State and Local
Friday, March 11,1988/The Battalion/Page 3
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^Balloon owner takes staffers up, up and away
By Tom Eikel
Staff Writer
Residents of Bryan-College Sta
tion have the opportunity to gain a
unique perspective of their commu
nity— a view from above.
Harold Cliver, Class of ’84 and
owner of Rainbow Balloons in
Bryan, is in business giving people
the chance to
, r . . experience the
Vlewpoint thrill of riding
mmmimmmmitmmmitiem in a hot air bal
loon.
Cliver phoned The Battalion
about two weeks ago and offered to
take a few staffers for a ride, and I
was one of the lucky ones chosen to
go.
We met Cliver early one morning
at his home in Bryan.
Most balloon flights take place ei
ther in the early morning or late
evening because wind conditions
are more favorable at these times.
A small test balloon filled with
helium was released and showed
the winds to be light and variable
for our flight.
Once we arrived at our launch
site, Tanglewood Park in Bryan,
Cliver and his crew spread the bal
loon on the ground. He began in
flating it using a gas-powered fan.
The whole balloon setup, Cliver
said, cost about $30,000.
After several minutes, the bal
loon was full enough so that the
burners could be used to finish the
job.
Cliver’s balloon is equipped with
two burners, fueled by two 20-gal
lon propane tanks. Each burner is
capable of producing 12 million
British thermal units of heat per
hour — enough to heat 100 three-
bedroom homes for an hour, he
said.
The balloon is made of a special
nylon material with a polyurethane
coating to keep it from being po
rous.
After about a minute of using the
burners, the balloon was standing
upright and ready for takeoff.
Fully inflated, Cliver’s balloon
Clockwise from upper left:
• At upper left, Harold Cliv
er’s hot air balloon tilts as it is in
flated. The inflation process is al
most complete and the balloon is
slowly becoming upright. Cliver,
Class of ’84, owns Rainbow Bal
loons in Bryan.
• The Flying Tomato balloon
also went floating over Bryan.
This picture was taken from Cliv
er’s balloon.
• This photograph shows an
aerial view of Texas A&M from
the north-northeast corner of
campus.
• Cliver’s balloon is inflated
using a propane gas burner.
Cliver, with his back to the cam
era, operates the burner and ad
justs the flame as the balloon fills
with hot air. His phone number,
779-2523, is on the bottom of the
balloon so that people who see
the balloon can contact him to ar
range for rides.
All of the photographs were
taken by Shelly Schluter.
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holds 105,400 cubic feet of air.
Climbing into the basket, I sud
denly became very concerned about
the strength of wicker, but my con
cerns were needless.
Ballooning is relatively safe.
The chances of being killed in a
balloon accident are only 0.004 per
cent, and roughly 90 percent of all
accidents involve collisions with
power lines.
Most people have at least a mod
erate fear of heights, and I am no
exception. But less than a minute
after leaving the ground, any anxie
ties I may have had vanishea.
The sights were incredible and it
was unbelievably quiet at 7,000 feet
— quiet, that is, except for the dogs.
Every dog, in every backyard, in ev
ery neighborhood we drifted over
was barking at us.
There was also a group of chil
dren in an elementary school play
ground who waved and called,
“Come over here! Conle over he
re!” much to the dismay of their
teacher.
When it was all over, we had trav
eled about five miles in a little less
than an hour.
Cliver has been operating his
company on a full-time basis since
Dec. 1. He says people go up for
many different reasons.
“Birthdays, anniversaries — last
December I had a guy propose in
my balloon; she said yes,” Cliver
said. “But most do it just because
they want to ride in a balloon.”
Cliver, who has flown more than
120 hours in this type of balloon,
said he charges $75 per person for
a one-hour ride, ana that he aver
ages about 40 hours of flight time
per month.
“If you want to book a ride dur
ing the week, you can pretty much
pick your day,” Cliver said.
But if you want to ride on a
weekend, you had best make your
reservations now, he said. Cur
rently, Cliver is booking rides for
weekends in April.
Cliver says he plans to have two
balloons operating by sometime in
April.
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