Up, up and away with local hot air balloonist
Denny Helmuth from Wooster has been flying his hot air balloon for more than 30 years, with over 500 flights.
One cold winter day, a hot air balloon descended from a clear sky into a layer of wispy clouds, and the pilot found himself awestruck.
For a few minutes, he was surrounded by thousands of diamonds sparkling in the sunbeams shining through the mist. When he emerged from the bottom of the cloud layer, light snow was falling, and he knew he’d just witnessed something few people have — the freezing and crystallizing of moisture, the birth of snowflakes.
That pilot who witnessed snowflakes forming was Wooster psychiatrist Denny Helmuth. It all started when he read a picture book, as a third-grader, about a boy who floated on a magic carpet, enjoying the bird’s-eye view and escaping his troubles.
“I wanted to be that boy,” Helmuth said. “Years later I came home to my wife one day and said, ‘Kathy, I bought a hot air balloon.’ I named it the Magic Carpet.”
Thirty-one years later Helmuth has over 550 flights under his belt.
“Ballooning lives up to the magic carpet dream,” he said. “It’s a peaceful, beautiful experience.”
Hot air balloons are taken up primarily on sunny days as they become difficult to control when rain cools and weighs them down. Helmuth lifts off from various places, depending on the wind speed and direction. He has a crew of at least three including his wife.
First, the balloon is laid out and attached to the basket, then tethered to the ground. An inflation fan partially fills the balloon with air, and then the pilot ignites the propane burners, which heat the air. The gas is stored in cylinders attached to the basket. Once the balloon is fully inflated and standing as a result of the rising hot air, the tether is released, and it’s up, up and away.
Balloons generally soar as high as 1,000-3,000 feet and travel 3-10 miles for one to two hours. They journey whichever way the wind blows, as they cannot be steered. However, the pilot can move the craft up and down to find various wind directions and speeds. To navigate upward, the pilot increases the burner flame. To descend, a valve is opened to release air from the top of the envelope.
Ballooning is regulated by the FAA, and balloons must follow the same air-traffic regulations as other aircrafts. They are required to be equipped with an altimeter to measure the altitude, a vertical speed indicator and a pyrometer, which measures the temperature inside the balloon.
When it’s time to land, the pilot must find a flat spot away from buildings, people, animals, crops and power lines, and the reactions of nearby people are great fun.
“Wherever we land, it becomes an instant party, with giggling kids and champagne toasts,” Helmuth said.
The crew, which has been chasing the balloon, then helps pack it back into the trailer and gives the occupants a lift back home.
Helmuth once ran low on fuel and had to ditch in the Allegheny National Forest. The state police helped his crew find him, as that was before cell phones.
“The next day a friendly farmer took us with his tractor to retrieve the aircraft,” Helmuth said.
For six decades people have had the opportunity to witness many remarkable sights from the vantage point of a hot air balloon, but experiments with utilizing hot air to lift items began at least a couple thousand years ago. Around 220 AD, a military strategist in China’s Shu Han empire developed a device to be used during wartime. He placed an oil lamp inside a paper bag. The apparatus, lifted by hot air from the lamp, was used to signal troops and confuse the enemy.
The first hot air balloon passengers were animals. The Montgolfier brothers of France sent a sheep, a rooster and a duck skyward in their paper and linen craft, heated from the ground, over the heads of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette at Versailles in 1783. A physician then inspected the animals and determined they were well. For their brave expedition, they were declared heroes and invited to live out their lives in the royal menagerie.
For the next 160 years, balloons fueled by hydrogen gas were developed and used for transportation and sport. It wasn’t until the 1950s that hot air was once again used for ballooning, when bush pilot and engineer Ed Yost developed an onboard heat source, propane gas, and made his first successful flight in Nebraska in 1960.
Yost also designed the teardrop shape of the modern balloon. The envelope, the part that holds the air, is constructed mainly from nylon, with the lower sections made from flame-retardant material. The basket is commonly made of woven wicker or cane, with a steel or aluminum frame. For those seeking even more of a thrill, glass-bottom baskets debuted in 2010.
There are several organizations and many festivals, glows and races that keep the flame of ballooning lit, and the pilots are a close-knit group. Helmuth takes it a step further and combines his love for aviation with his profession by conducting psychiatric examinations of pilots for the FAA and speaking on aviation medical issues at ballooning-safety seminars.
The next time you see a hot air balloon gliding up in the wild blue yonder, Helmuth said to yell hello. “We’ll hear you,” he said.