It's the South's oldest balloon event and the country's only long distance hot air balloon race - and both are scheduled to begin Thursday morning at 7 with a mass ascension of 30 bright and colorful hot air balloons.
The people of Helen believe that their Alpine village, nestled in the hills of White County, is the center of their world and in Columbus' day the Atlantic Ocean was the "edge of the Earth." Thus, the late Pete Hodkinson came up with the concept for the Helen to the Atlantic Balloon Race.
"I was just a teenager but one who got hooked on ballooning when Lanier Chambers and Pete Hodkinson conceived the idea of the balloon festival and the race to try and help promote Helen to the outside world," Tarp Head, Helen's balloonmeister, recalled during Sunday's Northeast Georgia This Week on WDUN NEWS TALK 550 (like AccessNorthGa.com, a part of Jacobs Media Corp.).
Head said this was in the early days of Helen's transformation from a sleepy mountain town into the Alpine Village and bustling tourist attraction that it is today.
Hodkinson was killed in a ballooning accident near Toccoa in 1976.
The race begins in Helen and the finish line is I-95 (anywhere between Maine and Miami). The winner is the balloon that crosses I-95 first or is nearest the Interstate at sundown on the Friday following the Thursday launch. The shortest distance is 225 miles and the race usually takes two days. However, it has been done in as little as eight hours in the past, according to Cathrine Cleiman of the Helendorf Inn and Conference Center, the host and headquarters for the festival and the race since their inception in 1974 and, herself, a licensed balloon pilot. She also got hooked on ballooning at an early age while growing up around the Helendorf, which is owned and operated by her parents, Dick and Barbara Gay.
Cleiman, who now serves as the event organizer, says, however, some races have taken as many as four days. Though as many as 30 balloons are expected to lift off Thursday morning, only "six to 10" of them will be competing in the cross country race. The others will remain in Helen through the end of the festival on Saturday. Many of the pilots will be offering tethered rides or short untethered rides in the Helen area during the three-day event.
Head says that just as important as the wind direction and speed is a ground crew which races along in a car, trying to keep the balloon in sight and when it touches down, get to it as quickly as possible with fuel (since the balloons are limited to 40 gallons of fuel, that being propane gas) and to make any repairs that are needed. Head likened the ground to a pit crew in auto racing.
Asked to recall some of the more unusual incidents that have occurred during the race over the past 34 years, Head laughed at the times chase crews have flooded out their cars trying to cross a stream in order to get to a balloonist who has landed and the number of times irate landowners have met balloonists with shotguns after balloons have landed on their property.
"We usually take along something to give them such as T-shirts to try to smooth things over should we have to make a landing on private property," Head said, "and, we'll even offer them rides."
Head said there are balloonists who have been coming every year from all over the country. He recalled that well-known international balloonist and adventurer Malcom Forbes was there for the first one.
"It's by invitation only," he said. "We limit the number of balloonists because we are limited in the amount of open land that's available for the balloons to take off and land. We have a waiting list and as one person drops off for whatever reason, someone who is on the waiting list is added to the active list. I have people calling me all the time or coming up to me at balloon events elsewhere, wanting to know how they can get an invitation."
Why has it remained the country's only long-distance hot air balloon race?
The Helendorf Inn's Dick and Barbara Gay have been organizing and sponsoring the race for all 34 years, as well as hosting the pilots for many years. Five years ago, they, along with Catherine and the staff of the Helendorf, were all recognized by the Ballooning Federation of America for their contributions to the sport of ballooning in the United States.
While the competition to the Atlantic continues, other balloonists compete in local events beginning Thursday evening around 6 p.m. Local flying events will take place also on Friday and Saturday. The balloons will fly around 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. each day (weather permitting). The balloons will only fly for around 1-2 hours. The public is invited to participate in the festival in a number of ways, including assisting with the inflations, being a part of a chase crew, or, as mentioned before, taking a tethered ride in a balloon or a champagne flight over the mountains.
The main time tethered rides available to the public will be on Saturday evening, beginning around 7:30. The balloons will be tied to the ground and go up approximately 50-75 feet. Tethered rides last approximately 10 minutes and cost $10 per person.
Head has participated in the event since the first and won the race to the Atlantic in 1979. His interest in the balloon race led to his vocation and the founding of HEAD Balloons Inc., one of six Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved balloon manufacturers in the United States. Tarp also offers lessons to would-be balloon pilots, who must be licensed by the FAA.
Cleiman says a big part of the success of the festival through the year has to go to not only the public officials in Helen and the chamber of commerce and the convention and visitors bureau, but also the general public. She notes that local land owners are generous in allowing balloonists to take off and land on open spaces on their property, using that land as something of a base of operations while in town.
Schedule of events for this year's Helen Hot Air Balloon Festival:
June 5: 7 a.m. lift-off for Helen to the Atlantic Balloon Race & Mass Ascension
6:30 p.m. local balloon event
June 6: 7 a.m. local balloon event
6:30 p.m. local balloon event
June 7: 7 a.m. local balloon event
6:30 p.m. local balloon event
7:30 p.m. tethered balloon rides for public
(home.att.net contributed to this report).
....
On the Net:
Helen to the Atlantic Hot Air Balloon Race. http://www.helenballoon.com
Helen Balloons
http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/6/210428