Students share love of hot air ballooning, experiences in air

Evan Thoms was able to experience the thrill of a lifetime when he visited Mexico in a hot air balloon.

“I have always been fascinated by hot air balloons since I was little,” said Thoms, a freshman aviation management major. “I heard about Hot Air Ballooning of Indiana State University [HABISU] my freshman year and decided to check it out.”

Hot air ballooning was brought to ISU by Paul Felty, an ISU alumnus  who introduced his passion to other students on campus in 2007. He is the founder of HABISU.

Troy Allen, an associate professor in the department of aviation, said the students in HABISU travel around to different events to balloon, such as the one in Mexico.

Thoms learned more about HABISU from Dustin Meredith, a junior professional aviation flight technology major who was Thoms’s academic peer advocate his freshman year.

Meredith and Thoms went to Leòn, Mexico together last year for the Festival Internacional de Globos, where they were able to fly with 100 other pilots from all over the world.

“Festival Internacional de Globos is one of the largest balloon festivals in Latin America,” Thoms said. “I met pilots and crews that were from Germany, Brazil and every corner of the United States.”

The two of them woke up at 5 a.m. every morning for a pilot briefing and then gathered the passengers up to have them ready by 9:30 a.m. for lift off.

After landing, spectators were allowed to get into the balloons while others took pictures of them.

“The funny part about the whole `experience is that neither Dustin nor myself knew any Spanish whatsoever,” Thoms said.

Meredith has been flying since he was 14 years old.

“I enjoy hot air ballooning because it’s a skill that you have to learn to do and when you get it down, it becomes a natural habit,” Meredith said. “There is no defined way to fly a hot air balloon.”

The only control the pilot has of a hot air balloon is going up or down. Wind is the only motivation for the balloon to move around.

Even though Allen has never been in a hot air balloon, he knows the rule of thumb for balloon pilots.

“The best time to go up in a balloon is when there is little wind and good weather,” Allen said. “Calm months like the summer months during the early morning or late afternoon are ideal flight weather.”

There are only 15 students in HABISU, and Meredith is looking for more students to join.
HABISU meets bimonthly at 5:00 every other Thursday at John T. Meyers Technology Building in room 107 and there are no membership fees.

Thoms said his favorite part about hot air ballooning is that people don’t do it every day, and that every flight is different.

“I think that the rarity of this sport almost makes it special in a way because you are involved in something that not very many people know a lot about,” Thoms said.