Hot air ballooning a lifelong passion of recent Butler transplant
CONNOQUESSING TWP — Reaching heights of 2,500 feet in the air, Daniel Claudon’s vessel has no flight service, no bathrooms and no seat belts. However, in more than 5,000 hours of flight time over decades of takeoffs, Claudon has never had to make an emergency landing, and his passengers have not been injured, because hot air balloons are “just so reliable.”
Claudon, the owner and pilot of the recently opened Butler Ballooning, took his fourth flight from the Butler Farm Show Airport on Thursday morning, June 13. While he planned to take the four passengers of the 6 a.m. flight toward the city of Butler, the wind had other ideas. Still, Claudon said while inflating the 150,000 cubic foot balloon, named Dream Catcher, that it was the perfect day for a flight.
“It’s called a cold inflation, you pack in cold air to the envelope, and then we start heating that air with the fan running, it stands the balloon up,” Claudon said. “That’s why we’re so sensitive about wind speeds and cancellations. Above 5 miles an hour, it’s almost impossible.”
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Daniel Claudon, pilot with Butler Ballooning, prepares a hot air balloon for takeoff from the Butler Farm Show Airport on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Ted Maes, helper with Butler Ballooning, checks the hot air balloon before its flight across Butler County on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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The hot air balloon from Butler Ballooning is deflated after landing at Bruner-Waite Airfield Butler Aircraft Modelers Society in West Sunbury on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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The hot air balloon from Butler Ballooning is deflated after landing at Bruner-Waite Airfield Butler Aircraft Modelers Society in West Sunbury on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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The hot air balloon from Butler Ballooning is deflated after landing at Bruner-Waite Airfield Butler Aircraft Modelers Society in West Sunbury on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Jaysa Ditty, left, and Emma Scadden take a ride in a hot air balloon piloted by Daniel Claudon of Butler Ballooning over Butler County on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Staff at Butler Ballooning prepare to deflate a hot air balloon after it landed at Bruner-Waite Airfield Butler Aircraft Modelers Society in West Sunbury on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Ted Maes, helper at Butler Ballooning, prepares the hot air balloon for deflation after it landed at Bruner-Waite Airfield Butler Aircraft Modelers Society in West Sunbury on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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The staff at Butler Ballooning help the hot air balloon piloted by Daniel Claudon to land at Bruner-Waite Airfield Butler Aircraft Modelers Society in West Sunbury on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Daniel Claudon, pilot with Butler Ballooning, prepares to deflate a hot air balloon after it landed at Bruner-Waite Airfield Butler Aircraft Modelers Society in West Sunbury on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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The shadow of a Butler Ballooning hot air ballon projects on a tree line near West Sunbury on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Daniel Claudon, owner of Butler Ballooning, pilots a hot air ballon over Butler County on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Daniel Claudon, owner of Butler Ballooning, lands a hot air ballon at Bruner-Waite Airfield Butler Aircraft Modelers Society in West Sunbury on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Staff with Butler Ballooning prepare to inflate a hot air ballon ahead of its flight from the Butler Farm Show Airport on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Daniel Claudon, owner of Butler Ballooning, lands a hot air ballon at Bruner-Waite Airfield Butler Aircraft Modelers Society in West Sunbury on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Emma Scadden and Jaysa Ditty take a selfie from inside the hot air balloon before its take off at Butler Farm Show Airport on Thursday, June 13. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Butler Ballooning is Claudon’s new company, but he has been a pilot for decades, starting when he was living in South Africa where he would see hot air balloons fly over the Serengeti. He recently moved to the Butler area from California, where he also flew hot air balloons, some of which carried up to 16 passengers.
Claudon said the Butler Farm Show Airport has been welcoming to his craft since he arrived, his being the only hot air balloon taking off from the airport. Claudon is booking flights that take off from the airport at 6 a.m., which is currently the best time to fly because air temperatures can drastically affect a balloon’s lift.
Claudon said his balloon can carry up to six adults, and a few more children. The flights are booked ahead of time, but Claudon said they may be canceled if flight conditions are poor.
“It’s an 80-foot sail with no mast, so the wind could just knock you right back down,” Claudon said.
He said the cost of a flight is $300 per person, but he intends to have some weekday specials, which will be $200 per person, if they have a group of six.
Claudon’s crew for this business venture includes his son, Paul Claudon, a few aviators from the area and Ted Maes, a fellow pilot who has been ballooning for more than 50 years. Among the passengers on Thursday were cousins Jaysa Ditty and Emma Scaddon, both of Kittanning. Scaddon was celebrating her 25th birthday with the balloon trip.
Claudon’s crew held the Dream Catcher down as the balloon filled with hot air, and once the basket was balanced, they let go, sending the vessel slowly into the air. The balloon rose above the airport fence, then the trees as it traveled north toward Route 8. After hitting an altitude of about 2,500 feet, Claudon began to let the balloon cool, sending it back toward the earth.
Maes explained that people have been riding in hot air balloons since the 1780s, when French people noticed heat from a fire lifted clothing upward when they got close enough.
Maes went on to say how the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, started working on crafts that could carry passengers, and first sent three animals — a duck, a rooster and a sheep — into the sky on a tethered balloon in the 1700s. They called the heat used to lift the crafts “Montgolfier gas,” because of its gravity-defying properties.
Once the Dream Catcher landed in a field about 10 miles north of the airport, Maes explained the flying method as its pioneers would have understood it.
“What you guys did today was no different than 240 years ago,” Maes said. “You got into a field, put cold air into something, filled it with Montgolfier gas, flew a beautiful flight, there were no pitchforks and we landed.”
During the flight, which lasted about an hour, Claudon’s crew followed the Dream Catcher from the ground, just in case they would have to clear a landing zone with private residents. The balloon touched down in a field at Bruner Waite Airfield, at which point, the crew drove up, flattened and packed the balloon and basket onto a trailer, and Claudon broke out the Champagne to commemorate a happy landing. Once on solid ground, he recited a toast commonly known to pilots.
“The winds have welcomed you with softness and the sun has blessed you with its warm hands,” Claudon said. “We flew so high and so well that God joined us in laughter and sent us gently into the loving arms of Mother Earth.”
