balloonWhen someone decides to take his or her first hot air balloon ride, Kevin Knapp of St. Louis, Mo., is happy to be the person creating a lifetime experience.

“I get to provide that magic people will tell their grandkids about,” said Knapp, a professional hot air balloon pilot for almost 20 years. Knapp was introduced to ballooning in 1989 when he met a pilot in the St. Louis area for a balloon festival. After assisting the chase crew for the weekend, the experience stuck with him. It wasn’t long before Knapp joined a St. Louis ballooning group, took the required courses, and earned his certificate in 1990. 

“If you get the opportunity, take it,” said Knapp about the freedom of learning to fly a hot air balloon. As a partner with Mayflower Transit, he travels on his own with a balloon and a chase vehicle, recruiting volunteers to assist at local events, inspiring them to do the same.

Even though hot air ballooning is such a small segment of the entire aviation community, Michigan balloon pilot Randy Coller reminds people to look at the faces of the younger generation who are in awe of the color, splendor, and size of balloons.

“What a great way to teach science and math concepts in an interesting and practical way,” he said.

balloonAt first, Coller didn’t think he would like ballooning because he was already a fixed-wing pilot. “Once I got out of the mindset that ballooning was not a transportation mode so much as a social activity, I began to be more accepting,” he said. Now, Coller is happy to say he has had the freedom to travel to France and Canada with the balloon, having “some wonderful experiences.”

Traveling to different places seems to be what balloon pilots enjoy the most.

“I’ve been to 32 countries,” said Phil Whittington, who worked as an operations/logistics manager for the largest commercial operator of balloons in Europe, Flying Pictures. “My job was to push 52 balloons around the world, and I got to go with them.”

Almost 60 years old, Whittington has been in the commercial balloon business for the last 17 years. He came to the United States from England in 1996 and formed The Montgolfier Balloon Gift Shoppe with another balloonist, Charlotte Kroepil.

“It’s 90 percent sport, and I do it for fun,” he said. “It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s tremendous.” —By Kathryn Opalewski

Photo Credits: Randy L. Coller and Kevin N. Knapp