ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / February 5, 2000

LAPLACE – The weather is bone-chilling and the wind blows in strong gusts, but students of LaPlace Elementary don’t seem to care. They gasp and yell inawe as they watch the yellow, orange, green and purple nylon balloon slowly inflate as if by magic on the front lawn of the school.

It is Hot-Air Balloon Day at LaPlace Elementary, and Carroll G. Teitsworth ofLiberty Balloon Co. is demonstrating how a hot-air balloon is inflated andlaunched.

Even on its side the balloon towers over the children and makes parents and teachers holding it down with ropes look like little toys. There is 20,000 cubicfeet of air inside a normal balloon which equals over 6,000 lbs., and even withfive people holding it down with ropes the wind causes the balloon to roll back and forth across the lawn like some sort of undulating, multi-colored monster. Faculty and children scream and scamper back, as if the giantnylon envelope will consume or crush them.

“Simply amazing,” gushes Margaret Hastings, a third-grade teacher and the organizer of Hot Air Balloon Day. “I didn’t realize it would be so big!”At this point, there is only cold air is being blown into the balloon by a gas- powered fan To make it rise Teitsworth has to ignite the burners in the passenger basket and put hot air into the nylon envelope.

With a roar and a blast of yellow flame the burners are turned on, and Teitsworth aims the blowers inside the balloon. It slowly starts to rise upfrom its repose like a giant beast awakening. The winds pick up and theballoon sways crazily from side-to-side. Teitsworth shakes his head andturns off the burners. The balloon settle back on its side and Teitsworthwalks over to a portable public address system.

“Sorry,” he says into the microphone. “It’s too windy to take up. I don’t wantto risk it.”There are groans of disappointment from the audience. Some of thestudents, (and even some adults) really wanted to go up in the balloon.

After Teitsworth’s crew wraps up the balloon and they stuff all that nylon into an amazingly small canvas bag, Teitsworth shows the students the inside of the passenger basket. Despite the size of the wicker basket, thereisn’t much space for two people to stand next to the four huge propane tanks used to fuel the burners.

Hastings’ class was studying balloons and the history of balloon flight, and that was the reason she commissioned Teitsworth to come show the balloon.

Like Teitsworth’s balloon the project had grown and grown until the whole school was involved and everybody was learning about hot-air balloons.

Teitsworth, who looks like a Nordic sailor with his blond hair and beard, has been a balloonist for over 25 years and operates out of Groveland, N.Y.,where he and his four sons and wife are all involved in the ballooning business.

He went into ballooning, he says, because of “starvation.” Twenty-five yearsago he was running a small private airfield and giving flying lessons.

“There wasn’t much demand for flying lessons back then,” Teitsworth says.

“And then I heard about ballooning.”Because of the liabilities involved in airplane flying a lot of people wanted to learn ballooning. He bought a balloon, got himself a license and got into thebusiness just as it started to boom.

Now, he makes a living at it. He rents out the balloon for rides, trainsballoonists in the winter, travels to schools like LaPlace Elementary during the winter and fall and does ballooning tours during the summer.

“It’s a living where you can raise a family,” he says.

He should know, he has four children and four grandchildren.

Back at LaPlace Elementary, Teitsworth has given the school a lecture on ballooning, its history and the different types of balloons. Now he brings thatamazingly small canvas bag into the school cafeteria, and with the help of four small fans he blows up the nylon envelope to fill the room.

Instructing the children to take off their shoes and not to touch the sides, he leads them into the balloon.

Inside, the balloon is quite different than it was in the morning. With no windto buffet it, the huge nylon structure is quiet and subdued. The light fromthe window filters through the different colors of the balloon and paints everybody in moving colors as if they were in a giant, nylon cathedral.

There are about 100 students and teachers inside, yet they look small and insignificant. Teitsworth said he has fit over 800 people at one time insidethe balloon.

It is amazing that such light material can expand to such a size and hold its shape. Teitsworth says that is because of the nature of the nylon thatmakes up the envelope.

“Sunlight is very damaging to nylon, so the makers coat the nylon with a material that is resistant to ultra-violet rays,” Teitsworth tells the kids.

“This is also rip-stop nylon, which means it cannot puncture and will never pop.”Someone asks Teitsworth about the safety of balloons.

“It is a very safe sport,” he says. “You’re only going about 5 miles an hour,you don’t go above 1,000 feet and if something happens, the balloon is like a giant parachute.”Teitsworth says ballooning is also very easy. It only takes about three weeksto get a ballooning license.

“I could teach anybody who knows how to drive a car how to fly a balloon,” he claims.

As for cost, well, a new balloon is a bit pricey at $25,000, but he says a person can pick up a good used balloon for about $10,000.

“I really want to tell people that ballooning is very accessible to everyone,” Teitsworth says.

He is not into competing or racing balloons. “It is very challenging to make aballoon go where you want it to, but I’m not really into that.”What keeps him in ballooning? “People are always smiling when they are in a balloon.”Teitsworth grins as he folds up his nylon monster into that amazingly small canvas bag.

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