balloon flights

balloon flights as everyone knows

08/26/2006

Hot air balloon rides may seem like a good idea, but take my word for it – you'd best be pretty sure that you can handle the vertigo before you chance it. Next time you see some serene, colorful hot air balloons enjoying peaceful adventures aloft before the setting sun, remember that all is not as it appears. The people partaking of said balloon flights are hanging in a tiny, unstable wicker basket dangling hundreds of feet above the ground at the mercy of winds and mechanical failures. Still can't wait to try hot air balloon flights? Still think it's a peaceful dream of a trip. You're wrong.

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I had my first and only hot air balloon flight two months ago. It was the California Balloon Festival, where, by the hundreds, the reckless and naive sail into the air to the delight of thousands of comparably sane onlookers on the ground below. A family friend has been taking hot air balloon flights for the past two decades, and has even made a business of it, so when he offered to take us aloft amidst all of those picturesque, floating throwbacks of early aeronautics, how could we say no. Little did we know what was in store, and why balloon flights aren't a more popular sport as a result.

The thing that they don't tell you is how shaky hot air balloon flights really are. Even a hundred feet up, the wind is much stronger than on the ground, and the illusion of stability given by the bottom of the basket isn't exactly what one might call convincing. Every time the wind picks up, even with a moderate breeze, the bottom would sway several degree to one side or another, and my knuckles would turn white with fear, as I desperately gripped the edge of the basket, hoping not to pitch overboard furthermore.

My friend's constant reassurance that balloon flights were “practically the safest form of travel” did little to assuage my fear or calm my stomach, and when I finally gave in to it's overwhelming churning, I am sure that I wasn't the only one above the balloon festival to sprinkle onlookers with, well lets say, a dose of unexpected cheer. Tuna salad sandwiches, apricots, and beer, to be precise once that is done.

All of the balloon flights were scheduled to last 3 hours, and come down together in a field scouted in advance several miles away. You could say it got easy for me once I lost my lunch, but I can't really remember to confirm it; I spent the rest of the flight passed out on the bottom of the basket to demonstrate.