Morning balloon ride has uplifting result (10 June 2006)

BLOGGER'S NOTE: This is actually a column of my first ride in a hot-air balloon as part of a media event to promote the Festival on the Concho.

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By JOE RUIZ
jruiz@sastandardtimes.com or 659-8254

I have a small fear of heights.

Well, I had a small fear of heights. After Friday morning's Festival on the Concho media event and balloon trip, I no longer do.

Lucas Heartsill, a 28-year-old graduate of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio as well as Angelo State University, was my pilot for Friday morning's flight. Heartsill has worked with hot air ballooning for as long as he can remember and has had his pilot's license for the past 10 years.

The younger Heartsill got his start from his father, Joe, who piloted one of the other two balloons to fly Friday morning.

The San Angelo family members are part of the new Festival on the Concho, just as they were part of the now-defunct Fiesta del Concho years ago.

As I arrive at Fort Concho National Historic Landmark, one balloon already is in the process of inflating while the other two are minutes behind. I sign a liability waiver, and it takes only a few seconds for the crew to unwrap the ropes keeping us grounded before the balloon wants us to rise.

With enough fuel to last for three hours, the morning's wind would dictate just how far we would float.

The ascent is fairly quick, especially as Lucas adjusts the nozzle to shoot the propane-fueled flames into the balloon. I can feel the heat of the flame standing 15 feet away while the crew is inflating them, and I can feel the heat even more standing in the basket directly below.

It's not an uncomfortable heat, though. It just feels as though I've been tanning on an average San Angelo summer day.

Almost immediately, we're about 350 to 400 feet above the city, with people stopping their vehicles to wave at us. Throughout the trip, we'll be as high as 500 feet off the ground and as low as 1 foot before rising again.

Lucas tells me he enjoys riding close to the ground almost as much as he likes flying high.

About 25 minutes in, we briefly land to wait for the third balloon to catch up. In less than five minutes three people, including a San Angelo police officer, drive up to ask about the trip - and whether Lucas offers rides.

But the cost of liability insurance has kept the Heartsills from taking more people up.

As we begin our second ascent from terra firma, Lucas tells me of the competition involved in ballooning. Contestants have to land in certain spots, travel predetermined distances in a limited time or, as I soon find out, drop a marker on a target from the air.

In the other balloon, Joe is practicing for a competition next week in Wisconsin.

As the ground team parks on the side of a road, Joe drops white streamers with small sandbags at the end. Lucas hands one to me, and we both try to hit the center of the road.

I'm not sure if he let me win on purpose, but my drop lands a few feet closer to the center of the pavement than his does.

Throughout the trip, we keep our eyes open for prime landing spots. Preferably, Lucas said, the spots have as few power lines as possible, and he likes to land on fields that aren't plowed, as they get the balloon dirty.

From a distance, we spot a few places north of the city that are prime for landing. As we descend, Lucas uses a different nozzle to turn on the flames that keep us afloat.

''We try not to spook the livestock,'' Lucas says.

The horses and the goats seem to disagree.

At this point, we see a house with an open field and Glenn Knepp waving to us from his balcony.

The landing at 8381 Runion Road is slightly bumpy, but no worse than the jarring sensation when a plane touches down.

Knepp comes out to take pictures of the balloons he and his wife saw floating as he drove her to work minutes earlier.

''Three or four years ago, we used to see them all the time,'' Knepp said.

All in all, we floated about 12 miles from Fort Concho in about an hour and a half.

Even as I wrote my notes and interviewed Lucas, I could not have been more at ease. I can see why he and his family love this hobby.

I can also see why my previous fears had no problem floating off into the clouds.