Pilot inflating the balloon for a flight over Temecula, California.

Decades ago I worked for a hot air balloon pilot. A group of us would awake early on a Sunday morning, gather equipment, load a van and proceed to a launch site in Central Maryland. About every five times crewing, the pilot would take me up in the balloon. One of the flights I went on was flawless. We flew over the Maryland countryside and would change altitudes to catch air currents that occasionally changed our direction. Our pilot was a captain in the Army Reserve. His last name was Kirk and he named his hot air balloon fittingly, Enterprise. Captain Kirk hovered the balloon basket only inches above the ground at a residence where we hoped to land. He asked me to get out of the basket and take a bottle of champagne to the house of the property owner.

A glass of champagne helped to prove the inhabitants of a hot air balloon were not monsters.

It was early Sunday morning and after banging on the door, a sleepy gentleman answered. I pointed to the hot air balloon hovering over his yard and asked if we could have his permission to land. I then offered the bottle of champagne. His answer was yes and minutes later his whole family was outside to see us land and deflate the balloon. Why the bottle of champagne?

Hot air ballooning is a form of flight that some like to keep traditions. The beginnings of hot air ballooning is traced to France. Early flights filled the balloon with smoke. As the legend goes, upon landing it was not unusual to be attacked by peasants with rocks and pitch forks. After all the balloon did look like a fire breathing monster. To overcome the citizens’ fear, glasses of champagne were offered to the assembly of greeters. Monsters do not give you a glass of champagne. At our landing, we gave the entire bottle to the homeowner, not just a glass.

Another balloon spotted over vineyards in Temecula, California.

Captain Kirk also had a bottle of champagne to share with the crew. The crew chases the balloon on the ground. One member drives a van, another reads a map and gives directions and other members look out the windows. The balloon always traversed land where the roads did not go. So our navigator, often me, had to do the best we could with the roads we had. We were thanked after deflating and packing the balloon with a glass of champagne.

I like traditions. While crewing and flying with Captain Kirk, I always enjoyed offering the landowner a bottle of champagne. It always brought a smile to his face even though it was early on a Sunday morning.

In many wine regions, hot air balloon rides take you over vineyards. We flew over vineyards in the Temecula region of Southern California. There are hot air balloon rides over Champagne in Reims, France site of the sixth International Wine Tourism Conference on April 8th and 9th, 2015.

Cheers,
Terry