Up, up and away: Ballooning over Yuma

Annual Caballeros de Yuma Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA) - Friday morning, the sun was barely peeking above the horizon when pilots from across Arizona met at Kiwanis Park in Yuma.

The crisp morning air meant perfect conditions for ballooning.

Private balloon pilot, Dwayne Osborne has 40-years of ballooning experience.

Osborne said, “We move with the wind so if it’s too windy we cant get [the hot air balloon] stood up. We want calm winds, we also like calm winds for the landing.”

For the past 14-years, the Caballeros de Yuma have held their annual Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival.

“It’s a magical experience! It's unlike flying in an airplane or anything else. There's very little sensation of movement,” Osborne said.

Mayor Doug Nicholls participated in the past and described his ride as, “It’s kind of a peaceful experience and as the balloon rises and Yuma kind of comes out, it's really inspiring and you just float along.”

Ashley Godinez and her husband won Chretin's Restaurant & Cantina's balloon ride contest.

Godinez expressed a bit of fear but, she said, “I just want to see how everything looks from that high. It’ll be pretty cool.”

However, before going up in the air, it takes a four to five person crew to set up the hot air balloons.

That process includes unloading baskets and propane, rolling out colorful balloon tops that are 90 to 100-cubic feet wide, then blowing them up with air until they stand up.

Minutes later, passengers are floating off into the sky.

If you have a propane BBQ grill at home, it generally puts out about 40,000 to 50,000 BTU's of heat.

A commercial pizza oven puts out over 200,000 BTU's.

In a hot air balloon, 19-million BTU's of heat is coming out during an average ride.

While in the basket, the pilot uses two burners to maintain the elevation of the balloon.

During the flight over Yuma, the balloon can reach heights of up to 500ft, providing a birds-eye view of the Colorado River and hovers just above the leafy green agriculture fields of Somerton.

Pilot Neil Davidson believes ballooning is the safest form of aviation.

“We can land anywhere. I’ve landed on basketball courts, in cul de sacs, streets, and on parks. We can land just about anywhere depending on what the weather does.”

Up there you feel weightless, letting the balloon take you where ever the wind blows.

The Caballeros de Yuma's annual Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival runs from November 22-24.

For more details, click here.