Delight in Flight
Illustration: Penelope Dullaghan
The stillness of a Park City dawn is shattered by the roar of burning propane as a great canvas mass lifts majestically into a Dreamsicle sky. Passengers gasp softly and dig for cameras. Free of earthly ties, someone blurts, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” The pilot and ground crew smile knowingly and sigh, “Just another day in paradise.”
Park City is ideal for recreational hot air ballooning. Seasoned balloonists look for consistently mild winds and abundant sunshine, and our area is blessed with both. For three decades since first “discovering” Park City in the early 1980s, balloonists have come here from all over the world to waft over one of the most scenic and spectacular flying areas anywhere. Almost any day of the year, summer or winter, you’ll spy at least one colorful parachute hovering peacefully over our fields and mountains.
Longtime resident Gene Moser is widely credited with putting our town on the ballooning map. Originally from Albuquerque, Moser became smitten with ballooning when he volunteered as a crew member during that city’s fabled fall balloon festival. Moser subsequently learned to fly and was soon plying the skies over Park City in his brilliant orange-and-yellow balloon named Magic. Word spread quickly through the tightly knit ballooning community that something special was happening in Park City. Recreational pilots from around the country started coming here to fly and socialize with other balloonists. Moser’s Park Meadows home became the nexus for après-flight champagne and conversation.
Over cocktails one evening, Moser and friends Spence Smith, a local architect and designer of the Park Meadows Golf Course, and Dr. Tom Nevison, a balloon pilot and instructor from Vail, Colorado, floated a scheme to invite a handful of the best pilots from across the country to a small but elite event. “We wanted it to be the classiest balloon rally in the world,” recalls Moser. Thus, Autumn Aloft was born, a three-day festival to be held each fall on the Park Meadows Golf Course.
Moser, a natural-born promoter, lined up a handful of Park City sponsors to bankroll the inaugural event. In August 1983, 18 balloons lifted into a perfect sky, filling the meadow with a kaleidoscope of color. The Smithsonian Institution even sent its Treaty of Paris balloon to commemorate the first balloon flight, which had taken place two centuries previously (1783) in the capital of France.
For participants, more compelling than the pageantry was the quality of the aeronautics. Keying off the unique micro-meteorology of the Park Meadows basin (a “toilet bowl” effect: winds from the south slide into the basin and circle slowly near the surface), pilots on their game could often land in the same spot from which they launched. An abundance of small ponds dotted the Park Meadows Golf Course, giving Mike Bauwens—a visiting pilot from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, who helped with that first Autumn Aloft event—a unique idea for a competition. He called it the “Splash-and-Dash,” and it would become the signature event of the festival. Spectators were delighted as balloonists tried to splash down in as many ponds as possible during the timed event. The mad, soggy scramble inevitably resulted in wet (but happy) passengers and onlookers.
The event was a huge success. Autumn Aloft was like no other balloon festival in the country. It reflected the free-spirited, anything-goes exuberance of Park City itself. Pilots, sponsors and the Chamber of Commerce eagerly laid plans for the following year. Moser was dubbed event “Commodore.” Bauwens, who had thousands of flying hours under his belt and had been looking to expand his balloon-ride business, moved here. Other commercial balloonists followed suit. All of the ingredients were in place: great location; great weather; a year-round supply of affluent, adventurous tourists; a welcoming community; and virtually no restricted areas. For the next few years, Autumn Aloft formed the centerpiece of a thriving ballooning community. Both recreational and commercial pilots were flying high.
Moser never intended for Autumn Aloft to grow larger, but growth was inevitable. When national and international media shined spotlights on the colorful extravaganza, balloonists from all over the world clamored for an invitation. Then success spoiled the party. Thousands of spectators poured into Park Meadows, jamming roads, parking anywhere and annoying residents. Park City Police expressed concern about the traffic and huge crowds. Complaints about low-flying balloons also increased as the town’s population grew and its demographics gradually changed.
Over the next few years, Autumn Aloft gradually lost its buoyant momentum. Moser turned the event over to Jerry Shane, another local pilot, and the Chamber of Commerce. What some still called the “Woodstock” of balloon festivals remained afloat into the early 1990s, when it finally succumbed to a combination of residential development and logistical challenges that the city no longer wished to address.
With the demise of Autumn Aloft, and facing flight restrictions because Park City had grown so much, Bauwens lost his zeal for the ride business. Widely recognized as one of the best hot air balloon pilots and instructors in the country, however, he struck a deal with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to open an FAA-approved training school. Bauwens estimates he’s taught well over 100 students to fly since opening his school. They’ve come from all over the United States and several foreign countries, including France, Switzerland, Japan and Israel.
Even though our signature ballooning event is gone, and even though increased development has decreased available takeoff and landing sites, the factors that made Park City a great ballooning venue persist, and pilots continue to fly our bluebird skies. The commercial ride business is brisk through the summer and early fall, when flying conditions are ideal, and stays steady even during the winter months. Multiple balloon companies operate here, and on any given weekend early risers are treated to colorful dawns as up to a half-dozen balloons take to the skies.
As long as there are hot air balloons in our local skies, as long as new students keep coming to experience the wonder of wingless flight, and as long as visitors still gasp in delight at the moment of liftoff, the spirit of those early balloonists will forever remain aloft over Park City.
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