October must be here — hot air balloons are filling the blue sky over Albuquerque.
Most people will take a minute or two to admire the colorful floating globes, but few stop long enough to consider how much work goes into every flight.
Every balloon has a pilot and a chase crew of about five to six people who eagerly wake up around 3 a.m. to fight off the cold in anticipation of this event.
Ken Tadolini, from Colorado, pilots the Outlaw balloon. Tadolini has been a professional balloonist for 21 years, but has made the trek to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta for 27 years. He said he got involved with ballooning because other sports didn’t hold his interest.
“It’s a unique sport,” Tadolini said. “Nothing else compares to it. It’s a unique feeling being in the balloon. I used to race cars to go real fast, but I fly balloons now and I want to go slow.”
Patsy Buchwald, Tadolini’s crew chief and longtime sweetheart, was an airline pilot for 30 years. Buchwald said she prefers ballooning to other forms of aviation because it involves a sense of family.
“When I owned an airplane or helicopter, I could go off and fly away by myself,” Buchwald said. “You can do that in ballooning, but it’s not real practical because how are you going to get back to your chase vehicle? It’s the social aspect.”
Tadolini said ballooning is also the safest form of aviation, considering the number of plane and helicopter crashes. Still, in the world of ballooning nothing is ever certain.
Tadolini said he oversees all preflight operations, such as tying safety knots on the balloon gondola and checking safety gauges.
“We’re called fair weather flyers,” he said. “We fly when the weather is predicted to be good.”
When landing his balloon, Tadolini is generally assisted by other pilots who have landed, and after performing a quick check of his balloon he rushes off to help other landing balloonists.
Ballooning is safer because of the supportive community: Every balloonist is willing to help another, Buchwald said.
“It’s like a really big family,” she said. “Tonight we might be mumbling and grumbling about this balloon or that balloon but when you are out here you always go help, without exception.”
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Despite the precautions, a lot can still go wrong while flying. Power lines become invisible in the rising sun, and winds can pick up without warning, making for a rough landing. Tadolini said these problems can be overcome if a pilot is cautious and willing to learn.
“I learn every day,” he said. “Every day that I inflate, every day that I fly, every day that I am watching the balloons go around, I am watching and learning what’s going on.”
The balloonist’s safety is also ensured by his chase crew. The crew unpacks, chases down, and repacks the balloon while helping the pilot in any way possible. Buchwald said that often, while she’s chasing Tadolini, she has no idea where he might be.
“I have more fun chasing,” she said. “It should be called hide and go seek.”
Chase crew members Bob and Trudy Logan have worked with Tadolini and Buchwald for two years now. They said they continue to chase despite the hard work.
“It’s fun you meet a lot of people,” Bob said. “We haven’t met a bad ballooner yet.”
Crew members said they also chase because of the feeling of community.
“It’s kind of like when I was young,” Trudy said, “Everybody gets together and has fun.”
Tadolini said that despite the joys of ballooning, the sport has a hard time attracting fresh fliers.
“The age of balloonists is getting older,” he said. “A few years ago the average age in the fiesta was 35. Last year and the year before I heard the age was 53. We fly and enjoy getting the media involved because it helps get our sport out there more to get some younger people into the field.”
Still, Buchwald said they try to get people involved with ballooning by inviting anyone to join the chase crew.
“A lot of us in the industry are working hard to get more people involved,” she said. “We only need one pilot but we need a lot of crew.”
