Sandie Chapman
354travelMN-balloon
Ed Chapman’s balloon, “Fire and Frost,” will take part in the Duluth Balloon Festival in September.
It’s a thrill to watch a hot air balloon being inflated and launched – especially a park full of balloons.
An expanding balloon “is like a dragon coming to life,” says Ed Chapman of Jordan, Minnesota, a balloon pilot for 37 years.
It starts with a limp balloon on the ground. A fan is used to push cold air into the balloon to inflate it, then propane burners heat the air inside to get the balloon rising. The adjustable burners are used to control the flight.
Twin Ports residents and visitors will get to see many “dragons” come to life early this fall at the first-ever Duluth Balloon Festival, also called Le Festival des Montgolfières à Duluth. (Montgolfière is French for hot-air balloon. France is where a scientist launched the first such balloon on a 15-minute flight in 1783 with a sheep, a duck and a rooster as passengers, reports eballoon.org.
The free Duluth event will give spectators a rare chance for close encounters with the graceful giants at Bayfront Festival Park. Lake Superior Magazine is one of the sponsors.
Organizers plan to bring 11 balloons to Duluth, inflating them in the park, then pilots will fly them inland. Weather permitting, balloons will be on display 3 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, September 20. The most stable times to fly or tether balloons are two hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset. Plans are to have morning and evening flights on Saturday and a morning launch again on Sunday. Such flights might last an hour to 90 minutes.
Ed will bring his balloon “Fire and Frost,” decorated after the quilting pattern “Around the World” that his wife, Sandie, provided. The balloon, 85 feet high, 62 feet in diameter, holds 120,000 cubic feet of air.
Ed is more than just a pilot at the festival. As balloonmeister, he decides if it is safe to fly. In Duluth, flying balloons presents “serious geographical challenges, the most obvious, of course, is Lake Superior,” Ed notes. Key factors to consider are wind speed (should be less than 10 mph), fog (none) and low-cloud cover.
With the Lake, the big concern is shifting winds forcing balloons over the water. “We'll use helium balloons and some fairly sophisticated weather forecasting tools to give ourselves an edge …”
Spectators can learn about the balloons by chatting with pilots and seeing their equipment on display, says Ryan Kern, president of Kernz & Kompany, producer of the Duluth Airshow and the Duluth Balloon Festival. The launching of weather balloons is one of the planned educational activities.
Balloons do have a history here, though. They started showing up in the pages of the Duluth News Tribune in the 1890s. Early events often focused on parachute jumps from a balloon during holiday celebrations. Those turn-of-the-last-century events would have featured gas or smoke balloons, rather than the modern propane versions, according to Ed.
The balloon festival will bring the dragons back for public viewing and add high-flying autumn colors.
Duluth Balloon Festival, Sept. 20-22. Bayfront Festival Park. www.duluthballoonfestival.com, or www.balloonridesminnesota.com.