ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – As Albuquerque’s largest event of the year enters its final weekend, there is a process for how organizers manage 500 hot air balloons and all of the people that come with it.
Saturday is the eighth day of the ExxonMobil Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, and while the balloons did not go up, here is a look at what goes on behind the scenes. In the early hours, hot air balloon pilots gather around 6:00 a.m. to see if the weather conditions are good enough to take flight.
The man behind the huge decision is the Balloonmeister, Henry Rosenbaum, who has worked in his position at Balloon Fiesta for more than a decade. He has a background experience as a hot air balloon pilot and Fire Marshall. Rosenbaum said the decision comes after deliberation with the weather team, flight safety officers, and different crews giving input. Rosenbaum oversees all of those teams as well as launch directors, also known as zebras.
Zebras make their presence known through whistles and their striking outfits. “Basically, from 5:30 a.m., we’re moving, we’re talking to people, we’re communicating, we’re launching balloons. We have kind of a contest going this year. If you can do 20,000 steps in a day, you get a little pin,” said Joe Ballengee, who’s been a zebra since 2014. Before taking on the stripes, he was in a chase crew at Balloon Fiesta every year since 1995. He said his first year as a zebra, he walked 42 miles over the span of Fiesta week.
Typically, around 60 zebras are spread out across Balloon Fiesta Park to help with crowd control and give pilots the okay to take off. Rosenbaum also works with an inspector from the Federal Aviation Administration to monitor all air travel. “He knows exactly what’s going on. If there’s any situation that he needs to know about, he’s notified immediately just by stepping two steps, and we can communicate,” Rosenbaum.
Balloon Fiesta applies for a waiver with the Sunport Airport Controlled Airspace to get authorization that allows up to 500 balloons to fly in this airspace. He also has a team of people helping pilots land. “Those landowner folks work year-round to make those relationships with the business owners, the property owners, to see that we can fly and land and use their properties,” said Rosenbaum.
He and his team communicate with pilots constantly until the last basket lands. Some pilots shared their experience. “It’s a well-oiled machine, and it’s really well organized. Once you get the hang of it, you’ve been here a couple of years, you get the hang of it real smoothly,” said Andy Baird, a longtime pilot who’s been to Fiesta 32 times.
More information on what it takes to become a zebra is available here.
