Where the Wind Blows

The chill is still in the gray predawn air when the process begins. Warmed by steaming cups of coffee, volunteers scurry through the mist-shrouded field, unrolling tarpaulins and unloading equipment. As sunrise paints the horizon, crumpled piles of Dacron slowly billow into swaying canopies of color and light. The sound of propane burners cuts the stillness, breathing life into the multicolored shapes rising from the mist.

One by one, the balloons are pulled upright, gloved pilots jockeying wicker baskets underneath massive delicate envelopes. The rough noise and flame of propane jets intensifies as pilots prepare for liftoff. Then, gentle and silent as a falling leaf, the balloons rise, setting off on unpredictable journeys governed less by will or design than by where the wind blows.

This is the world of hot air ballooning. It is a small and unique segment of general aviation where words like wing and engine have little relevance and the concept of spot landings takes on a whole new meaning. It requires more ground crew effort than soaring, needs near-perfect weather conditions, and has no practical purpose whatsoever. But that's OK. Ballooning isn't about practicality. Like art, music, or ballet, ballooning is about beauty.

To those floating silently above the earth on the early morning air, "to do" lists and career stresses seem far away and curiously unimportant. The world blurs gently into slow motion, bringing into sudden sharp focus details that usually pass unnoticed — the warmth of the sun, the orderly beauty of the fields below, the shifting shadows of clouds drifting by overhead.

Joyce Bowen got the ballooning bug more than 14 years ago. Today, she is the owner and chief pilot of the Bonaventura Balloon Company, flying customers daily over the lush vineyards of the Napa Valley wine country. "Ballooning is more like natural flying," she explains, "without being surrounded by noise and machinery." Piloting a hot air balloon is also as much art as science, more dependent on a pilot's senses than on any instruments. "It takes a while for the balloon to respond to any input, so you really have to be five steps ahead of it," Bowen acknowledges. "That takes having a lot of situational awareness and an innate feel for it that you just have to develop over time."

Those qualities are especially critical during landings, which are every bit as challenging in a balloon as any other kind of aircraft. With little navigational control, "you're always lining up backup options as you're coming down to treetop level," says Bowen. Balloon pilots learn tricks like dragging the basket against "soft" trees to help slow their forward motion, and good pilots can nail a landing on targets smaller than 10 square feet.

In fact, one of the more surprising things about hot air balloons is just how precisely they can be controlled. The Balloon Federation of America sanctions a variety of balloon "races" around the country each year, which might seem like something of an oxymoron. But a balloon race is a contest of precision, not speed, requiring pilots to maneuver their balloons to within a few inches or feet of a target.

One common type of race, for example, is called a "hare and hound," in which a lead balloon takes off first, lands, and designates a target. The other balloons follow and attempt to drop weighted markers as close to the center of that target as possible. In other contests, a set of keys is placed on top of a pole in the center of a field or lake. The balloons launch from a set distance away and try to get close enough for the pilot to grab the keys off the pole. Typically, one of the keys is to a new car, which provides some extra competitive incentive.

Navigating a balloon that accurately is no mean feat. In a recent hare-and-hound contest in Sonoma, California, Bowen placed second in a field of 50 entries, bringing her balloon Calypso right over the target only a few feet above the officials' heads. But from the moment she took off, she was working the air currents like a master race sailor, reading the wind, climbing and descending to tack back and forth across the wind currents to stay on course to the target. Trying to maneuver precisely through an ever-changing element that you can't control, or even see, requires intense concentration and, at five mph, the adrenaline inside a race basket is still high.

Even when they're not competing, balloon pilots have to learn to work with the elements — to sense and remember wind directions and currents at different altitudes and use the burner to navigate between those currents. "If you hit it right, you can get on a current and it's like getting on a freeway," Bowen says. Flying a balloon is actually more difficult on hot days, because a balloon's lift comes not from thermals, but from a temperature differential between the air inside and that outside the balloon envelope. The propane burners won't overheat, but it is possible to "redline" the balloon material itself, and the sole temperature gauge in the basket monitors the temperature at the top of the balloon.

Navigational control is always limited by the capriciousness of the wind, of course, which makes ballooning in the Napa Valley area a particular challenge. The Napa Valley wine country, just north of San Francisco and only a short drive or flight from AOPA Expo in San Jose, is the busiest area in the world for ballooning, and the dense concentration of wineries and the fragile ecosystem there mean that good landing sites are limited. Vineyard owners do not take kindly to having sections of patiently cultivated grapevines taken out by balloon pilots who misjudge their navigation or get behind the power curve.

Yet, for its challenges, the wine country also provides one of the most scenic and rewarding backdrops for hot air ballooning in the country, which is one of the reasons the area is so busy. Bowen finds herself acting as a tour guide as well as a pilot for her passengers, pointing out different vineyards, famous landmarks, and providing an historical perspective on the valley as they fly over it.

Passengers can typically arrange for a number of different ride packages, including a standard one-hour flight with the traditional champagne celebration at the end, flight/breakfast/picnic combinations, or private adventure or custom flights. Over the years, Bowen has found herself in on numerous surprise proposals of marriage and had enough requests for wedding ceremonies in her balloons that she finally was ordained as a minister. "I fly wonderful people," says Bowen. "For one thing, people don't come ballooning if they're feeling grumpy. But their excitement and energy is contagious, and that helps keep it fresh."

The ballooning experience itself also changes throughout the year in Napa, which helps to make each flight a new adventure. Every season offers something special, from the wild mustard flowers in the winter to the delicate new vine growth and green hills of spring, to the contrasting gold and green of high summer. But one of the best times of year, according to Bowen, is during the fall harvest. The air is thick with the heady scent of wine, the valley is a patchwork of brilliant autumn colors, and passengers can watch the entire winemaking process unfold beneath the balloon. Bowen likes to bring her balloons down low over the fields and talk with vineyard workers as they cut grapes off the vines or load them into crushers before taking her passengers back up a few hundred feet to get a broader perspective.

Indeed, part of the magic of ballooning is that it gives you Mary Poppins' ability not just to look at a painting, but to step into and out of it. From 500 feet, the vineyards are a beautiful and orderly pattern of green and brown, dotted with the small figures of field workers. But say the word and the balloon becomes a zoom lens, bringing a small section of the scene below into large-as-life focus right before your eyes. The orderly pattern becomes a collection of individual grape leaves on a single vine. The dot of white becomes the broad-brimmed hat of a worker who smiles and calls out "Buenos dias!" as you drift by a few feet above his head.

There is a price for this kind of experience, of course. Getting a private balloon rating requires only 10 hours of instruction, but it costs about the same as a private fixed-wing ticket. A commercial certificate requires 35 flight hours, which is a daunting number at rental rates of $200-plus an hour. Consequently, many commercial balloon pilots, Bowen included, began their careers by crewing for someone else's balloon in exchange for some less expensive flight time. Many commercial balloon ride companies were also started by pilots looking for a way to defray the cost of their flying.

With prices starting at around $165 per passenger, the balloon business might be capable of doing a lot more than that, but ballooning in this respect is apparently much like many other aspects of aviation — the best way to make a small fortune at it is to begin with a big one. Balloons themselves start at about $35,000, with sections that have to be replaced every 300 hours, and business is dependent upon not only the whims of the tourist trade, but also clear skies and calm winds.

To allow her ballooning business to survive, Bowen — who has a degree and teaching certificate in music in addition to her flying credentials — has had to hold down numerous other part-time jobs over the past 14 years. "Ballooning doesn't have a real high profit margin," she admits, "but it has a very high spiritual satisfaction margin. The people who are in ballooning, for the most part, are people who have decided that there's more to life than money."

Not all balloon pilots fly commercially, of course. Larry Houska has been ballooning for 20 years and considers the estimated $140 per hour operating cost of his balloon a worthwhile investment for the fun he derives from it. "I've got friends who've been crewing with me for years," he says, "so it's a great social thing, as well."

There are less expensive single-pilot balloon rigs that have a seat harness instead of a basket and propane burners that strap to the pilot's back; these balloons don't require a pilot's certificate to fly. But friends are important with any size balloon, because it is always a team sport. Every landing in a balloon is unpredictable and off- airport — providing a kind of labyrinthine challenge for the chase crew — and deflating a 105,000- cubic-inch balloon in any kind of breeze can be like wrestling a live animal.

Fortunately for balloon pilots, balloons tend to attract friends and volunteers like the Pied Piper of Hamlin. There may be fewer airport kids today willing to wash an airplane to get a ride, but most balloon pilots got their start by volunteering on someone else's ground crew, and eager crew members are never hard to find.

The almost magical lure that ballooning seems to have is not hard to understand for anyone who has ever flown in a balloon. Charles Lindbergh once said that the appeal of flying is that it is a perfect combination of science, romance, and adventure. This is certainly true of hot air ballooning, as well. But ballooning also offers a unique opportunity to stop a fast-paced world of goals and obligations long enough to remember what peace feels like. When one is sailing on a cushion of air, immersed in a 360-degree painting of color and light, the world stills. And the true magic of ballooning is that in the silence of that stillness, it is possible to hear the earth and sky.

Ballooning in the Wine Country

A popular tourist destination, the picturesque wine country just north of San Francisco is home to a number of commercial balloon companies that offer rides. Anyone who wants more information on hot air ballooning or would like to try it out for himself could start by contacting any of the following:

Napa Valley

Bonaventura Balloon Company, 133 Wall Road, Napa, California 94558; 707/944-2822.

Napa Valley Balloons, Inc., Post Office Box 2860, Yountville, California 94558; 707/944-0228.

American Balloon Adventures, Post Office Box 795, Calistoga, California 94515; 707/944-8117.

Above the West, Post Office Box 2290, Yountville, California 94599; 707/944-8638.

Adventures Aloft, At Vintage 1879, Yountville, California 94599; 707/944-4408.

Sonoma County

Once in a Lifetime, Post Office Box 1263, Windsor, California 95492; 707/578-0580.

Sonoma Thunder, Inc., 2508 Burnside Road, Sebastopol, California 95472; 707/538-7359. — LEW

Additional information on hot air ballooning can be obtained from The Balloon Federation of America, Post Office Box 400, Indianola, Iowa 50125; 515/961-8809.