If a hot air balloon lands in your yard you have the best excuse ever for being late. Just make sure you take photos to prove that it happened.
This summer our goal has been to make every kid late to school/summer school at least one time. We call it hot air balloon black out bingo. Do you remember playing black out bingo as a kid? It’s where you try to fill in all the boxes on a bingo card…first one to get them all yells bingo! Our game is a little different… our goal has been to meet every neighbor on the NW corner of 400th and 212th st in Enumclaw Washington by landing a hot air balloon in their yard. So far we are doing pretty well.
People often ask us can you land anywhere? The answer is yes and no. In an emergency situation, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) guidelines allow us to land on any property. Before landing our hot air balloon on a new property in a normal situation we do the following:
1. Our crew knocks on the door and asks if it would be ok for our hot air balloon to land on their property. Ninety-nine percent of land owners are happy to have a balloon land on their property, and quickly start Facebooking their photos to the world.
2. When we fly over homes, many people scream “hello.” If the situation and timing is right, we will ask them if it would be ok for us to land on their property. Our favorite is when they ask us to land in the field or back yard and start making coffee!
3. If we haven’t chatted with the land owner yet, we will set the balloon down on the property and wait until our crew can reach the owner. If for some reason they are not okay with the hot air balloon landing on their property, and the situation is safe, we will ascend again and choose another property.
The best thing about having a hot air balloon land on your property is we often attach the balloon to our truck safety line and give folks a tethered balloon ride up to 100ft. We may have made some kids last Friday late for school…they do have the best reason ever for being late. ” Sorry, I’m late a hot air balloon landed in my yard this morning and offered us a ride.”
