Ted
The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2007
- Messages
- 29,889
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iFlyNothing
This past weekend we went to Albuquerque for the opening weekend of the annual Balloon Fiesta. This is essentially the Oshkosh of hot air balloons, with people coming from all over the world - literally - with their hot air balloons for what is a very unique gathering.
Most of us on PoA are powered aircraft folks, and I'm not even aware of anyone who's a ballooner on here (although I'm sure we have some). I would definitely recommend going to see it. It's a very unique and fun experience, and Albuquerque has a lot more interesting tourist attractions to offer than I realized.
There are three main events each day - the "dawn patrol", "mass ascention", and "night lights" (I forget the exact number). Dawn patrol is balloons taking off before the sun rises, so you see the balloons illuminated with their flames as they take off. The mass ascention is essentially over an hour of balloons taking off (a couple hundred or so). You can be pretty close to the action when all of this is happening.
We felt the night lanterns were the coolest, though. That was when all of the balloons got inflated and then illuminated with their flames semi-synchronized, producing a beautiful light.
I figured I'd make a few comparisons between the Balloon Fiesta and Oshkosh:
- Most balloon fiesta attendees seem to be non-pilots, unlike Oshkosh where it's almost all pilots and friends/relatives of pilots
- While Oshkosh has a whole lot more commercial booths for pilots, the balloon fiesta has much less in terms of commercial booths. Most of the commercial sales there were food and merchandise (shirts, hats, etc.). There seemed to be some booths for vendors, but it was definitely the minority
- The Fiesta events are primarily early morning and then evening, with the fair grounds closing midday. There aren't activites all day every day like Oshkosh, and while there were RVs camping they didn't have a large camp like Scholler. Most people seemed to be staying in hotels (which were booked)
- Very few people seemed to fly themselves in for the event. We were expecting Cutter Aviation (the main FBO at ABQ) to be full. Nope, very few people. The traffic around ABQ was really not bad at all, although apparently it's much better this year than previous years. You get shepherded into a particular parking lot and we didn't figure out how to easily decide where you ended up parking
- The balloon fiesta has an iPhone ap that's cool and useful for finding various things at the event, bathrooms, your car, etc. Oshkosh could benefit from this. Maybe it exists and I just didn't know about it, but if they don't have an ap, they should
After having seen both, in a lot of ways I actually prefer the balloon fiesta to Osh.
If it's not on your bucket list, make sure to add it and make the trip!
Most of us on PoA are powered aircraft folks, and I'm not even aware of anyone who's a ballooner on here (although I'm sure we have some). I would definitely recommend going to see it. It's a very unique and fun experience, and Albuquerque has a lot more interesting tourist attractions to offer than I realized.
There are three main events each day - the "dawn patrol", "mass ascention", and "night lights" (I forget the exact number). Dawn patrol is balloons taking off before the sun rises, so you see the balloons illuminated with their flames as they take off. The mass ascention is essentially over an hour of balloons taking off (a couple hundred or so). You can be pretty close to the action when all of this is happening.
We felt the night lanterns were the coolest, though. That was when all of the balloons got inflated and then illuminated with their flames semi-synchronized, producing a beautiful light.
I figured I'd make a few comparisons between the Balloon Fiesta and Oshkosh:
- Most balloon fiesta attendees seem to be non-pilots, unlike Oshkosh where it's almost all pilots and friends/relatives of pilots
- While Oshkosh has a whole lot more commercial booths for pilots, the balloon fiesta has much less in terms of commercial booths. Most of the commercial sales there were food and merchandise (shirts, hats, etc.). There seemed to be some booths for vendors, but it was definitely the minority
- The Fiesta events are primarily early morning and then evening, with the fair grounds closing midday. There aren't activites all day every day like Oshkosh, and while there were RVs camping they didn't have a large camp like Scholler. Most people seemed to be staying in hotels (which were booked)
- Very few people seemed to fly themselves in for the event. We were expecting Cutter Aviation (the main FBO at ABQ) to be full. Nope, very few people. The traffic around ABQ was really not bad at all, although apparently it's much better this year than previous years. You get shepherded into a particular parking lot and we didn't figure out how to easily decide where you ended up parking
- The balloon fiesta has an iPhone ap that's cool and useful for finding various things at the event, bathrooms, your car, etc. Oshkosh could benefit from this. Maybe it exists and I just didn't know about it, but if they don't have an ap, they should
After having seen both, in a lot of ways I actually prefer the balloon fiesta to Osh.
If it's not on your bucket list, make sure to add it and make the trip!
