| OCR Text |
Show Cdlosn Gran LauncEiod talflflOflniEnds iii M Mopsoon RiOo By ROSELYN KIRK LAGOON - Three people who launched a hot-air balloon from the Lagoon parking lot recently, planning on a free flight just for fun, ended up with more of a ride than they planned on. BALLOONIST Doug Misner, Mountain Home, Ida.; Lori Sanchez, 315 F. Street, Salt Lake City and Cynthia Mitchell, Las Vegas, Nev. chose the parking lot at Lagoon as a launching site on Friday morning last week. They ended up that same afternoon on the east side of the Wasatch Mountain range after a precarious landing eight miles south of . Morgan. Lori said the crew has the doubious distinction of being one of two balloon crews to cross the Wasatch Mountains. ONLY DOUG was an experienced balloonist of six years, holding a certified balloonist's license from the Federal Aeronautics Administration. Lori had been up in a balloon orfly once before and it was Cynthia's first flight. They chose the Lagoon parking lot as a good spot to launch and arrived there at 8:45 to prepare for the flight. With them was Stewart Roberts, Salt Lake City, the one-member chase crew. The duty of the chase crew is to follow the balloon from the ground, remain in contact con-tact and would arrive at the landing site at the time the heavy balloon descends. Those plans didn't work out as planned. THE FIRST process in launching the balloon was to remove the cover and fill the envelope, which the ballopn itself is called, with cold air. Lori said the blue and white balloon is about 80 feet tall and 45 feet in diameter when filled with air. After the envelope of the balloon was filled with air, the air was heated with a propane burner, causing the balloon to rise. The three waved in the gondola or basket goodbye to Stewart on the ground and took off. When they were about 2500 feet in the air, Lori felt in the pocket of her light jacket to discover that she had the keys of the chase vehicle in her pocket. Often the balloonist maintains two way radio contact with the chase person on the ground, but on this trip Stewart planned to maintain only visual contact. THE BALLOONIST is at the mercy of the winds and the air currents. As the three peop'le in the 250 pound gondola neared the mountain peaks just south of Francis Peak, there were no air currents and they were pulled into the canyon and were forced up over the mountain range at 1250 feet. The three had not been prepared for that high altitude and wore unly light jackets. It was cold at that high altitude, Lori said. As they crossed the peak and began to descend down Hardscrabble and Arthur Canyons on the other side of the mountain chain, the crew knew that the fuel was running low and they would have to descend more rapidly. Instead they kept hitting thermal drafts which kept forcing the balloon to rise. Doug took a more drastic measure and pulled loose the top of the balloon in what is called a rip-out. This causes the cold air to rush in and the balloon to drop rapidly. At the same time, Lori was instructed to turn off the fuel since sparks from the fuel could result in the balloon being set afire. AS THE balloon began to descend rapidly from about 300 feet, the crew noticed no-ticed that some people from the farming areas around Porterville were assembling on the ground to watch the balloon. The three in the gondola began to call out to those on the ground for help. They dropped a rope, shouting for bystanders to grab the rope and pull them to the ground. Marty Lee, 930 West Field Street, Morgan, Mor-gan, who was one of the witnesses on the ground, said at first he and his father-in-law, Fred Kippen, along with about 20 people who witnessed the descent of the balloon, did not realize the crew was in trouble. But when they heard the cries for help they ran for the rope. BY THE time the balloon hit the ground an ambulance and sheriff's deputies from Morgan County were on the scene. When the gondola hit the ground, the three passengers were dragged for about 50 feet before the balloon was firmly anchored. "We knew that whatever you do, you never attempt to get out of the gondola before it stops moving," Lori said. The three ended up with a few scratches, but outside of that were unhurt. When the air deflated from the envelope, the balloon stopped. Lori said the only damage to the equipment was the instrument panel which came loose when the balloon landed and hit the ground. THE BALLOON had landed on a sod farm near Porterville and the people who witnessed the landing crowded around the three asking if they were hurt. Mr. Kippen, Kip-pen, a farmer from Porterville helped to load the balloon and gondola in the truck and took the three-man crew back to Lagoon. In the meantime, the pick-up man had lost sight of the balloon and had called out a helicopter from Hill Air Force Base. The copter had gone up, but was not able to sight the balloon since it had already landed. The flight started about 9:45 in the morning and the three were returned tu Lagoon and the pickup vehicles about 12: 15, according to Lori. MR. LEE said that it wasn't until the occupants of the balloon began to yell that he and his father-in-law Mr. Kippen realized this was not a normal landing. "We watched them for quite awhile before Ihey came down," he said. The wind was blowing the balloon in a southeasterly direction, prior to the landing land-ing on the sod farm. Lori said although it was only her second flight, she plans to go up in the balloon again this week. "I'm a thrill seeker," she said. However, Lori says her sister Cynthia has vowed never to get near a balloon again. |
