Gary Odom and crew with his balloon Master Blaster.
Pink, blue, yellow, purple, and green.
These are the colors that make up Gary Odom’s hot air balloon he calls Master Blaster.
Holding 64,000 cubic feet of air when fully inflated (imagine 64,000 basketballs), it’s on the smaller side when it comes to balloons, but that hasn’t kept Odom from enjoying the activity any less than those with larger aircraft.
“I have 300 actual flying hours and probably 300 more glow stuff,” says Odom.
So why not just say 600 hours?
“In airplanes, helicopters, and gliders, you don’t count them until you leave the ground and until you come back down,” he explains. “But you think about it, the balloon races we go to, a lot of times, we’ll spend more time on the glows than we ever spend on the flight.”
For example, Odom’s flight earlier that day lasted about 45 minutes. When it comes to balloon glows, sometimes he will inflate earlier than other pilots and then be one of the last ones to pack away.
“I’ll glow for an hour and a half, two hours.”
This might lead one to believe that Odom enjoys glowing more than he enjoys flying.
““I want them to experience the joy and the excitement that we enjoy””
“No.”
I guess not.
“I love flying,” says Odom. “But everyone that puts on one of these things realizes that the glows are what the community comes in for. That’s what the sponsors want. If all we did was fly and not glow, we wouldn’t have these events. I believe it.”
At some of the more competitive events, pilots will have points deducted for not glowing. Some events might not invite pilots back if they don’t participate.
“That’s because these young whippersnappers don’t want to do it,” says Odom. “All they care about is doing their little competition. They don’t take passengers. My whole thing is, I want to take somebody. I want them to experience the joy and the excitement that we enjoy.”
For some passengers, it was more than just a fun experience. Odom has had a few begin training before becoming pilots themselves. Others have been back for multiple flights, even if only to be a member of the ground crew. As Odom puts it, that’s fine and dandy.
But it’s the flying that has kept Odom involved with ballooning since he became a pilot in 1985. He’s certified in helicopters, seaplanes, and gliders among others, but it’s the balloon he’s most attached to when he hasn’t flown the others in years.
“It’s a lot of fun, and you can see so well,” continues Odom, describing what ballooning means to him. “Because it’s so quiet, it’s not that you can sneak up on people, but before they know it, you’re above them and you can talk to them and they’re looking around and not even looking above. In late afternoon, you come across and say ‘make mine medium rare’ and they’re looking around like, where are you?”
A few stories come to mind when Odom talks about a few of his favorite flying memories.
“Let me tell you what I did on my commercial check ride,” says Odom.
He is down in Foley, AL, flying towards an old pecan orchard with his examiner. Odom is told to approach the orchard, go over the first tree and descend, fly to the next tree, ascend and fly over it, and repeat.
“And I did that for five rows,” says Odom. “ It lasted for over 30 minutes and I thought, I’m going to mess up one of these times.”
““But I’m saying to myself, I can’t put the speed burners on and get out of here if this turns bad.””
But he never did, and Odom earned his Commercial Pilot’s License that day.
During another flight in south Alabama, Odom found himself having a conversation with someone on the ground as he slowly flew by. It was in November, and that means something to those of us here in the South.
“I can’t tell you the year,” says Odom. “but it’s November because there was some hunting going on and the leaves were all off the trees.”
As Odom is flying along, he sees something orange moving among the trees down wind from him. As he gets closer, he realizes it’s a hunter.
“And I’m low enough at tree top level and I’m going slow enough, I say ‘hey, how’re you doing?’”
The hunter explains things are not going so well because the balloon and the noise from the burner are scaring all the deer away.
“I said, really?”, continues Odom. “But I'm saying to myself, I can’t put the speed burners on and get out of here if this turns bad.”
Thinking quickly, Odom apologizes to the hunter saying he really hated that and that he had to go this way for somebody else. He then told the hunter he would fly past him about a quarter of a mile, turn left, come right around and run the deer back.
“He said, ‘buddy you’re my best friend,’” recounts Odom. “I said, ‘let me just get past you.’”
A few days later, Odom once again finds himself flying over some more woods when he hears a voice.
“Mister! Hey mister!”
“Yeah? Where are you?”
“I’m down here in the trees. Hey mister, I need to run. Don’t go anywhere because I need to run and go tell my momma. She’s not going to believe there’s a hot air balloon out here.”
“I couldn’t even see a house,” laughs Odom. “So I can just imagine he goes and wakes his mother up on a Saturday or Sunday morning. Wakes her up and says, ‘hot air balloon ma, I want to show you’. And then there’s no hot air balloon. So I’m wondering, sorry kid but I just got you in trouble.”
Odom is rarely in a balloon alone. If there is a crew member that has never flown, or hasn’t flown in awhile, he is quick to invite them into the basket before taking off. He’s even been known to forsake a morning’s competition if it meant he was able to fly a crew member.
“You want to share that joy and enthusiasm you have for flying,” explains Odom. “And how much fun it is and what you can see and show people and enjoy, because you are the wind. I was telling my passenger today, you won’t feel anything because we are the wind. It’s just a lot of fun.”