Beyond Hot Air Ballooning will take you places you've never seen. Balloon events from around the world, flights, competition, training, interviews with pilots and Enthusiasts.
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Like hi.
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I'm Vicky foge.
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I'm editor of hot air today virtual magazine.
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And with us today is Adam GE.
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He is co-founder of the balloon Training Academy.
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Hi Adam.
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Hey, how are you doing Vicki?
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I'm great.
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How are you going to tell us a bit about yourself?
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Yep.
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So I'm Adam McGee.
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I'm co-founder and president of the balloon training.
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Adam e and we're a 501 c 3 nonprofit organization and completely
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volunteer based.
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We're just trying to give back to ballooning and provide
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education and resources through our website and they'll try
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to get more pilots involved in Hunter ballooning.
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That's awesome.
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And that's one of the things that really made me want to
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reach out to you guys is that I think it's so cool to take
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ballooning to that next level to do this training online.
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So it's just it's really opened up the world for a lot of
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balloonists, but first a little bit about yourself tell us
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how you got into hot air ballooning.
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Well, I'm fortunate one in that my mom became a pilot when
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I was very young back in the mid-90s.
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The u.s.
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National hot air balloon championships were held in Columbia,
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Missouri. And my mom saw an advertisement of them looking
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for a ground crew for the chase team.
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And so she volunteered as a ground crew member and spent
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the week helping to set up and pack up balloons and enjoyed
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it so much that she wanted to become a pilot and took her
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first flight.
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Still love ballooning.
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So became a pilot started our training and I just grew up
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around balloons and wanting to do it.
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So, you know ever since I was five years old and I took my
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first flight and started training when I was 14 and got my
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Pilot's certificate when I was 16 and kind of haven't looked
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back since and ballooning is kind of become my life, I guess
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outside of work, especially but definitely very time-consuming
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part of my life.
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Absolutely, and so it sounds like you've been around ballooning
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a long time and much like myself and we get a lot of opportunity
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to fly great places and so tell me is there.
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Do you have a favorite spot?
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I'd say in the United States kind of my favorite place to
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fly is Galena, Illinois.
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Just flying in the the valleys and the kind of hilly terrain
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of Galena.
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But you know ballooning is kind of opened up a lot of opportunities
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fly across the United States and even around the world and
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I'd say kind of the trip that I enjoyed the most was getting
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a chance to fly in Taiwan getting the kind of fly in the
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valley between Jean mountain ranges and you know spending
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a couple weeks in their culture and you know, not speaking
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the language and I was really kind of a fun trip just you
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know, ballooning is kind of a communication on its own and
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you don't really need to speak the language.
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You know, you just everyone just loves ballooning no matter
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where you're at around the world.
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So yeah, it just it really is funny how it brings us all
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together and you're right.
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You don't need to speak any language you can point and laugh
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and and That's a great thing about ballooning as a pilot
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you are in charge of flying but it also takes a ground crew.
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So it's fun to be able to engage people when you land somewhere
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and you could say hey give me a little help and you if you
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don't say it in their language, you can motion to them and
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next thing, you know involved and that's a lot of fun and
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for me as well and he's taking us around the world.
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My husband and I are both pilots and and we love that.
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We love that about it really unites people and speaking of
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uniting people you met your wife.
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And ballooning you want to tell us a little about that.
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Yeah.
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So my wife Kim, she also comes from a ballooning family.
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So, you know, she grew up around ballooning and we ended
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up meeting a little later on and I guess our lives we ended
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up meeting at a balloon event in Indianola Iowa, and I guess
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you know, the rest is history there with that and so yeah,
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we've just always enjoyed ballooning together and you know
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if we're not working Usually ballooning or talking about
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ballooning in some form or fashion.
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So that's awesome.
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And so how did you two come up with the idea to start this
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balloon training academy?
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Well, we first were doing hot air balloon youth summer camps
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for kids a kind of 12 13 to 18 years old and we were doing
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those every summer when we were in college.
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And then what we found was the clink the camps are really
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good at getting people interested in ballooning.
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But as soon as the camps were over, you know, we left them.
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We left them after the week and there weren't really resources
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for them to continue on with their training and kind of get
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that help in the push.
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They needed to earn their certificates.
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So we kind of had this idea to form this nonprofit and kind
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of do online training and Ground Schools to really make blue
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knowledge readily available makes up make safety content
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available and really help people obtain their certificates.
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That's awesome.
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And again, that's that's it's such a big push for blending
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to be on online where people if they want to know things
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they go on and they Google it and Just for someone as simple
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as if I want to get involved in ballooning.
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How do I do it and now being able to have that course where
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they can take a ground school because there's been Ground
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Schools offered for a long time.
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But a lot of times people had to travel to another state
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or four states away and it just wasn't affordable or easy.
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And so now it's right at their fingertips and and really
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that's just that's so impressive and really awesome to see
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and you guys are together doing that and you're So just got
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you both have accomplished a lot.
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I know that Kim is set some records and that could be a whole
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other talk.
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We didn't go over that but I'd love to speak to her sometime
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and you are also an examiner.
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Yep.
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Yeah, that's a new thing for me just started becoming a became
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an examiner at the beginning of the year.
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And so that's kind of added a new level of responsibility
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and you know, it's been fun and challenging at the same.
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I'm time, you know, the the challenging part of course is
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having to you know, let someone know that they failed their
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exam and you know didn't obtain their certificate but the
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fun part is being able to tell someone that they passed the
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exam and you know, awarding them a certificate.
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It's always it's always exciting and fun.
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Yeah, yeah, just another step another step another aspect
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of ballooning that you know, hopefully people will see and
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love and embrace and it is it is a group sport.
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We do love people to come out and ask questions and and you
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guys that can attribute to that doing those balloon camps
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and so much information about there.
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So we thank you and tell everyone where they can find your
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information. Yes.
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So on our Site, just www dot the blue not raining academy.com.
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We have all our information on their kind of learn how to
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become a pilot.
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We have our courses on there are Ground Schools some free
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continuing education courses a lot of different stuff on
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the website.
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So yeah, that is awesome.
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Well, thank you so much for being here with me today and
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we will look forward to seeing what great things you guys
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do and hopefully we'll talk again in the future and we'll
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have it here.
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Here on our hot air ballooning virtual magazine.
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Thanks for having me Vicky.
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All right.
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Thank you.
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Say hi to Kim.
Comments
Beyond Hot Air Ballooning
Tue, Sep 29, 2020 3:15 pm
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Beyond Hot Air Ballooning
Beyond Hot Air Ballooning will take you places you've never seen. Balloon events from around the world, flights, competition, training, interviews with pilots and Enthusiasts.
Welcome to
Beyond Hot Air Ballooning
Beyond Hot Air Ballooning will take you places you've never seen. Balloon events from around the world, flights, competition, training, interviews with pilots and Enthusiasts.
Ben has been flying balloons for 10 years, his love for aviation has progressed to making his own home built balloon and expanded as he is helping others build their own experimental balloons.
Phil and Lisa have been in the balloon manufacturing business for over 30 years. Their company provides some of the best balloons, baskets, burners and components for hot air ballooning corporate, private and racing balloonists.
Michelle works as director of exhibitions and marketing director and the IMTS hot air balloon at trade shows, balloon and special events. The company utilizes the hot air balloon as an icon, drawing attention to their organization and promoting in a positive, uplifting way!
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