MERIDIAN - The pleasure is in the journey for Dave Hilliard.

There's nothing he likes better than taking an idea, developing specifications and drafting them into something that

can be manufactured, doing the hand crafting, assembling the finished product and then watching it work.

In this case,

Hilliard, a retired machinist who did drafting work for the machine shop at Armco and a radio controlled aircraft enthusiast, turned his attention to creating a quarter-scale, radio-controlled hot air balloon.

"I saw one in New York state" and was taken with the idea of crafting one, he said.

Not long afterward, his friend, Steve Lachendro, decommissioned his "Silent Sea" hot air balloon. Lachendro offered Hilliard the lower portion of the fabric envelope and the idea to recreate it on a scaled down size took flight.

"The first (radio controlled) balloon was supposed to be a test version so that he could learn from his mistakes," Lachendro said. "This is one of the very few radio-controlled hot air balloons. There's one guy in Ohio who has one, several came to the hot air balloon event in Albuquerque, and I have mine," Hilliard explained.

"My big hobby is airplanes, but I like to draw them and build them more than fly," said Hilliard, president of Butler Area Radio Flying Society (BARFS).

The first miniature hot air balloon he made had a diameter of about 3 feet and was sewn from old bed sheets. It was constructed as a party decoration.That was when his sewing machine, a Montgomery Ward hand-me-down from his mother, was perched on a typewriter table in his workshop and was adequate for the job.Being someone who creates what he needs to get a job done, however, Hilliard modified that basic model sewing machine. Now it's built into a table designed to support many segments, 12 in all, of rip-stop nylon fabric 21-feet long cut from the original balloon.The scaled down version used about 85 yards of recycled balloon fabric."That would cost about $500, so when (Lachendro) gave me the old balloon, I was grateful," Hilliard said.Anyone else who might like to donate a decommissioned balloon to him so he could make more radio-controlled versions would be welcome to do so, he added.

"I feel kind of like a proud papa watching my balloon reborn," Lachendro said.To reduce a balloon that once towered 85-feet high and 65-feet wide when fully inflated to one with a height of 21-feet and width of 15-feet, Hilliard worked from a photo of the Silent Sea.Using a pencil and paper to figure the dimensions and then creating pattern pieces, he also used his math skills to miniaturize the golden eagles, wings spread wide, that decorate the envelope."I was surprised he went ahead and did the details. I knew the eagles would be difficult," said Lachendro, who owns two other full-size hot air balloons and was "tickled" to see the eagles on the replica.But where could Hilliard get the basket that is slung beneath an inflated bag? Well, after mathematically scaling down a real balloon's basket, he used bamboo kabob skewers and string to weave one just like the real one.Then there was the matter of scaled down blower and the burner to fill the envelope with hot air - devices definitely not available in stores anywhere. Hilliard employed his engineering and machinist skills yet again and created what he needed in one-of-a-kind machines.The burner is controlled by a fixed wing aircraft radio transmitter using only two positions - burner off and burner on - just like it the true-sized balloons.

His burner can produce a jet of fire 8-inches wide and 3-feet tall. "It roars just like the real thing," Hilliard said with a grin."I would expect nothing less from him," said Lachendro of Hilliard's attention to detail. "I know other people with model hot air balloons and when they see his, they admit theirs are 'Not like that!' They are amazed.""Guys use their ingenuity to create things you wouldn't think they'd fly," said Mike Grguras of Valencia, a fellow BARFS member who has seen the radio-controlled Silent Sea fly at the BARFS field north of Butler. "It's intriguing if you're at all mechanical. Your imagination is the only thing that holds you back."The radio-controlled version of Silent Sea is flown on a 150-foot tether. "If I didn't tether it, it would only be in your view for about 30 seconds," before being carried away on the breezes just as it's big brothers are."Hilliard flies his in the early morning and early evening like the big guys do and for the same reason: less breeze.Hilliard brings the balloon up to the flight field, lays it on its side just like the real thing, inflates it until it stands upright by itself, and up it goes on its tether explained Grguras."It gets there in a hurry," Hilliard said.Softly landing the small balloon can also be as tricky as landing a large one because of the burner. "If you bounce hard, you can melt the balloon," Hilliard explained.Recently he flew the miniature Silent Sea at Sterling Village where his mother lives. He's also had the privilege of flying his model with five generations of his family in attendance."I fly it whenever someone wants to watch it," Hilliard said.Rather than at the length of its line, Hilliard prefers to have the balloon maintain an altitude of about 10- or 20-feet off the ground, that way you can see how it works and the pilot in the basket.The pilot is a small stuffed bear dressed as an aviator.