Up In The Air

BAXTER — Tim Cloyd and his team positioned two fans on either side of his hot air balloon early Saturday morning at Ashton Wildwood Park near Baxter, and the massive cloth bubble began to inflate.

As the balloon took shape rising from the snow, Cloyd fired the propane burners, the vehicle lifted from the ground and the basket tilted upright.

Before the 7:45 a.m. takeoff, fellow balloon pilot Aimee Luhrs of Indianola, read a supply checklist — lip balm, hand warmers, extra scarf, glasses, hat, glove liners, sun screen, credit card and cash. Once at their peak altitude of 18,000 feet, the balloon pilots could have temperatures of minus 6 degrees on a cold February day. But it’s all for a good cause.

Cloyd calls the sub-zero trip the Extreme Flight to Find a Cure. Saturday’s departure from Ashton Observatory launched the fourth annual flight. Cloyd has been involved in hot air ballooning since 2000. He and his wife Elsie Cloyd founded the 501(c)3 TEC Visions four years ago to raise awareness and money to support cancer research. Cloyd said this year’s flight raised $3,400 and the flight has seen $28,000 in support since its inception.

“I’d been ballooning and I’d done long-distance flights — they’re called long jumps. I decided to do something for a cause and cancer touches everybody,” he said. “So I decided to raise money for cancer research, and that’s how this extreme flight began. Loved ones were incorporated a couple years ago.”

Cloyd’s wife, crew chief and tracker Elsie said they’ve had people from as far as South Africa track their flights online, as well as balloon pilots from England and other parts of the world. Elsie lead the chase team Saturday, using an on-board GPS tracker to follow her husband and locate his final landing site. She said tracking is not an easy job, but hiccups in the process can be part of the fun.

“The tracking device he has seems to be malfunctioning a little today,” she said. “But we’ll be able to track him down.”

The four-hour flight left the Baxter area and was slated to take Tim Cloyd and Luhrs to a landing site in the Quad Cities with a target near Davenport. The web-based GPS tracker on Cloyd's website last logged the balloonists at 737 feet south of West Branch at 11:19 a.m. Saturday.

Also making the trip were 79 other passengers. The names of cancer survivors were printed on a sheet of paper and also rode in the basket. Cloyd said this symbolism is really what the flight is all about. To find out more Iowa balloon rides of the charity flight visit www.tecvision.org.

Contact Mike Mendenhall at mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com