By WESLIE STRATTON
Moapa Valley Progress
Windy weather grounded much of the planned events at the fourth annual Mesquite Balloon Festival over the weekend of January 23-25.
According to Casablanca corporate sales manager, Christian Adderson, 45 hot air balloons had registered to fly in the popular event.And hundreds of spectators had gathered to watch the colorful balloons launching into the air above Mesquite.
“They come from all over the western region for this event,” Adderson said.
The beauty of the area, as well as the hospitality of the community and the Casablanca resort, are key reasons that balloon pilots enjoy participating in the annual festival, Adderson said.
“They feel very welcome when they come up here,” he said. “The festival takes over the town for a couple of days when they come.”
Around 5,000 spectators enjoyed the festival last year, Adderson said.
Calm weather conditions prevailed on Friday morning. Fifteen of the balloon crews that had arrived early inflated and launched their crafts into blue skies.
But by Saturday morning, the wind had picked up and launching the hot air balloons became questionable.
The festival’s coordinator, Balloonmeister Gayle McCoy; of Spring Creek, Nevada; was the one who had to make the call on whether conditions were safe for a launch. After carefully monitoring the weather conditions both on the ground and aloft, and after consulting with his safety crew, McCoy said he decided to call off both the Saturday launch.
McCoy explained that often it is hard for the spectating public watching from the ground to understand such a decision because the wind doesn’t feel too bad where they are, But the balloons are able to go up 2000 feet into the air; and the conditions can be quite different from up there, he said.
“We monitor the wind and wind sheer up in the 1000-2000 feet range,” McCoy said. “Then we have to make a decision on what the safest thing is to do.”
With a huge crowd of spectators and all of the hot air balloown crews at the ready, McCoy sent out word that a cancellation was necessary due to the wind factor at higher elevations.
“The safety of the pilots and spectators are the number one priority of the festival,” said Adderson in a written statement after the decision was made. “The conditions did not dictate a safe launch for all parties involved.”.
The large crowd that had gathered to watch the launch began to disperse quickly, many expressing dismay and confusion over the circumstances of the cancellation.
But it was less of a surprise to the balloon crews, McCoy said.
“This kind of thing is fairly common in these events,” he said. “I attend 12 of these festivals per year all around the region. About half of them I don’t get to fly because of the weather.”
Despite the launch cancellation, the festival continued with several events. A handful of balloons were inflated for the entertainment of the spectators in the launch field.
In the evening, after sundown, the festival’s Balloon Night Glow event took place. In calm conditions, this event has the balloon crews inflate their balloons on the ground. The big propane burners provide light within the colorful balloon that lights up the night.
But because of windy conditions, the balloons could not be inflated, McCoy said. Instead the baskets with the burner apparatus were set up and lit into the dark. It is a process called “candle-sticking,” McCoy said.
All the other scheduled events went on as planned including a bird show in the Casablanca resort showroom, a slot machine tournament for balloon pilots, a wine tasting event that was open to the public and a Led Zeppelin tribute concert.
The balloon launch scheduled for Sunday morning was also cancelled due to high winds aloft.
