High-flying fun

David Holmes became involved in hot air ballooning in 1994 when a friend from Arkansas brought his balloon to the Show-Me Balloon Classic in Columbia. Holmes worked on his friend’s balloon crew during the classic and helped balloonists from Ohio and Texas the next year when Columbia hosted the national championships.

After the nationals, Holmes undertook the task of getting his pilot’s license and bought a balloon.

“Most of the balloonists around here, with the exception of one or two, got involved because of the nationals,” he said. “It’s a good way to develop friends.”

After a three-year run in Columbia, the nationals moved to Illinois in 1998. Other balloon competitions continued until the Show-Me State Games hosted the last major Columbia event in 2003.

Balloonists from around the country will converge on Columbia this August when the Columbia Balloon Corp. and the Heart of Missouri Balloon Club hosts a festival that will raise money for MU Children’s Hospital and Children’s Miracle Network. The Aug. 23-26 event will also serve as a pre-qualifier for the Balloon Federation of America’s 2008 National Hot Air Balloon Championships.

“We’re excited about bringing it back,” said Vicki Fogue, one of the event’s directors.

Gary Whitby, the president of the Heart of Missouri Balloon Club and the event’s other director, said about 35 balloonists are expected.

The August event has yet to be named, Whitby said, because a title sponsor has yet to commit. “We’ve had a lot of businesses show a great deal of interest,” he said. “Hopefully one of them will decide to jump on board.”

Before the competition, Whitby said some balloonists will inflate their balloons to give patients at Children’s Hospital an opportunity to see the crafts up close.

Competition flights are scheduled for 6:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Each of the competitive events is worth points that eventually determine whether a balloonist can attend the 2008 nationals in Waco, Texas.

Fogue said the competitions are more about accuracy than speed. For example, one of the events, called a “fly-in task,” deals with dropping a marker on a large X. Sometimes, Fogue said, there are two or three tasks in a row: Once the balloonists try to hit the first X, they might have to navigate to a second X several miles away and sometimes on to a third.

Another event, called a “pole grab,” requires pilots to grab a ring that’s placed atop a 20-foot pole. “It’s easy to talk about, but it’s not very easy to do,” Fogue said.

Sometimes in the afternoons, balloonists compete in a “hare and hound” contest. The “hare” balloon will launch, and five minutes later the “hound” balloons will inflate and launch, trying to follow the hare balloon. After a brief flight, the hare balloon will land and set out an X, and the hound balloons that have succeeded in following the hare balloon must then try to hit the target.

Balloonists will also inflate their tethered balloons in the evening for “balloon glows.”

“The flame illuminates the balloons, and they look like Chinese lanterns,” Whitby said.

The festival will be free and held at the Corporate Lake development on South Providence Road on land owned by Garry Lewis.

Both Whitby and Fogue expressed their desire to see the festival become a yearly event.

“We hope to put on a premier community event that will do some good right here in Central Missouri and help the kids that really need it,” Whitby said.

Holmes said he thinks hot air balloons are something that members of the community enjoy, and that will help make the festival a success.

“When you see the white streaks of an airplane flying up in the air, don’t you kind of wonder where it’s going?” he said. “It kind of gives you a thrill to think that on a blue-sky day, that’s an adventure.

“Balloons are like that,” he continued. “They’re colorful, they go gently through the air. I think everyone has a fantasy about it.”