Scotty Snipes and Jake Snipes
by Bobby Joe Snipes, guest writer
It was 1981 when ballooning was gaining popularity and was both beautiful, exciting and amazing. You didn’t see hot air balloons around Clovis like you did in Albuquerque, the capital of hot air ballooning. In the traditional festive spring season in Clovis we always look forward to Pioneer Days which included the rodeo and parade and numerous old pioneer events and recognition of our western heritage.
But in 1981, the Clovis Chamber of Commerce decided to ad a balloon fiesta to the activities. This was to be a two day event with an invitation to local businesses to sponsor a balloon.
They received 12-13 commitments from balloon owners around Albuquerque to attend the fiesta. The reason for the sponsorship was to #1—for the business to pay $100 to the balloon owner and #2—provide a chase vehicle and crew to help with the balloon in ascension and landing.
Well that sounded like a lot of fun so we sponsored two balloons,,,,,,one for Bob’s Mr. Shop and the other for Lady You Nique. I do not remember much about the balloon sponsored by Betty’s store, Lady You Nique but this story is about Bob’s balloon.
The week of the event I was out visiting with my parents,,,,,just visiting and I was telling them about the Balloon Fiesta. Just off the top of my head I said “Hey Dad, would you like to go up in a balloon....you could ride with Scotty”. He thought for just a second and his eyes brightened up and he said “yeah, I would like to do that”.
I wasn’t really surprised because Dad always enjoyed life and was a fun loving type person. Scotty, our son, was 17 and Dad was 75 and it never entered my mind that this could be a little risky.
All preparations were made....balloonist arrived in town Friday evening.....meeting and instructions planned for about sun up Saturday morning. Each balloon had a banner on it with the businesses’ name. We met in a large vacant area just north of the new hospital which was west of town. They monitored the weather closely. Wind speed was light from the SW and they forecast a beautiful day with maybe a little breeze later in the day.
Everything was go....balloon off of the trailer..... unroll and spread out the balloon(man those things are big)....hook up the gondola....fire up the propane burner.....lean the gondola over to start the gas in the balloon....be careful.....hold the balloon opening up....don’t burn the balloon and she starts filling....bigger and bigger and bigger and she starts standing up. Grab the tether rope....hold on, hold on....a couple of you grab hold of the gondola.....get the first passengers in....that was Dad and Scotty and that added some extra ballast to hold the balloon down. The pilot was a lady and she turned that burner on full blast and that balloon crept up into the wild blue. What a thrill.
We were all helping with the balloon....excited about the ride with visions of a slow lofty ride into the silence of where the birds fly, hearing nothing but the frequent blast of the propane burner to adjust the height of the balloon. The plan was to take several people up for a ride with the pilot setting the balloon down every mile or so and changing riders.
But almost instantly our plans changed. The gentle breeze turned into a brisk wind....much to strong for ballooning....woe....those balloons began to move fast. We all jumped in the pickup and took off....the problem being that the balloon did not follow the section roads...and we had to.
It was the chase crew’s responsibility to try to move ahead of the balloon and help stop the balloon when it was landing and hold it while they changed passengers. The plan was to set down south of Ned Houk Park. We drove up the Grady HI way at speeds you wouldn’t believe, trying to catch that balloon. Betty was screaming at me to slow down, everyone was scared to death and the balloon flew on and on and on.
We hustled to the planned area but our balloon was way east so we had to go about 6 extra miles around the park and Running Water draw to find our balloon. But as we were leaving, there was another balloon attempting a landing. There were high lines that he had to pass over and then he had about a 100 yard area to land.
He was a great pilot; he missed those high lines and dropped that balloon down about 30 yards the other side but he was coming down hard and fast because of the wind. He had one passenger, a young lady that weighed about 170 lbs. When he hit the ground, that gondola bounced about 6’ up and threw that girl out of the gondola. She hit the ground rolling and tumbling. I just knew she broke something but not a scratch. Her balloon, after losing that ballast went straight up about 100 yards before settling off. She was shook up but walked over to her chase crew and jumped in their pickup.
Needless to say that we located our balloon already on the ground a couple of miles on the north side of the draw. They had a hard landing but the instructions were to squat down low in the gondola and hold on to the rail. They did....it was rough but the pilot quickly released the flap on the top of the balloon and it quickly dragged the gondola to a halt. Dad and Scotty were all smiles. We rolled the balloon up and loaded and headed for home to make plans for the next day. No more rides in this wind!
Dad said when they took off they were headed right straight for that grain elevator north of Clovis. He got a little concerned when they got closer and ask the pilot “What are we going to do when we get to that elevator”? She looked at him and smiled and said “We are going to go over it” and they did. She was a good pilot.
Just to finish the story, the next day was wonderful. Just a trickle of breeze right out of the west which drifted us slowly across the north part of Clovis. We hollered at folks on the ground and watched the dogs run and bark at the mysterious balloon that belched out intermittent gas flames.
We made one stop and changed passengers and the next stop ended our Balloon Fiesta. After the balloon was rolled up and stuffed in the gondola it was time for the final step. Four guys picked Betty up and lifted her over the gondola and dropped her on the balloon. They said they needed a lot of weight to tamp the balloon down. They said it was just a tradition. We had a lot of fun. It was worth $100. Dad retired from ballooning. Scotty later got his private plane license.
by Bobby Joe Snipes, CHS '53
Guest writer
Oct. 21, 2015
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