International Pilots

Alford, Ben ADELAIDE THE KOALA Bristol United Kingdom Andre, Marc G-DADDY Spiegel Switzerland Ary, George STEGGY Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo Brazil Audenaert, Filip HUG A BEAR Waasmunster Belgium Bailey, Seth MASTER ZABA Dartmouth, Nova Scotia Canada Baker, Dave SCARLETT Thatcham, Berkshire United Kingdom Barends, Alex MISTER GLOBIE Enschede, Overijssel Netherlands Bonimcontro, Marcos FLYING SAUCER São Paulo Brazil Burman, Leo MONARCHS Montreal, Québec Canada Burrows, Paul BUSTER THE BULLDOG Bristol United Kingdom Camacho, Ricardo TOY CAR Sao Paulo Brazil Cižius, Jastin PILKIUS ElektrEnai, Vilnius Lithuania Clark, Richard OUR TREAT Calgary, Alberta Canada Cooper, Hal UPTUIT Port Hope, Ontario Canada Czerniawski, Jerzy AVIPOL Bialystok, Podlaskie Poland Davidson, John CHEZ RADIO Belmont, Ontario Canada De Almeida, Ricardo TOY CAR Boituva, São Paulo Brazil De Assis, Luiz CORK São Paulo Brazil Drganc, Luka JACK FM Belmont, Ontario Canada Duval-Harbour, Jesse ST.-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU FIESTA St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Québec Canada Dyer, JD FLYING FOR HEROES Ammanford, Carmarthenshire United Kingdom Farrell, Craig TIGER Palmerston, ACT Australia Ferland, Jean-Francois TICO St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Québec Canada Francoeur, Danielle PIXEL Montreal, Québec Canada Francois, Jean-Michel DRAGONFLY Salles Courbaties, Québec Canada Garcia-Perrote, Juan CITI RADIO Belmont, Ontario Canada George, Peter GRAND BRITANNIA Oxford, Oxfordshire United Kingdom Gleed, David PEGASUS Coldstream, British Columbia Canada Haarhuis, Sanne DUTCH DIRECT Breda, North Brabant Netherlands Hallett, Chloe GRANDMA’S LEGACY Saffron Walden, Essex United Kingdom Held, Adrian CUPID’S HEART Lachen Switzerland Hoefer, Rudolf FOX Michelbach Germany Hoefl er, Greg CAPRICE DU CIEL Chaillon, LORRAINE France Holly, Andrew TALL STEVE Gloucestershire United Kingdom Hooper, Lee ALIEN Radstock, Somerset United Kingdom Hora, Tomas G-DADDY Praha Czech Republic Kalousdian, Christian THE FLYING BUS Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein Germany Kalousdian, Rubens FLYING BUS São Paulo Brazil Kostiuskevicius, Rokas MARIJAMPOLE Marijampole Lithuania Kubicek, Petr KUBICEK DEMO K Brno Czech Republic Lambert, Benoit MASTER YODA BALLOON Court-St.-Etienne Belgium Lang, Dale JELLY BEAN Taber, Alberta Canada Lawton, Jeff FREDDIE THE FOX Godalming, Surrey United Kingdom Lin, Martin BRAVO BEAR Luye Township, Taitung County Taiwan (Republic of China) Lips, Arne LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN West-Vlaanderen Belgium Llado-Costa, Josep TRAMUNTANA Igualada, Catalonia Spain Lopes, Fabio TEDDY AND LINDY Tôrres Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Macedo, Warley MANDRILL São Paulo Brazil Miklousic, Igor CELEBRATION OF FLOWERS Zagreb Croatia Mitchell, Mark SUNDANCE BALLOONS Belmont, Ontario Canada Monge, Leo DRAGONFLY Lectoure France Moore, Ashley WES THE WOLF Bideford, Devon United Kingdom Müller, Roman SWISS CHALET Härkingen, Solothurn Switzerland Nichols, Steven FREDDIE THE FOX Ash, Aldershot United Kingdom Oggioni, Paolo MONDOVI Mondovì, CN Italy O’Neill, Mark CHYM FM Belmont, Ontario Canada Orchard, Tim BUGS BUNNY Aylesbury, Bucks United Kingdom Ouellette Freve, Johann Francois KIRMIZI Longueuil, Quebec Canada Peirsman, Geert ALBERT THE GNOME Belsele Belgium Pereira Gonçalves, Murilo A BRUXA Sombrio, Santa Catarina Brazil Phillips, Richard FREDDIE THE FOX Andover, Hampshire United Kingdom Ritchie, Dale AIRABELLE, THE CREAMLAND COW Golden, British Columbia Canada Roehrs, Hinnerk ALFRED THE CARPENDER Celle Germany Röhrs, Hanna ALFRED THE CARPENDER Bamberg, Bavaria Germany Schultz, Marvin SUNDANCE BALLOONS Belmont Ontario, Canada Seghers, Jos SKY STAR Breendonk Belgium Seghers, Stijn AIRE MARC TOO Lippelo, Antwerpen Belgium Sevrin, Sidney BELZEBUTH Villers-la-Ville Belgium Siebel, Thomas OLAF Freudenberg, NRW Germany Skocdopole, Cliff NORTHERN FLIGHTS Condor, Alberta Canada Strauf, Marcus WERA SCREW DRIVER Waldbröl, NRW Germany Taveira, Valdemir LITTLE DOG Osasco, São Paulo Brazil Thomas, Steve PANTHER Bath, Somerset United Kingdom Toledo, Paulo ROBOT WOOZI Guarujá, São Paulo Brazil Tremblay, Sylvain PIKO St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Québec Canada Vaillancourt, Richard DOCO St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Québec Canada Vaillanourt, Jacob CLOUDSURFER Trois Rivieres, Québec Canada Van Hooft, Frans MIA Schijndel, North Brabant Netherlands Van Overwalle, Peter PRINCESS NELLY Nazareth Belgium Van Wolvelaer, Geert BOBO THE HAPPY LOBSTER Urgup, Nevsehir Turkey Viens, Helene HELENA SUNSET Magog, Québec Canada Viner, John MASTER ZABA North Muskham, Nottinghamshire United Kingdom White, Malcolm HEARTS A’ FIRE Trim, Meath Ireland

The Women

of Balloon Fiesta

By Charlotte Kinney and Kim Vesely, for the AIBF Heritage Committee

ince the beginning of Balloon Fiesta there

Shave been hundreds of women, mostly behind the scenes, who have helped ensure a successful and memorable event. Two of the first three Presidents of Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta®, Inc., the nonprofit corporation that runs the event, were both women: Betty

Perkins and Sheri Bachtell

Moore. The first two Executive

Directors, Linda Rutherford and Marge Ruppenthal, were female, as was Pat Brake, the first staff Event Director.

There have been five female balloonmeisters (the lead official in charge of flight operations): Pat Brake, Neida

Courtney, Neida Courtney-

Bueno, Charlotte Kinney, and Cheryl Lété (now Frost).

Except for Betty Perkins, all of these women are themselves balloon pilots and flew – as have hundreds of other women, including the authors of this article – in the Balloon Fiesta.

While ballooning has always been a male-dominated sport, both internationally and in Albuquerque, female aeronauts have always captured the public’s imagination.

The first woman took flight less than a year after the first men, and brave women such as Jeanne-Genevieve

Labrosse Garnerin, Sophie Blanchard, and (in America)

Clara (Jenny) Van Tassel thrilled spectators with feats of stratospheric skill. Female balloonist/scientists were also at the forefront of atmospheric research in the 20th Century: Jeanette Piccard’s high altitude flights set records that lasted for decades; and inventor, adventurer, and kinetic artist Vera Simons commanded teams of men while conducting research. In the latter half of the last century and the first decades of the current one, a new generation of female pilots continue to achieve “firsts” and break boundaries of their own. Many of these – Nikki Caplan, Carol Rymer Davis, Jetta Schantz, to mention just a few – have flown in the Balloon Fiesta. Men piloted the earliest balloon flights in New Mexico, beginning with Park Van Tassel’s flight from downtown Albuquerque in 1883 and the exploits of Stamm and Blondin in the first decade of the 1900s. After their last gas balloon flight in 1909, ballooning didn’t Above: Scientist-artist-aeronaut Vera Simons return to the state until the late and her crew. 1960s, and to Albuquerque until Sid Cutter acquired his balloon in 1971. After that, it didn’t take long for the ladies – many of them the spouses of male balloonists – to figure out that women are just as capable of flying balloons as men: the wind and weather don’t care what gender you are. It is believed that pioneering New Mexico aviatrix Virginia Cutter, Sid and Bill Cutter's mom, held the first