Re-Introducing SUZY BLUE

After mentioning that we had once been involved in hot air ballooning and getting comments from people, some who I've known awhile in blogging, were not aware of that I went back to my older postS to pull out this post from July 9, 2007 about our Hot Air Balloon - Suzy Blue.

If there is some interest I have several other posts about our days of Hot Air Ballooning that I will re-post.  Let me know.

FLYING SUZY BLUE PART 7 - Bank Commercial

I can hardly believe it's been over 3 months since I did a blog on Suzy Blue. The last one was here. Others were posted on 7/9, 7/21, 7/28, 9/3 and 9/4.

(click to enlarge)

In September, 1982 Mickey and Suzy Blue were hired by Bank of Tulsa do a TV commercial for them. When he accepted we truly had no idea what an adventure this would turn out to be. I'll endeavor to tell the story step by step with the pictures and narrative.

They dress Mickey up as a Limo Driver. The first scene is his driving up in this black limo.

The next scene shows him exiting the limo.

He goes to the waiting balloon basket.

This is the young man who was in the limo. I failed to get a picture of Mickey opening the back door of the limo, and this young man getting out with his briefcase in hand and walking to the balloon.

Suzy Blue has been inflated and they are flying off to go to the bank.

In actuality they fly only a short way and land, but you don't see this part.

This is what is now taking place. Mickey is laying out the balloon for a second flight. Notice the two parachute jumpers to the left. One of these is actually the young man in the business suit before. The other is a photographer.

By now Mickey has taken off the limo jacket and cap and is firing the hot air burner for another flight.

One of the jumpers is now in the balloon with the other about to get in.

Here Mickey and both jumpers are getting ready and positioned. Our 13 year old son, Marc, is holding down the basket

They are now beginning to lift off. Notice the one jumper is sitting on the edge of the balloon rim facing the inside of the basket. This jumper is actually the photographer.

Here is Suzy Blue as she is up-up and away.

Here I am, with one of our crew members, watching as they float away and we are getting ready for the chase. Notice the fan has been picked up off the ground and placed in the pickup bed.

The story, at this point, must be told by narrative only because we do not have pictures. The balloon flew away out of the city area where these snapshots were taken. When they were out far enough and high enough it was time for the next step of the commercial. The photographer who was sitting on the edge of the balloon as pictured in the previous picture now stands, still facing with his back to the ground. The second jumper, the young man who had been in the business suit, climbs up on the rim straddling the photographer and facing him. The photographer has the camera on his helmet. When they are positioned properly and ready the photographer goes first, falling out backward and then the second jumper following shortly thereafter. The photographer is filming the 2nd jumper all the way down.

With the basket loosing the weight of two men it has shot up very high and very fast and Mickey must maintain control of the balloon at this point. He does so and begins to fly away. In a "normal" balloon flight the chase crew (me and others) would be following the balloon, as we have been to this point, and watching for it to land and be there to help with the landing and packing up of the balloon. In this "abnormal" flight the crew is having to locate and pick up the two jumpers who are now stranded in a field. In the meantime the balloon is flying away.

Here is one of the jumpers as we arrive to pick him and his gear up. In the meantime the balloon is flying further away. The crew cannot be in two places at one time. By the time we have located and picked up both jumpers the balloon is out of our sight and no where to be seen!!! We finally had to contact the local sheriff to help us locate and pick up the balloon and pilot. This is only one of two times that I ever "lost" Suzy Blue.

Now for the rest of the story. Since a hot air balloon cannot be flown on a designated route, but only by the wind direction, this commercial is taken in several different segments and then spliced together for the TV commercial.

The "customer" jumper is placed in a helicopter and jumps out and lands in the bank parking lot. The helicopter is never "shown" and the illusion is he is being dropped out of the balloon. The young man, once again dressed in the suit and carrying the briefcase walks into the bank to make his deposit.

This is the last shot with Mickey returning to his limo after dropping off his customer.

This commercial ran on all three TV channels 2-6-8 at various times, from October 1 through 31, 1982.

This was truly an interesting and exciting adventure and learning process for all of us with Suzy Blue that were involved. The moral of the story, as if we didn't all already know this, don't believe everything you see on TV!!!! Multiple filming and a lot of splicing can do a lot.

FLYING SUZY BLUE PART 6 - Excitement!

Are you ready for some REAL excitment now with Suzy Blue?

This adventure took place on July 25, 1982. We took Suzy Blue out for just some pleasure flying. The passenger's this lovely, summer night were two of our faithful crew members, who you've seen in various pictures with us even in out of state

Balloon Rally's.

One of the ways we paid back our crew for all their long hours and help was to give flights whenever the opportunity arose. So Mickey, Jean & Ed were having a glorious flight. At this time, in Tulsa, seeing a Hot Air Balloon in the sky was still quite a novelity. We often felt like Pied Piper as we would realize the long line of cars following us on the streets below.

This night there was one particular single gentlemen who had literally been following us for almost the entire flight. Ever so often he would pull his car over to the side of the road, jump out with his camera and take pictures. We were quite use to this but this gentlemen was more enthusiastic than most. The three in the basket had been waving to him from above and myself and the chase crew with me had been waving and giving High 5's back & forth with him.

You can see from this picture that Suzy Blue

was heading straight for downtown Tulsa.

I am going to give you a little bit of a ballooning lesson as I go along in this post. I think most of you know that the balloon does not have a steering wheel and the pilot and the balloon are being driven solely by the wind currents. The application of the heat from the propane burner is used solely to rise or lower in altitude.

The communication between the pilot (Mickey) and the chase crew driver (me) was done by CB radio. The flight had been of a pretty long duration this evening and the sun was beginning to get closer to going down.

The real skill of a Hot Air Balloon Pilot is in the 1) inflation , 2) the lift off and 3) and most difficult, the landing. Suzy Blue had been flying for quite some time over a very heavy populated area of town. One of the main things the pilot is on the look out for is an area large enough to safety land.

You can see from this shot that Suzy Blue was flying fairly low as Mickey was keeping his eyes open for that safe landing spot.

He called down to me "TU is just up ahead and I'm going to put her down in the quadrant between the 2 buildings. Be sure the crew is there and ready to grab us because I'm going to have to put her down pretty fast and hard."

Now I understood exactly what he meant. The ideal situation is to slowly reduce the height of the balloon and gently glide her down to the ground. In this particular situation, the slow reduction of height and gentle glide were not going to be possible because, 1) there was a 3 story building to the South where Suzy Blue was approaching from, 2) there was another 3 story building looming up ahead to the North, 3) there was a rather small grassy area between the two. Mickey had to clear the first 3 story building, quickly pull the top of the balloon out (which is what lets the air out) and fall at a higher height and rate of speed than normal.



None of us, either in the balloon or on the ground, were concerned because Mickey was a superb pilot and the winds were calm.






This is a picture of part of the building taken as the chase vehicle and crew race toward the parking area and jump out of the vehicle in preparation to catch Suzy Blue when she lands. We knew she would bounce and we would have to grab her quickly.

Enter our friendly, constant, enthused, picture taking, driver!!! He pulled up to the curb, right in front of where Mickey was putting Suzy Blue down, jumps out of his car to begin his picture taking. I am SHOUTING, "GET THAT CAR OUT OF HERE!" It is too late. Suzy Blue lands just behind the vehicle and then drags across the trunk, smashing the rear window. Rises a little and lands on the grass as planned.

The chase crew is there to quickly grab the basket and hold it down. The person in the yellow shirt to the right top of the picture has been given the crown line by Mickey. She runs out with it and is pulling to get the balloon laid out on the ground. The basket is then laid over, the air is squeeze out of the balloon, she is then rolled up and placed in her balloon bag

This picture gives you a good look at the second 3 story building.


Here is the car....you can see the man jumped out to do his picture taking so quickly he didn't even shut the door. When Suzy Blue is safely in place and everything has calmed down, Mickey turns and says, "Who does this car belong to?" This man, standing back a little and trying to be inconspicious, timidly raises his hand and says in a very meek and mild voice, "Mine".

By this time students are coming from every direction to see the Hot Air Balloon and all this excitement. We have quiet an audience

This is a shot of the broken glass in the back seat. Now comes the really good part. The car was a company car!!!! Mickey got all the pertinent information and gave him our information and told him our insurance company would take care of it.

All os us had a good laugh and thought how we'd like to be there when he went into his boss on Monday morningg and said, "I was hit by a Hot Air Balloon." "WHAT?" We would also loved to see the expression on the Insurance Agents and Adjusters faces.

One of the major expenses of owning a hot air balloon is the insurance. We were fortunate in the years we flew to have only 2 small claims. This one and one other, where a horse, out in the country, got spooked by the sound of the burner and ran through a fence.

Thanks for flying with Suzy Blue once again. Stay tuned for the next adventure!

FLYING SUZY BLUE PART 5 - 3 Special Events

(Please enlarge all pictures for detail)

Here I am again with 3 very special events that Suzy Blue and balloonist Mickey were able to participate in.

Parachute jumpers LOVE to jump out of balloons!!!! March 31st Mickey allowed 4 young men to participate in this adventure.

Mickey flew 2 of the young men at a time. Which means we launched the balloon with 2 aboard and after they jumped Mickey brought Suzy Blue down and the other 2 young men climbed aboard and they took off for their jump.

The pictures above show them in the basket and ready to launch.

The lower right picture shows Mickey with his parachute on.

Mickey is not a jumper and has never jumped BUT an explanation is necessary here.

The lift and flight of a balloon is controlled solely by the application of the heat from the burner and wind direction. There is no steering wheel!!!!

The skill of the balloonist is of utmost importance.

The other factor in ballooning is the weight that is being carried in the basket.

When you take off with 3 people in the basket and 2 of them proceed to jump out

the balloon immediately skyrockets upward from the loss of the weight.

Mickey had the parachute as a safety precaution in case he lost control of the balloon and needed to jump. He did not!!!!

These pictures show the parachutes as they were floating toward ground and 2 of 4 very happy and ecstatic jumpers.

The event was a total success for all involved.

A wedding in Suzy Blue!!

On June 1st we had this privilege as Dale Bagby & Tammy Robinson were married.

The event took place from Veterans Park in Tulsa.

The guests were all seated in lawn chairs on the grass. The top left picture shows Tammy walking toward the balloon with her bridesmaid, the best man, the groom and preacher waiting outside the basket. Mickey, dressed in a suit, is already in the basket of the inflated balloon.

The lovely bride and handsome groom are helped into the basket.

The bridesmaid, best man and preacher remain outside the basket

and the wedding vows are exchanged.

Just as the preacher pronounced them Man & Wife, Mickey applies the heat to the balloon and they begin to rise and fly away.

At the time we had a horn on Suzy Blue Chase Vehicle that played various tunes---

one of which was the wedding march. As they are flying away the wedding march is being blasted from the chase vehicle.

The bottom two pictures on the left were taken at the end of the hour flight.

Mickey is toasting the new couple after landing the balloon

As I post this I realize that this young couple would have celebrated their 25th anniversary this year!!! WOW, how times flies. We kept in touch with them for several years and when their first child was born we took over a little Suzy Blue T-shirt for the baby. Wish I could give you current information on them but we lost track of them after we moved to Albuquerque in 1984.

Live radio broadcast from Suzy Blue !!

This event took place on July 21st. I hope you will enlarge and read the letter from the Tulsa Park & Recreation Department giving us permission and explaining the event.

Be sure not to miss the C.S. (cheap shot) at the end of the letter!!!!

John Erling had the morning radio show on KRMG for years in Tulsa and was, and still is, quite the Tulsa celebrity.

We felt honored to be chosen to participate in this event.

Thanks for sharing in these 3 very exciting fun times with us.

There are still some REAL adventures coming up--so stay tuned!!

FLYING SUZY BLUE PART 4 - 1982 Events

This will be my fourth post on our hot air balloon, Suzy Blue. If you haven't read the other post I first introduced Suzy Blue here on Show & Tell. You can find the other three posts about her here, here, and here.

Our first event in 1982 was in Glenpool for the dedication of their new Community/Senior Citizen Center. This event took place on March 4th. We participated in this event along with several other Tulsa Balloons. Glenpool is a small town just south of Tulsa and is one of the first places where oil was discovered in this area. The top picture is the newspaper article about the event and Suzy Blue is the balloon to the left .

The second 1982 event took place on May 14th. Suzy Blue was tethered in downtown Tulsa's William Center Green for the national Rideshare promotion for the Tulsa area. A drawing was held for two free rides in Suzy Blue, one for a current ride sharer and one for a new ride sharer who signed up prior to May 10th. The second picture is of the newspaper article and picture of Suzy Blue.

This picture was in the Tulsa World on Friday, April 10th and was the kind of article we hated to see. It was about our good friend and fellow balloonist who blew into the power lines across from Faith United Methodist Church the evening before around 6:30 p.m. The article did not name either the pilot or the passenger. No one was hurt!!!

June 5th & 6th found us in Jonesboro, Arkansas for a balloon rally. These balloon rally's were always a lot of fun for us and our crew.

This is our crew that traveled to Jonesboro for the rally. Left to right upper row: Jean Ford (her husband Ed is taking the picture), Mickey's brother Doug and sister-in-law Helen who joined us from Memphis, Jacque, Susan. Lower row: Marc & Mickey

This is a picture of Suzy Blue with a KING banner which we flew for Mr. King who was running for State Representative. This was one of the ways Mr. King choose to get his name before the public during the campaign.

July 10th & 11th we participate in the Haskell Fly-in & Rally. Haskell is another small town near Tulsa. 7 balloons and balloonists participated in this rally. This is a picture that one of the other balloonists took of Suzy Blue flying over a field in this area.

Here is another picture taken of Suzy Blue over the Arkansas River during the Haskell event. Mickey had just done a "Splash & Dash" just before this shot was taken. A "Splash & Dash" is where the balloonist goes down toward the water just enough to touch the basket in the water and then apply the hot air to the balloon and fly back up. It is quite an accomplishment that the balloonist take great pride in accomplishing. Mickey was very good at this.

This is just a picture of a happy passanger and the Suzy Blue crew. Susan, Ed, Jean , & Mickey

Mickey was hired to do promotional flights for a resort, The Coves at Bird Island on Grand Lake. We traveled there for these flights on July 3, July 24 and September 5. It was always a fund time for us. Here we are doing the Champagne Toast after a flight with these passengers.

August 28 & 29 found us at the Cloud Bustin '82 Hot Air Balloon Rally in Kansas City, Missouri. This is the front of the program.

This is a shot back to the balloons still on the grounds at the Kansas Rally taken as Suzy Blue is flying away. You can see several ballons ready to ascend, one just laying out on the field, and several in the process of inflation.

This shot is taken from Suzy Blue as she is heading for the "X" in the field. This is called a "Hound and Hare Race". A lead balloon (the hound) takes off first and lands and marks a large "X" on the field. The other balloons (the hares) fly toward the "X" and the balloon that gets their bean bag closest to the "x" wins the race.

Thanks for sharing in these happy events and memories with me. The next post I do on Suzy Blue will be about some VERY special events that we were part of during the year of 1982. Please stay tuned!!!

FLYING WITH SUZY BLUE PART II - 1981 International Balloon Fiesta

This picture is the cover of the 1981 official program of the 10th Annual Internation Balloon Fiesta held in Albuquerque, NM the first 2 weekends in October for a total of 9 days.

In this post I am going to write about this grand-daddy of them all .

As I explained here, our introduction to hot air balloons began in 1979 when we attended the 8th Fiesta just for a weekend as spectators only.

In 1980 we attended the 9th Fiesta for the entire 9 days as crew members for our friends ERA (Electronic Realtors Association) Balloon. They had introduced us to ballooning. Mickey had earned his Private Hot Air Balloon License and did fly their ERA balloon during part of this time.

By the time the 10th Fiesta rolled around in 1981 we attended with Suzy Blue. Above is our official chase vehicle pass, Mickey's Pilot ID, and the propane card to refuel the propane tanks each day.

This picture shows some of the balloons being inflated on the balloon field amidst the crowds of people that attend.

This is our fearless Pilot!!!! Ballooning is an early morning sport. We would set our alarms for about 4:30 and arrive at the balloon field by 6 a.m. YES, that early of a morning in Albuquerque in October it is cold and this picture depicts that.

It was just 9 days of pure bliss for us and our large group that made the trip from Tulsa with us. The high point of the event for us is shown here. The Australian balloon pilots had a drawing among the 300 registered balloons and Mickey won the drawing.

This certificate reads: This certificate is valid for one round-trip ticket for one individual from Los Angeles or San Francisco to Sidney, Australia. Must be redeemed within 12 months upon receipt. Contact6 Bob Dickson for redemption. October 10, 1981. Mickey was to be furnished a balloon in Sidney to participate in a Balloon Rally there. We were ALL so excited about this!!!

The sad part is that Mickey never took the trip. My mother was very ill and living with us at the time and I was unable to go. Mickey said if I couldn't attend with him he wouldn't go and he didn't. I tried my best to get him to go and take our 13 year old son Marc but he wouldn't. It is one of the things that all three of us really regret to this day.

This picture is of Ella and I in our Suzy Blue skirt and tops that we wore while at the parties in Albuquerque. Ella & her husband, Floyd traveled with us to Memphis and Albuquerque as part of our crew.

Since Mickey & my anniversary is October 4th we celebrated our 21st through 25th Wedding Anniversary every year in Albuquerque at the Balloon Fiesta. This is our 23rd Anniversary. The girl in the red dress is Anna Lee. She and her husband, Don, also traveled with us from Tulsa to Memphis and Albuquerque. From left to right is: Susan, Mickey, forever friend Joan, forever friend Bev and Bev's husband, Jim. The others were there too just not in this picture.

Part of the celebration is a parade down Central Avenue of the balloon chase vehicles, balloons and crew. This is a few of us as we were preparing for the parade.

We have MANY fun stories and experiences from this Fiesta. One of which is this: Suzy Blue was a "stock balloon". That means that we ordered her out of a catalog and she was not a custom made balloon. There was another balloon the exact colors and size that was owned by a Doctor from Kansas City. We kept running into this Dr. and his balloon at various Rally's beginning in Memphis and developed a very friendly rivalry with he and his crew. Our mascot, Mickey Mouse was always tied to the corner of Suzy Blue's basket. When we got to our chase vehicle on the morning of October 6th , where the basket and balloon stayed over night at the Holiday Inn, Mickey was gone. There was a note in Mickey's place that read that Mickey had been mousenapped by Big Bird. We were all quite upset. Two days later on the morning of October 8th they held what was called the Tumbleweed Drop event. All the balloons would start out where ever in the city they choose and the object was to drop a big tumbleweed onto a very large "X" in the center of the balloon field. Prizes were given for the winners. During this tumbleweed drop some of our Tulsa group were on the field watching and suddenly down comes a big tumbleweed with Mickey Mouse tied to it. We were so happy when we got back to the field that morning and were greeted by these enthusiastic Tulsa's who had rescued Mickey.

So far I have pretty much covered the high points of 1981 and Suzy Blue's adventures. Stay tuned for the next installment!!!