It was barely 6 a.m., but the crew of Czech Mate was already in action. A half dozen volunteers offloaded equipment for what they hoped would be the first successful flight of the weekend at the Crown of Maine Balloon Fest in Presque Isle.
From a trailer hitched to Seth and Katherine Bailey’s truck, out came the basket, the burner, then the massive envelope of the hot air balloon. All around them, a dozen other teams completed the same ritual.
While the balloons inflated, hundreds of people watched through a nearby fence, standing on cars and shoulders, craning their necks to get a look at the colors painting the sky. Blues and oranges and reds dotted the horizon as the colossal floating aircraft took flight.
What drew less attention were the trucks and vans kicking up dust as they motored out of the Northern Maine Fairgrounds. Hot air balloons don’t have rudders or engines, so their flight paths are at the mercy of the wind. A skilled pilot can exercise some control by changing altitude to find different currents, but it is still hard to know exactly where a balloon will land.
So as the balloons took off, teams of people, called chase crews, followed on the ground. They had pledged their morning to tracking down their airborne passengers, wherever they made landfall.
Katherine Bailey has led a chase crew for the better part of two decades. Crew chief to her husband Seth, the pilot, she runs the ground operation from the driver’s seat of her truck. “Boss Lady” is embroidered on the sleeve of her sweatshirt.
In the back seat sat Beth Ann Cummings. A retired teacher, she’s been crewing at the festival with her daughter for eight years.
“It’s exciting to be in the middle of it with these guys,” Cummings said. “It’s so nice to be connected with them because they’re fun and they’re knowledgeable.”
Like most of the volunteers, Cummings is an Aroostook County local. There are few qualifications to the job other than listening skills and a good work ethic.
“You need a good coffee machine,” Katherine Bailey added.
After a few miles, she pulled over on the Aroostook River Bridge. The crew watched Czech Mate cross Main Street and pass overhead.
Heading toward Caribou, Seth Bailey radioed in his trajectory. When the truck came to its next stop, Katherine checked Glympse, a GPS-tracking app that shows his real time position. The balloon was tracking toward a series of fields by the Higgins Road.
“I remember times in Ontario where none of these apps were readily available, and he would land and I didn’t know where he was,” Katherine said. “I would just drive around honking my horn. We’re on the radio and I’m like ‘hey, tell me if I’m getting close.’”
The Baileys run a hot air balloon business a few hours over the border, in New Brunswick, Canada. The Crown of Maine festival is one of their annual events, but they’ve flown around the world, from Albuquerque, New Mexico — host of the world’s largest balloon festival — to stops across Europe.
The balloon crews are not the only ones who follow the flight path. As Katherine and her team drove toward Seth, every road was lined with people who had awoken early to experience the spectacle. Adding to the drama of the morning, one balloon hit a power line in front of the field road where Seth ultimately landed, shutting down the area while the Presque Isle fire and police departments responded. No one was injured.
Katherine drove with care through the potato field to Seth’s balloon. Some crew had already arrived and were working to disassemble the basket. With the help of their volunteers, the Baileys shoved the envelope into a bag and back into the trailer, and headed back into town for breakfast. In a handful of hours, they’d wheel the equipment back to the launch field and prepare to do it all again for the evening flight.
Many balloon teams use the same crews year-over-year, building relationships that the pilots and their volunteers describe as the best part of the festival.
“It turns into like a little balloon family for us,” Katherine Bailey said.
Saturday marked the fourth time that Sara Eklund, an ER nurse, had joined the volunteer crew. She originally signed up as a way to serve her community after leaving the military, but found friendship with the Baileys and others that has led her to other balloon festivals, too.
“Without the camaraderie and without the people, it’d just be a balloon,” Eklund said. “It’s the people that get the balloon moving and going, and without that, you don’t have a festival.”
