By Safi Furlow
Balloons Over Sussex Festival was held at Delaware Coastal Airport Sept. 14-15 for people of all ages to watch hot air balloons fly high and even learn about the engineering.
At the inaugural Balloons Over Sussex hot air balloon festival, kids and adults could enjoy food, games, and rides in the hot air balloons. Attendees learned about the engineering, safety procedures, and flight on hot air balloons.
Matthew Hodgdon, an 18 year old pilot at Balloons Over Sussex, came to the event to show off his personal hot air balloon that he paid for with his own money. Hodgdon came to the event to teach and share his interest of hot air balloons with the people of Sussex County.
“This is not a business, we just do this for fun right now. I have done it with my own money.
My family has invested with their time and they are my main crew,” said Hodgdon.
“I started training five years ago; the first part of the training process is just flying with you and the instructor. That is the majority of my time. I got my privates license with LTA Heater on Board Limitations last August. Since then I can fly anyone, I just can’t charge them yet; I need a commercial license. I'm working towards that; building my hours, hopefully, next year or the year after that I can get that.”
Hodgdon said his interest hot air balloons started at the age of 4 when and his family decided to follow one.
“One night in Carroll County, Maryland, we saw them up and we just decided to go follow them,” said Hodgdon. A few people decided to get together and do what's called a balloon camp for youth to get more young people involved in sport.” Hodgdon went to the camp for three years in Pennsylvania.
Ron Broderick, known as the “The Balloon Meister” (balloon organizer), attended Balloons Over Sussex.
Broderick became involved after Sussex Academy reached out to host the first balloon festival in the area in more than a decade.
“They contacted me and we talked and planned and met with the airport and the county and went through a lot of procedures and we were able to make it work,” said Broderick.
Due to weather conditions and wind speeds, not all pilots were able to launch their balloons because of personal safety measures. Only 12 balloons were able to launch from Delaware Coastal Airport. The remaining hot air balloons were either tethered and flown or used for demonstration and informational purposes on the ground.
Broderick expressed his excitement for the event turnout. “We got two flights out of three; I'm thrilled,” he exclaimed.
Broderick spoke on how he got his licence 29 years ago and expressed how he still flies and enjoys his hot air balloons.
“I live in Howard County Maryland, and we go around to different festivals. We fly locally more often than go to a festival. You fly with a couple balloons in the area then you come to festivals where there's 15, 20, 30 balloons; and the interaction with the public, the passengers, it’s great!” Broberick said.
Though it’s not certain that Balloons Over Sussex will be an annual event, Pilots, kids, adults, and vendors all look forward to the next one.
Commentaires