Summer heat lifts hot air balloons to lofty heights to soar over open Western lands.
The number of ballooning enthusiasts is evident each year at the annual Reno Balloon Festival.
However, it's not a sport for the faint of heart or the weak of wallet.
For starters, one must earn a pilot's license: an investment of about $3,000.
Cost to soar through the air with the greatest of ease: up to $300 an hour.
Not to mention the purchase price: from $10,000 for used to $40,000 for new.
And upkeep: fabric gets replaced, on average, between 300 and 500 hours of flight.
Then there's the yearly inspection required by the Federal Aviation Association.
Before Highland Balloon Repair opened in Mound House, balloonists drove 200 miles to Woodland, Calif.
for the inspection service.
"We saw a need in the area," says Katie Griggs, one of four partners in the business.
All but Griggs work outside jobs as well, but come into the shop to group manhandle the vast swaths of balloon, which must be unfolded and spread onto the roomy warehouse floor.
All the fabric and seams, load tapes and cables, baskets and burners are inspected.
Plus fuel tanks, hoses and valves, each to the specific criteria issued by their manufacturers.
Rolls of repair fabric each bear a tag, to lay a paper trail.
Should a piece fail, it can be traced back to the manufacturer.
Then there's the paperwork lots of it."The FAA is stringent about the amount of paperwork," says Griggs.
The greatest challenge of the business is complying with government regulations, Griggs acknowledges.
Writing a procedural manual for the inspection station took months and months, she recalls.
It was rejected many times.
The rules and regulations changed in mid-project as to how it had to be written." It's all been a learning experience," she says.
The balloons range from sport balloons in which three make up a cozy basket to the big ride balloons that carry 12.
After more than two years in the business, Highland now services about 80 percent of the balloons in the area, estimates Griggs.
The shop also sells ballooning systems.
Many people get into ballooning by working free as crew for a pilot.
In return, they get to log the hours required to get a license.
Six lessons and 10 hours flight time is the minimum to get a private certificate.
That means the pilot can carry passengers, but not operate a paid-ride balloon business.
Griggs and her husband routinely travel to balloon festivals all over the country.
The fests pay her to bring her fanciful balloon, a custom- made show horse make that show fish named Sushi.How did the name come about? "I'm sure it was over dinner one night," Griggs smiles.
Even so, that pays just a portion of the cost to fly.
A one- to three-hour flight takes 30 to 40 gallons of fuel, depending on the size of the balloon, number of passengers, height of flight and even the age of the balloon as older fabric leaks hot air.
An old balloon uses twice the fuel of a new one.
A high, heavy flight can use far more fuel than a low, light ride.And, it ages the fabric faster.
Stan Robertson, a partner in the business, is authorized by the FAA to certify pilots.
Reno balloon festival fans will recognize his signature specialty entry, the giant black and white panda bear.
The other partners, John LaVan and Erick Bonar, bring engineering skills to the mix.
Bonar takes lead on regulatory paperwork.
He's also FAA licensed to approve aircraft, a certification that allowed the business to form.
Both Griggs and Robertson did a two-year apprenticeship under him.
All the partners are pilots, as are their spouses.
Griggs' forte is repairing the fabric.
She started sewing at age nine and had worked years for a family-owned drapery business.
She left the California drapery workroom behind and moved to Nevada in 1990 to become a full-time balloonist.
But several industrial grade sewing machines stand at ready in the Mound House hanger, to stitch up new projects.
One is Griggs' own new balloon, designed and built from scratch.
It can only be licensed as an experimental aircraft, but can carry passengers as a pleasure craft.
It can even be sold as experimental.
Of course, the FAA requires that she write a manual for it.
Other more down-to-earth projects include a new line, still in the beta test stage, of custom-made covers: for baskets, fans and fuel tanks.
Because sport balloonists have to be very, very careful about their equipment.
