, it's measured in
(19:52):
cubic square feet.
That balloon in the backgroundis measured at 105,000 cubic
feet.
Picture a basketball being onecubic foot and 105,000
basketballs is supposed to fitinside that balloon.
The other one is 90, so 90,000basketballs inside.
Right, the lift power is alittle bit different there.
(20:12):
So, yes, we do have to payattention to weight.
So we're not only lifting theweight of the aircraft but we're
trying to overcome theatmospheric temperature in order
to do so.
And then you throw on another600 pounds of people,
considering that the average guyis about 200 pounds, all right.
So you have to be careful.
You can.
(20:33):
You do have to limit physicalcapability, as kind of a thing,
to the basket's not wheelchairaccessible, all right.
So that's sort of a problem,right?
Somebody who may have cerebralpalsy and it affects their legs.
They may not be able to climbin and out without having step
stools and things like that.
So we do have to kind ofconsider the athletic ability of
(20:57):
the passenger Landings.
We do pay attention to theweather, of course.
Again, that's the most criticalthing, but it can change while
in flight.
The landing may be a little bitmore brisk than just stepping
off the bottom stair of yourfront porch like we usually try
to make it.
So, uh, you have someone who'sa little more elderly and may
(21:22):
have a problem and for thelanding, and they break their
hip, you know.
So we do have to kind ofconsider who's flying with us,
their physical ability, um, forgetting in and out, taking the
landing, in case it changes, uh,to be a little bit more tough,
and things like that.
Also, walking out of a field Imean, not everything has road
(21:45):
access and we might have to walkout of some rough terrain too.
So that's another factor.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
So like don't wear my cute heels.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yeah, Clothing has everything to do with it.
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, Heels, you're going toaerate the farmer's lawn.
You know, wearing your six inch.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
That was a joke.
I don't wear big heels anymore,so okay.
So here's the thing we knowthat so much goes into it and we
know that it takes you so muchtime to learn to fly it and a
lot of preparation goes into it.
And the unit, the, aircraft.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
That still blows my mind.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I'm always picturing, yeah or I'm thinking like an
either an alien pod or or anaircraft, but so for me that
takes a hot minute to think ofan aircraft as a hot air balloon
, but it makes sense, itabsolutely does.
Um, so I think what everybodythe elephant in the room that
everybody's wanting to know ishow much does a trip cost on a
hot air balloon?
Speaker 1 (22:42):
so what I charge is five hundred dollars and that's
up to three passengers.
So if you have three people andyou want to split to 500, and
that's good, you know that'sactually way more affordable
than I thought you were gonnasay I agree, yeah right sure we
might be cleaning this trip yeahno, and it depends.
There are other companies thathave bigger balloons, bigger
(23:03):
baskets, more crew.
Sometimes they're paying theircrew.
It just depends on theirspecific business plan and
things like that.
So not just because that's whatI charge doesn't mean that's
what you're going to get.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
If you go to, say, iredell County, closer to
Statesville, where some of theother pilots are, and things
like that, um, but well, that'swhy we're gonna give all your
information at the end, becauseyou seem like a very good, very
good price point to start withand you had mentioned that you
also like to exit the vehicle oraircraft.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Sorry, um, so you work with skydivers, correct?
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yeah, quite frequently.
Actually, that's because I wasa skydiver before a hot air
balloon pilot.
And the minute that everybodyknew that I was training to do
this, that's the first thingthat they wanted me to do was to
fly them so they could jump outof it.
It's not skydivers are a uniquebreed, I'll say.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
We've met a little bit of slow-mo, so we know.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Just for the sake of pushing yourself out of what
most call a perfectly goodairplane.
That by itself already peoplethink you're crazy and all that.
All that stuff aside and therisk involved and all that.
They're just a unique bunch.
And it's one thing to jump outof a Cessna 182 like they used
(24:24):
to do in the 60s and early 80s,all the way through that point.
But now there's big aircraftwith tailgates that can hold 20,
30 people and they do biggerformations and they actually now
fly formation aircraft information so they can have even
more people in the air togetherand things like that.
(24:44):
But the specialty aircraftbecause it's so rare the
airplane is commonplace.
You can go to any what theycall drop zone that's United
States Parachute Associationmember.
Get your training, do a tandemjump where somebody else is
involved and you can pretty muchgo along for the ride and enjoy
yourself and get out of anairplane almost any good weather
(25:08):
weekend.
It's so commonplace anymore.
All right.
So what they look for arespecially aircraft the biplane
that has an open cockpit, thethe uh biplane that has an open
cockpit.
They want the hotter balloon.
They want weird lookingaircraft that you're just never
going to see again.
Helicopters.
Right, it was another one.
Um, so the minute they all knewthat I was getting trained to
(25:32):
do this, the first thing theywanted me to do was fly them all
.
And so, uh, I did, and Icontinue to do that to this day,
to a point now where that'smost of the flights I even do
anymore.
I used to half the year used tobe festivals on in other
passengers locally, and thenthat kind of changed because so
(25:55):
many skydivers were asking thatnow I mostly do that.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Interesting.
Well, so, like when you have to, when you have a regular
passenger, you probably are safeat a certain elevation.
With skydivers, do you have togo now at a higher elevation so
they can therefore jump out assafe elevation in order to land?
Or would you say it's the samewhether it's regular passengers
versus skydivers?
Speaker 1 (26:21):
No, they definitely need a higher altitude.
So most of the time when we flypassengers, we very rarely go
over a thousand feet.
If we need the steerage becausewe're trying to look for a
certain place to land, we may gohigher, but skydivers need the
altitude.
Time is your friend when you'rea meat missile toward the
(26:42):
planet, so you have to.
You have to be able to havetime yeah, well, that's
essentially what it is.
I mean, they're moving at about120 miles an hour at terminal
velocity after they've exited.
So, um, you know, with aballoon it starts dead and it's
very slow and it builds up speedas gravity takes over.
But they need that time.
(27:04):
They need the time for theequipment to work, they need
time to set up for their landing, they need time to make
decisions in case that firstparachute doesn't open very well
and they have to do what'scalled a cutaway, use the
reserve, the second one.
So time is your friend and wetry to target them to have
enough time to do it.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
So what elevation would you say skydivers have to
be at before they can exit theballoon?
Speaker 1 (27:28):
the aircraft.
At a minimum we try to go to3,000 feet.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
That's a lot more.
That is, opening directly offthe basket.
I mean right away they'reinitiating their parachute
opening and they can still havetime for a decision if the
parachute doesn't open properly.
But the target is 5,000 feet,because they like to enjoy the
(27:55):
jump and not just the parachuteride.
So we try to go a little bithigher, but the manipulation of
the aircraft sometimes takesthem a little lower.
So we start at five and becausewe have to allow for the loss
of weight when somebody leaves,we must start the balloon into a
descent.
And about the third person thatleaves they'll be out probably
(28:21):
around 4 000 feet instead offive.
But the first one to go istypically around, uh, 4 800 feet
or so so the newbie gets to gofirst.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
You get out you need the most time fun so I'm just
imagining, and I guess I can't.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
At first, when we first started talking about it,
I, when they jump out, I'massuming there's some shifting.
That's what I was thinking.
There would be some shifting inthe basket, but I didn't even
think about.
As the weight changes you're,you're also then having to
navigate the balloon.
Does the balloon automaticallywant to go up once the weight
starts to get lighter, or areyou controlling that so that it
(29:05):
continues to descend?
Speaker 1 (29:08):
We are controlling the loss of weight.
So one person at a time.
And if we did nothing, juststayed at what's called
equilibrium, and no, we're notascending and we're not
descending either.
And we lose 200 pounds, we'regoing to ascend.
That makes sense, right, andprobably at a semi rapid rate,
(29:32):
right.
It's not desirable.
It puts stresses on theenvelope that we don't like
that's additional wear and tear,all right.
Envelope that we don't like,that's additional wear and tear,
all right.
Which means the life of theenvelope doesn't last as long as
you want it to for the cost ittakes to even have one.
So we put it into an intentionaldescent to compensate for that
loss of weight.
So when the person does jump,we hope that the balloon comes
(29:56):
to equilibrium rather than goingto an ascension that we, that
we're not in control of so inthat scenario there would be no
tandem jumping off of a hot airballoon you, can you still, but
the descent rate must be higherright, because you're losing for
you're losing 400 450 poundsall at once.
(30:18):
So so, rather than having it.
Well, most people aren't goingto understand this because
they're not pilots.
But the descent rate goes infeet per second, all right.
So if I want to lose one sportsskydiver, which their rig is
about 30 pounds or so, they mayweigh 170 to 200 pounds
themselves.
So they're about 200 pounds,210 pounds total.
(30:41):
I can.
I really need the balloon to bein the descent at about 600
feet per minute.
So if you double that number,right, that kind of needs to be
at about 800 to 1000 feet perminute, right to lose a tandem
pair if that's have you donethat a tandem pair, because that
sounds really tricky.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, I have not.
Um, I was gonna be like it willbe it will be tricky.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Um, the parachute equipment is very large all
right it's.
It has to accommodate theweight of two people.
Um, there's some extra safetyfeatures and things on it.
Uh, that adds more weight andstuff like that.
So instead of having threepeople in the basket, I've
basically got a parachute andtwo people.
It's about the same weight.
(31:24):
It's about the parachute rig isalmost about the size of a
small child.
So it's, you know, it justtakes up room in the basket and
then for the tandem pair hookedup together, because the student
or the passenger on theparachute tandem has their own
harness.
That harness gets hooked up tothe parachute, what they call
instructor's harness, which isthe also the container.
(31:48):
It has both the reserve and themain parachute in it.
Um, for those two to leavetogether it's very tricky and
that basket doesn't have a door,so it isn't like they can just
open a door and walk off.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Right, yeah, that would be tricky, for sure.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Yeah, so it would take a little bit of extra
coordination there to be able todeal with that.
Well, don't worry.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Cheryl and I aren't like ready.
We're not asking you, we'rejust wondering the scenario.
Our alley is you mentionedsomething about a champagne
toast oh, yes, yeah, yeah,champagne, uh, all that.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
So that has a long, long history with it.
Um, but that's supposed to be,for we've had a great flight and
, uh, and we're just gonna havea good time in the in the
landing field afterwards.
And toast to such a greatweather day and the privilege of
being able to do this, andyou're back down on ground, so
let's toast to that starts inthe 1700s France with a couple
(32:59):
of guys called the Montgapierbrothers who thought that the
smoke from a fire was the powerand not the hot air.
What they did was built awooden frame with canvas.
They coated it in animal fat,which is basically wax, right To
seal it, stoked the smokiestfire they could make because
they thought the smoke was thepower, and sent that off into
(33:19):
the smokiest fire they couldmake because they thought the
smoke was the power, and sentthat off into the air anytime it
had landed someplace.
In 1700s france, of course,this is when the king took
orders from the pope, soeverything was very religious
then and they would pitchfork it, thinking it was the devil,
because what else would sendthat right, big smoky you know,
(33:40):
contraption, you know to landinto their fields or whatever.
So the king gets an idea andsays I want to showcase this in
my festival.
And they told him about theproblem.
Right, the, the research in, inengineering wasn't there,
because they have, they keephaving to repair, rebuild their,
their device.
So he says here's champagnewith my wax seal.
(34:04):
Give this to the farmers.
They will leave it alone,thinking it belongs to me.
And so now we have champagnetoast uh based on that, that
story.
Uh for a good, successfulflight that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I it, I'll take it.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
This is so this has been so interesting to learn
about.
Where can our listeners findout more information on where
you'll be, cause I know you hadmentioned some festivals
upcoming and if they wereinterested in a in a flight?
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Well, they can always message me on on Facebook
through the business page whichis get Loft Balloons, hot Air
Adventures of the Carolina.
So go in there, search for thatstuff.
It'll pop right up.
So Hot Air Adventures of theCarolinas or Hot Air Balloon
Adventures of the Carolinas, getLoft L-O-F-T.
Is the front part of thatbusiness name.
(34:56):
Is the front part of thatbusiness name.
I usually respond within 24hours, if not sooner, on those
messages, so that's the easiestway to find me there.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
And we'll put that in all of our links.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
We'll share the links to it.
Well, thank you so much, Damian,for joining us and giving this
has been such a very eye-openingyeah and learning experience,
because I've only ever seen, um,a hot air balloon, like at a
festival or a carnival of somesort where they just take you up
(35:32):
and down.
I had no idea, I think I whatyou had mentioned before.
We all think it's super easy toget People just order it on
Amazon and go up.
I had no idea the FAA wasinvolved, the licensing and all
that certifications that you get.
So this has been veryinteresting and exciting to
learn about.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
So thank you for coming and telling us that.
We appreciate you taking thetime out of your day to tell us
a little bit more about what youdo, or day to tell us a little
bit more about what you do, andwe'll definitely get the
information out.
If anybody is interested in ahot air balloon ride in the
Carolinas, local to us, thenreach out to Damien and we're
excited to have you here and wehope you guys have a good rest
(36:11):
of the day.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Yeah, thanks for having me, guys you.
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