What do a Sheep a Duck and a Rooster Have in Common?

The year was 1783 and Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier were sitting around their house in Annonay, France watching paper ashes rise from their fire when they had an epiphany so they make a round balloon out of burlap, layers of paper and 1800 buttons and lite a fire under it filling it with hot air.

That balloon flew for 10 minutes reaching an altitude of over 5000’! The next time they flew the balloon they had to see if living creatures could survive in the air so they put…… you guessed it, a sheep, a duck and a rooster in a basket and sent them up in the air for 8 minutes. When they survived it was time to try a human subject. The king of France at the time, Louis XVI, suggested they use a prisoner as no one would care if it all went horribly wrong but a brave soul from the kings court stepped forward and volunteered instead. His name was Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier (this is where the term pilot came from) and the balloon was connected to a guideline on the ground.

He later did it again a month later with Marquis d’Arlandes untethered flying some 6 miles above Paris. Sadly Pilâtre de Rozier died two years later when his balloon exploded over the English Channel. Luckily the technology around hot air balloon safety has significantly improved since then!

Fast forward some 260 years later when Damien and Keely Mahony took over the operations at Black Hills Balloons. With over 40 years of flying experience between them they know about everything there is to know about hot air ballooning and as Damien likes to say, he has landed the balloon every time he went up.

This past Friday we got the opportunity to experience ballooning for our very first time! We had no idea what to expect. Rides start at sunrise to take advantage of the calmer winds and launch at various sites again depending on the wind. We arrived at their business in Custer at 5:45am where Damien met us with another family of 4. We jumped in their van and drove to the launch site where the crew was busy setting up the balloon.

Balloon all laid out ready to inflate

Once it was inflated one by one got into the basket and away we went! I won’t lie I was more than a little nervous as we lifted off but as soon as we got over the trees I relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

The terrain looks totally different from above the trees. Deer, cows and horses were looking up wondering what the heck was flying overhead!

Some deer running from the scary balloon!

Broken Arrow Campground in Custer

Crazy Horse in the distance

Looking straight down

As cool as these pictures are they just don't do it justice so I created this short video of our day.

Finding a landing spot is somewhat interesting. You are at the mercy of the winds and the landing spots. In our case we were headed over town, once we got to the other side landing spots are limited so Damien picked a spot right along the highway. He said he has launched from there but never set down. It was amazing how he was able to drop the balloon right where he wanted it!

Once on the ground the crew took over deflating the balloon and getting it on the trailer.

The basket itself weighs 900#'s

Damien meanwhile set up a table with cheese, crackers, muffins, champagne and orange juice. This too is a long-standing tradition among ballooners. You see, you cannot always control where you land and back in the day farmers were afraid of big round objects dropping from the sky and often attacked them with pitchforks. So the pilots started bringing champagne and offering it as a goodwill gesture to the farmers, a tradition that still carries on today.

It was an awesome day, filled with excitment, nerves and wonderment.

Since it was still somewhat early in the day we decided to swing through Custer State Park on our way home and see if we could find any of the baby buffalo that were being born and we hit the jackpot coming across a herd of cows and calves right along the road!

We also saw some other beautiful scenery on our drive.

I think we were back home by 9:00 and ready to work so if you are passing through the area definitely check out the ballooning over the hills, it is one you will never forget!