As a child growing up in California, Kim McCourt scrambled up hills, cliffs and trees to see the land below.
“I had this need to see all those things I never even knew were there,” he says.
But when his family moved to the flatlands of Florida, he had to find a new way to see the world. In 1998, he took his first flight in a hot air balloon.
“I learned that ballooning is, well, kind of magical,” says Kim, a licensed hot air balloon pilot in the Orlando region. “There’s the exploration part of it, and you’ve got Mother Nature all around you.”
These days, Kim often travels the skies with tourists who want to experience a ride they can’t find at the area’s theme parks. For many, it’s a way to fly without being contained in the metal tube of an airplane.
“In the balloon, you can see so much more, and you can actually feel everything,” Kim says. “You can breathe the air.”
There’s a spiritual component, too, says Mark West, vice president of the Balloon Federation of America. Mark, a former Navy pilot, also served as president and chief engineer of Aerostar International, once the country’s largest hot air balloon manufacturer.
“Ballooning has an incredible amount of magic to it,” Mark says. “Virtually everyone who sees one is enamored with it. I suppose they’re kind of representative of breaking free of the bonds of Earth and floating away.”
Ballooning 101
The use of hot air balloons started in the late 1700s, when two French brothers—Joseph Michel and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier—realized that capturing smoke in a bag would cause the bag to rise. After experimenting with larger and larger bags, they knew they were on to something. Humankind, they thought, might finally fly.
By November 1783, King Louis XVI of France allowed the first manned hot air balloon flight to take off from the Gardens of Versailles. Over the next months and years, hydrogen and helium balloons were invented, and newer technologies kept the new mode of travel going.
In 1960, Aerostar International’s parent company, Raven, developed an onboard heating system that gave pilots a way to control and sustain the flight.
“That was the beginning of what we know today as hot air ballooning,” Mark says.
It can take years of practice to master navigating a craft that floats on air, Kim says. It’s both an art and a science. Among other things, pilots need to understand weather patterns, physics and the mechanics of the balloon itself. Practice helps, too.
“To learn to fly a balloon, you’ve got to go out and hit the ground really hard lots of times, then learn how not to do that,” he says with a laugh. “Landing and navigation are the tough parts.”
Up and Away
In Florida, hot air balloon rides are popular for families celebrating a special occasion or tourists looking for a new experience. Some passengers want to make memories with their families, while others go to commemorate important events, like marriage proposals, bucket lists or spreading the ashes of loved ones into the sky.
“There are all kinds of stories,” Kim says. “The only things that stay the same are the sun coming up and people smiling.”
But as wide-open spaces dwindle, so do the balloon rides. Pilots simply don’t have enough space to land. Weather has also been a factor because unreliable winds can ground a pilot. Kim says he’s seen this firsthand.
“Over the last 15 years, the weather went from 275 days we could fly to probably 100 days,” he says.
He worries other factors could cause ballooning to take a hit, too.
“Fabric, wicker, propane, repairs and parts are way more expensive these days, so it takes more money to maintain them,” Kim says.
Hope Floats
Despite the challenges, Kim still grins like a kid after an early-morning flight.
“There’s nothing like it,” he says. “When we lift off and the sun starts to rise, we might rest at the top of a tree and stare clear down to the bottom of a pond. Then we’ll take off again and maybe rest right on top of the water where the mist is coming off the surface. It’s up and down, up and down—gently. One person said it was like flying in the hand of God while getting a brain massage.”
Mark says balloonists almost always try to describe the sensation of floating on—and with—the air. “One of my good friends said it was ‘having a destiny without a destination.’” Mark says. “I think it attracts people who want to enjoy the beauty of the Earth and want to experience that kind of freedom.”
To catch a ride with Kim McCourt, visit greaterorlandoballoonrides.com. For more information on hot air ballooning and the people who are passionate about it, visit the Balloon Federation of America’s Facebook page or find them at bfa.net.