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Flight of fancy: Celina Balloon Festival takes off this weekend
Photo courtesy of the Celina Chamber of Commerce - Miss Daisy, pictured, is one of nine hot air balloons that will be on display Friday and Saturday at the 2012 Celina Balloon Festival and Family Fun Day. The flower-shaped balloon weighs more than 1,000 pounds.
By Andrew Snyder, asnyder@starlocalnews.com
Good times will be on the rise this weekend at the 2012 Celina Balloon Festival and Family Fun Day. This year's rendition of the annual event will be held Friday and Saturday at Old Celina Park and is expected to draw around 30,000 people.
The two-day festival will feature live music, carnival rides and games, a classic car show and a variety of aerial exhibitions, including balloon and helicopter rides, a kite exposition, a radio-controlled airplane show, a skydiving display and an appearance by the “Rocketman,” jetpack pilot Dan Schlund.
The event will feature nine balloons, including the over 1,000-pound, flower-shaped Miss Daisy and the Golden High, which is owned and operated by the festival's balloon master, Richard Ret. In addition to flying through the air, the balloons will also take part in a balloon glow in which they are grounded and illuminated against the night sky for a warm visual effect.
“What we've done over the last two years, because balloons are temperamental, is say let's put other stuff up so if the balloons aren't able to go up, people won't be disappointed,” said David Whiteman, Celina Chamber of Commerce president.
Ret said that ideal conditions for a hot air balloon flight are winds less than six miles per hour at ground level and that weather reports early in the week showed winds could be testy Friday but should be better Saturday.
Hot air balloons burn propane to heat air and make it rise to fill the “envelope” or balloon portion of the assembly. It takes 65,000 cubic feet of air to lift 1,000 pounds of weight, and the burner must be fired at regular intervals to keep a balloon stable. Air is released through a parachute valve at the top of the balloon, which can fly anywhere between 1,000 and 13,000 feet, to make it descend. Vertical movement is just about all the balloon pilots can control, as they are at the mercy of the wind as far as the direction they move.
“A balloon is basically a seven-story building without a steering wheel or break pedal,” Ret said. “The best of calculations may not be accurate when you actually do a flight, because you're at the mercy of the wind and the wind may change.”
There are tricks an experienced weather pilot can use to determine how the wind is behaving, such as throwing a gum wrapper off the side of the balloon and watching how it behaves as it drifts downward, Ret said. Winds typically increase as a balloon ascends, though the speed of the wind affects a balloon mainly in takeoff and landing.
Each balloon flight lasts about an hour and makes use of a crew to help the pilot assemble the balloon for flight and follow it to assist with landing, help disassemble the balloon, load it back up, refuel it and help the passengers get back to where they started.
“You never have two flights that are the same,” Ret said. “Even if you take off from the same spot, because the wind varies.”
The festival begins at 4 p.m. Friday and reopens at 6 a.m. Saturday. For more information on the Celina Balloon Festival and a schedule of events, visit www.celinaballoonfestival.com.
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