Up, up and away : Cluster balloonist sighted Sunday over North Canaan

NORTH CANAAN — Anyone who was up early last Sunday morning and happened to look up at the right moment might have thought they were hallucinating.

But in fact, yes, there was a man flying across a brilliant blue sky with the aid of a big bouquet of brightly colored balloons.

Most of us have only seen that kind of thing in cartoons, or the movie “Up†(in which helium balloons transported a house). It fascinates, but doesn’t seem like it would really work.

Of course, history shows it can work. There was Lawnchair Larry, for example. In 1982, he bought more than 40 weather balloons (reports vary on the actual number), attached them to his lawn chair, grabbed some beer and a BB gun (to aid in his descent) and expected to float 30 feet above his Los Angeles backyard. Instead, he soared up to16,000 feet and into the airspace of the Los Angeles International Airport. He was rescued by helicopter. And arrested.

For the past seven years, San Diego resident John Ninomiya has been trying to give a stamp of credibility to the sport now known as cluster balloon flying.

According to his website, Ninomiya is the only licensed cluster balloon pilot in the United States. There are only six worldwide, so it’s not surprising few people know about it.

Ninomiya began flying hot air balloons about 20 years ago. For him, it is the fulfillment of a childhood dream.

His goal is to make a flight of at least 40 minutes in each state. Connecticut marked number 46. It is not his first attempt to complete a flight here. His previous efforts were put off by weather and regulations.

He tries to schedule flights in conjunction with hot air balloon events, where he can usually find a sponsor to help with the $4,000 cost as well as a volunteer crew.

Ninomiya ended up in North Canaan through connections with local hot air balloonists (including Darrell Long) who made the arrangements with C. A. Lindell’s.

Volunteer crew members were up well before dawn on Oct. 10, traveling from around the state and as far away as New Jersey to a field behind the store’s lumberyard, where they worked under a generator-powered stadium light, filling some 50 oversized latex balloons with helium.

About half were tied off in small clusters to sandbags. The others were attached to the very small seat, designed for paragliding, in which Ninomiya would ride. Dangling from the chair were clusters of water-filled bags, which the pilot can drain to get more lift.

Flight levels, optimally between 3,000 and 5,000 feet, and descent are controlled as well by either cutting away or popping balloons. Balloons from 4 to 7 feet in inflated diameter provide very precise control options.

Like hot air ballooning, cluster ballooning is done at dawn or dusk, when the winds are calmest.

Sunday was a perfect morning, except for the cold, which caused frost to form on the top of the balloons. It snowed down as crew members went through a preflight checklist, adding to the surreal feel of the morning’s activities.

At the other side of the field, two air balloons were readied for inflation. They would follow Ninomiya.

At about 7 a.m., as the sun was peeking out over the edge of the horizon, Ninomiya strapped into his harness. Crew members attached the remaining balloons, and smaller clusters to each of his knees. While he waited for the two hot air balloon escorts to be inflated, a process that takes only about five minutes, Ninomiya tested the lift, hovering just above the ground.

Once the sun was fully up, and someone realized he needed to move the balloon cluster out of the shadow of one of the hot air balloons, the sunny warmth expanded the helium. He was quickly lifted high above the ground, draining a bag of water to aid the lift. It was about 7:20 a.m. He disappeared to the north, over the drive-through warehouse, as the crew and a small crowd of spectators jumped into vehicles to follow him.

It was a slow chase, with lots of stops to look for the slow-moving balloons. At times, with trees blocking the view, the only way to get a mark on Ninomiya was to listen for the burners on the hot air balloons trailing him.

He drifted northeast, then northwest. There was no telling where he would land. It was up to the whim of the wind, and the pilot’s judgment in seeking out an open spot. The driver of the lead chase car has crewed for Ninomiya before and said he has landed in tiny clearings, grabbing onto tree limbs to pull himself in.

Fortunately, the wind on this flight took him over a ridge and above a cornfield along Clayton River Road in Sheffield almost exactly 40 minutes later. Crew members helped him “walk†across the field, where some spectators got a chance to sit in the chair and hover about 20 feet off the ground. Neighborhood residents came out to see, too delighted to be upset about the early morning fuss.

Among the states left to pursue are Alaska and Hawaii. Both will be a challenge expense-wise, Ninomiya said, because there are no hot air balloon festivals. He expects to reach his goal within two years. A record of his flights can be found at clusterballoon.org.

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