Musings: A balloonist for aviation

The attractions to the oldest form of flight are numerous. There is the nature of the team effort; the idea that flight operations go beyond the pilot to the crew who help inflate, chase, and pack the aircraft away for the next adventure. There is the nature of directionless flight, where flight plans are literally thrown to the wind if the weather decides to spurn the forecast. There is the possibility of meeting new friends and interacting with interesting characters upon landing in yards and neighborhoods. There is also the economic feasibility of the sport, the simplicity of the mechanics, and the beauty of silence without the hum of an engine.   

These aspects appealed to our family and made ballooning our pastime. I started working for a hot-air balloon company in Vermont and earned my private pilot certificate in July 2015.

“This is the right time to get into ballooning,” I was told. “A lot of the pilots who got in during the 1970s and ’80s are aging out of the commercial ride business and you’ll make a killing.”

However, I didn’t have commercial aspirations, and became a pilot to share the sport with my family and for my own personal enjoyment. Rather than being encouraged, I found this statement disappointing.

That ballooning was on the decline became evident when I went to go for my practical examination. The lack of local designated pilot examiners in New England nearly had me driving to Florida to take my test. New England was once flush with DPEs, with three less than half an hour from my childhood home in Connecticut. However, by the time I was ready to take my test there was only one left, and even he was under threat of losing his designation because of lack of applicants. I passed my test exactly one week before he lost that ability.

Unlike fixed-wing pilots, balloonists can’t fly to the DPE, and they are far more restricted by the winds and time of day. I drove more than four hours to my examiner, leaving my Vermont home at 11:30 p.m. the night before so I could arrive in time to prepare for my sunrise flight. If the DPE I used hadn’t worked out, I would have had to pursue other options in New Jersey, Ohio, or even Florida, 1,200 miles away.

The issue goes beyond DPEs. Finding certificated hot air balloon repair stations has also become difficult. Since I got my certificate in 2015, three repair stations in New England and New York have closed.

And July 2016 will always be remembered among balloon circles for the tragedy in Lockhart, Texas, when 16 people were killed in a commercial hot air balloon flight. No matter where you may stand on the proposed legislation concerning medicals for commercial balloonists, crashes are never good for our sport. Those headlines will define ballooning for an untold number of people, discouraging them from experiencing lighter-than-air flight and cutting off interested student pilots.

Since 9/11, general aviation has gone into steady decline and the results have manifested across the industry. Flight schools are closing, and municipal airports are under threat from real estate developers, with lukewarm support from the state and federal governments. Meanwhile, forecasts of the impending commercial pilot shortage have changed to alarming reports.

Problems are coming in from all quadrants and in all this gloom and doom arises the saddest reality: The unique experience of flight is being lost on the next generation. I’m not talking about the thrill of jumping on an Airbus and flying to a destination, but the actual sensation of flying that can only be achieved by small personal aircraft. Gliders, single-engine airplanes— and, yes, hot air balloons.

You may ask: Why should hot air balloonists matter? Shouldn’t we be more concerned about the airplane pilots who prop up the indispensable, billion-dollar commercial airline business? The reality is that we in the aviation industry need to support one another in any shape and form. Who knows what flight experience will inspire a kid to pursue a dream of becoming a pilot? I like to think of ballooning as my entry point, but my destination in aviation is still to be determined. No matter where that journey takes me, I will always be an advocate for local airports and flight schools, the cradle of aviation. I want the industry to survive.

I decided to continue my flight lessons, and in the fall of 2016 I became a commercial hot air balloon pilot, which comes with the ability to teach and sign off on students. My goal is to bring new life into the sport and help the next generation of pilots become certified. Thankfully, the last balloon DPE in New England was able to get recertified, but if he ever feels he must retire, I will do what I have to do to fill that void and keep ballooning alive in the region.

These steps, as small as they are, are ones that I can make to try to protect and preserve ballooning. And I hope other pilots can adopt the same mindset, and—most important—work together, to keep general aviation alive for generations to come.

Jordan long is a Boston-based balloonist and writer.