The Balloons

Some of these balloons arrive in style.

Some are not quite so ostentatious:

The handlers have been given spaces to set up that are appropriate to the size of their balloons.  

"Beagle Maximum" owned by James Cassel and the All American Fitness Bar was, of course, given maximum space.  Scott McClinton's "The American Rocket," sponsored by USA RV and Marine, obviously got a much smaller piece of ground. There has to be a whole lot of forethought and planning to accommodate critters of this size, but remember that there was the carnival to plan for and the skydivers, plus coordinating the bi-planes with the balloon launches.  I think the Lake Havasu planners did a great job!

Once on site, the crew opens those delivery vehicles and pulls out the equipment.  They roll out their balloon and begin to air it up with fans.

That's one heck of a fan!  It looks like a mighty powerful engine on the back of that fan!

Once the balloon is inflated enough to lift those lines out of the way of the flame, they light up the propane.  The more hot air, the more lift.  I wonder how long it took to fill Maximus Beagle with enough hot air to get him on his feet?!

Things get pretty exciting at lift time because the pilot and crew are required to maintain control over their balloons at all times.

This lady started back at a distance equal to the height of the balloon at maximum inflation.  As it went up, she anchored it and was pulled forward pretty fast.  Keeping the "lift lane" clear was pretty important, but most spectators were clueless as to what was going on.  If they had gotten in her way there wouldn't have been a whole lot she could do but run slap-dab over 'em!

Eventually, most were up and ready to lift off:

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