Losing Ground

You can hear them before you can see them.

Standing there on a forested mountaintop, the hum of propane tanks grows more distinct until suddenly a rainbow fleet of hot air balloons passes overhead, pleasantly blinding in its vibrant color.

"They come from two miles out at a circumference," says Sarah Watkins of the Harrison Chamber of Commerce. "They come over the treetops and are right there."

Watkins helped facilitate the 20th annual Arkansas Hot Air Balloon Festival and State Championship that begins today in Harrison. Events tonight begin with the traditional Hare and Hound race, in which a single balloon takes off with a head start and flies for 45 minutes. The other balloons attempt to imitate its path, and once the hare drops a target (a huge X) on the ground, the hounds drop flagged dog bones as close to its center as possible.

"You have to follow his tracks," says balloonist Jim Bolte of Rogers, who's been doing this since the late 1970s and as a part of the Harrison festival for 10 years. "As [the hare] is flying along, he might rope into a valley or pop higher to out-track the balloons behind him."

Flying in a straight line after the hare won't necessarily get you there faster. In fact, it might make for a longer, roundabout path. It's important to mirror the hare, he says, because wind patterns and directions vary so much from spot to spot.

"It's like following somebody on a street map," Bolte says. "You go down one block, left for two and right for three. But the way the wind is, it's different at every block."

The game of close observation, imitation and dropping targets meet Bolte's one requirement for a hot air balloon festival: It's fun.

"If all we've got to do is [give balloon] rides ... or it's a big commercial event, we're not into that," Bolte says. "We only go to the fun ones."

This year, his team's festivals of choice include Harrison and Branson, Mo.

The Arkansas festival began in 1995 at the close of the Harrison air show, and the mountainous location attracts balloon pilots and audiences alike.

"We're centrally located, people come from all directions," Watkins says. "Pilots love the challenge of the terrain here, with the hills and mountains, and it makes for good viewing. The audience can get up on high points and see them from way off."

Bystanders and audiences can get generous views of the 20 hot air balloons racing from downtown Harrison, near the courthouse square and soccer complex, the First Baptist Church, Gaither Mountain overlook or the North Arkansas College campus.

If your idea of hot air balloon flights is a nice and easy, slow flight, Watkins says, you might be in for a surprise.

Saturday activities include a Key Grab event, in which all 20 balloons dip, dodge and weave in pursuit of a key at the top of a 20-foot-tall pole. The team which successfully lifts the key off the top of the pole (usually by way of the pilot leaning his body out over the side of the basket) wins $20,000. In past years, the prize was $10,000, but the treasure was upped in honor of the 20th anniversary.

"People are amazed by the colors, but I've heard a lot comment about the speed," Watkins says. "If weather conditions are good, they go rather fast. People are fascinated when the balloons start coming over the tree line to grab the key off the pole.

"It really is exciting."

It could be easy enough to assume, if you've never been up close to one, that the balloons are relatively simple, small scale operations. But that's far from the truth.

Bolte's balloon, for instance, is 20 feet in diameter, the average basket weighs from 300 to 500 pounds with propane in it, and it takes a crew of five people to set it up, get going and land safely. Balloonists must have a pilot's license.

"A pilot can't do it [all] by himself," Bolte says. "You need one to run the fan, two to hold the mouth of the balloon open for air, one on the top line to keep it from standing up too fast and the pilot [manning] the burner.

"You have to work in unison."

Though Bolte loves the Harrison festival for its races, he enjoys giving tethered rides, too. The trips take folks 1,000 and 2,000 feet into the air for an incredible experience.

"It's overwhelming. ... Your mind is so busy taking everything in ... and at the end of an hour, you think, 'It didn't seem like it.'"

NAN What's Up on 09/11/2015