Hot-air balloons will take to skies for annual Ogden Valley festival

Hot-air balloons, about the size of a small house, will start to make their first flights on Friday over the meadows, pastures and scattered homes around Eden and Huntsville for the 12th annual Ogden Valley Balloon Festival.

The event will run through Sunday.

Ballooning involves lifting off and flying over a target, using only existing winds and a pilot's expertise.

Pilots control vertical elevations by creating more or less heat from the propane burners. Horizontal movement is controlled by finding prevailing winds.

One pilot last year explained: "I had to go up about 800 feet to get a wind going north. I dropped a little and it was flowing a little west, then I dropped down a little more and finished going back to the east. That's what you do."

There is no set pattern to a flight. Every one is different, which is part of the attraction. The only certainty is that hot air rises, and when it's trapped in a balloon, the balloon rises. Conversely, when the air cools, the balloon drops. There is always the reassuring fact that an inflated balloon, at its very fastest, falls at about the same rate as a parachute.

Last year more than 30 balloonists flew in this event. Pilots said they come to this event each year because they like to fly in different places, and especially in and around upper Ogden Valley.

Consensus is that it is one of the easier vallies to fly, but it can be technical at times, which creates flying conditions pilots like.

And it is, as one pilot said last year, "One of the prettiest places" to fly.

Festival activities officially open at noon on Friday, with several scheduled activities in the Huntsville Town Park. At 6 p.m., the first of several scheduled bands will perform.

As soon as the skies begin to darken, balloons will launch for an evening flight, which has become popular because the glow from the burners illuminates the pocket of the balloon.

There will also be an evening flight on Saturday.

Competition will begin Saturday and Sunday mornings with an early liftoff. All launches are, of course, weather controlled.