From Deseret News archives:
Antelope Island hot air balloon event lifts off
The very slightest of breezes can carry a hot air balloon a couple miles, allowing for a 360-degree panoramic view of Antelope Island, the Great Salt Lake and other balloons.
It's not something one can just up and do because special permission is needed before one can launch a hot-air balloon on the island.
So when the Davis Chamber of Commerce scheduled the second annual Antelope Island Balloon Stampede for this weekend, it's no mystery, then, why a couple dozen balloonists showed up Friday morning to fly their balloons for members of the media and Stampede sponsors.
"It's unique," says Colin Graham who at 24 has been a pilot for 10 years is likely the youngest pilot at the Stampede. "There's no other event I'm aware of on an island anywhere."
Graham, who lives in Virginia, has been attending ballooning events in the West over the past few weeks and came to Antelope Island for a new experience and had two successful flights.
State Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, has had a pilot's license since the early 1980s and has logged thousands of hours in the air.
Because of his hobby he and fellow pilot Jeff Alexander have heard all the jokes about politicians and hot air.
"But we're the only ones who can take that hot air and do anything constructive with it," he jokes.
The Stampede runs today from 5 p.m. until dark, all day Saturday and ends Sunday with balloons taking flight at various times over Davis County's most famous landmark, the 27-mile-long Antelope Island.
Early Friday morning, weather conditions weren't ideal, with an east wind blowing toward the lake at lower levels and a northwest wind blowing higher up. The first balloon to go aloft — after 7:30 a.m. — landed on the east side of the island. Most pilots opted to stay grounded until conditions improved.
But after 9 a.m., the wind had settled, and pilots and their crews began unpacking their 200-pound envelopes — balloons — from giant stuff sacks.
Bramble took a Desert Morning News reporter along for the ride.
First, he aimed a high-powered fan into the envelope to get it inflated, but to achieve a state of being lighter than air, the pilot fires jets of flame into the balloon.
The whole process takes just a few minutes if conditions are ideal, and once the balloon leaves the ground, cars and people become specks within a few minutes.
Then there's the quiet and serenity of being aloft, with the occasional outburst of flame as the pilot keeps the balloon from sinking.
After 20 or 30 minutes and a slow decent, you land with a bump and wonder how soon you can do it again.
