After last
year’s successful first event in a long time in High River, Alberta, a number
of balloonists will once again descend on the Southern Alberta town for a fun
and competitive event in late September.
This time, there are 22 balloons registered (with the possibility of a
23rd) for the Heritage Inn International Balloon Festival - a huge
increase over last year. With balloonists
coming from Belgium, Alaska, Colorado, Ontario and across the West, this event
is gathering momentum and this year is hosting the Western Canadian
Championships (to compete, pilots must be members of the Alberta Free Balloon
Society).
It is growing
on the strength of a few good reasons: the town welcomed balloonists with
opened arms last year even though it was in the early stages of recovering from
a devastating flood, the event was well organized and timely (pilots can head
to Albuquerque right afterwards – even though it’s 26 hours away, most crops
have been cut and the potential for wild thunderstorms and hail in the evening
is diminished permitting evening flights), and it is put on by a sharp and
experienced team who are dedicated to building an excellent event…hopefully for
the long term.
It is so
exciting that Jason Adams and three other Ontarians are bringing their
equipment across the country to be involved in addition to a few international
pilots. Adams will want retribution
after not being able to get off the ground in last year’s last flight. Still, he had qualified for the World
Championships and in Brazil improved greatly over the 2012 result in Battle
Creek. Last year’s winner and Canadian
champion, David Gleed, won’t be participating in High River this year meaning
that whoever wins will be a new winner at this event.
There are a
number of good candidates for that crown, including Adams, but also including
pilots from across the West. Young stars
Cliff Skocdopole and Brant Leatherdale proved they were in it to win it last
year while the familiar cast of previous Canadian champions including Dale
Ritchie, Del Michaud, Dale Lang, Marvin Schultz, Glenn Penner and Bill Whelan
can all find glory on September 28 if things go their way. In fact, with local conditions playing such a
huge factor, everyone has a shot at winning it all if they can figure out the
mystery weather and understand the loggers.
Last year,
one flight had winds heading from the Northeast to the Southwest, directly
towards the High River Airport. At
flight time, winds could be found to go in any direction, except the Southwest,
with Marvin Schultz winning one of the tasks simply by landing back where he
took off. Another flight saw winds
increase from almost nil to over 30 kts meaning that only three balloons flew
in the competition, yet the fiesta pilots enjoyed a safe, normal flight.
With the
Rocky Mountains in the background, this year’s Western Canadians at the
Heritage Inn International Balloon Festival should be another great showcase
for ballooning for fans of intense competition and pretty shapes and colours*
in the sky.
All of the
results can be found here : http://www.heritageinninternationalballoonfestival.com/news/results/
*Note –
colours takes a “u”, I swear!
