Reminiscing about his days as a hot air balloon commercial pilot in Tyler, Iowa and Kentucky, Braxton N. McGraw, 83, remembers he enjoyed the freedom and the sensation of floating along up in the air with the wind, which made a beautiful day seem more beautiful.

McGraw flew his hot air balloon, named Spectrum for its many colors, from 1977 until 1994, when he sold it.

In 1988, McGraw moved to Tyler and launched his balloon for the next several years from vacant lots a block from his house in a subdivision north of the intersection of Rhones Quarter Road and Farm to Market Road 346.

Youths mowed the lots for free and the thrill of watching the balloon fire up, inflate and fly off. Fascinated neighbors stood on their porches and looked at the spectacle.

McGraw said he had flown regular small aircraft as a hobby about 10 years when he became “hooked on the sport of ballooning” in Louisville, Kentucky.

“1972 was the first time we had seen hot air balloons in Louisville,” said McGraw, who lived there 26 years. “Hot air balloons were virtually unknown then.”

An annual hot air balloon race featuring six prominent balloonists had been organized in 1972 as a tourism attraction the week before the Kentucky Derby.

 McGraw was driving his motorcycle around the south loop in Louisville when he glanced aside.

“I had never seen a hot air balloon in real life and I looked across the outer loop,” McGraw said. “I thought it was a balloon. I pulled over on the shoulder, turned the motorcycle off and sat there. It was interesting to watch this thing.”

Oddly enough, McGraw said, he was at the right spot to see the balloon get bigger and bigger as it blew right toward him. Then he realized the pilot was looking at a girl waiving and sitting on the back of a sports car that had also pulled onto the shoulder of the road.

The pilot was not paying attention to flying and ran into a tree, tearing a hole in the balloon, but laughing and having a good time.

Bystanders helped him fold the balloon since his “chase crew” had not arrived. Balloonists have a chase crew that follows them where they fly to load up the balloon when it lands.

“That was how I met multimillionaire Malcolm Forbes, who was flying the Forbes Magazine balloon,” McGraw said.

“I thought if he could have a good time tearing up a chunk of his balloon, I’ve got to learn how to do that (pilot a balloon). That’s just too interesting to miss,” McGraw said. “I like to fly. That’s what it boils down to.”

Consequently, McGraw earned a commercial hot air balloon pilot’s license from the Federal Aviation Administration. The commercial license allowed him to carry passengers when he flew a balloon.

McGraw still has a fond recollection of getting his license. The instructor was a tough sergeant type who ordered McGraw to land his balloon on a pond without getting the instructor’s feet wet.

The instructor perched on the edge of the balloon dangling his feet in the air. After the balloon landed, water only washed across the floor of the balloon basket and was shallow enough that the instructor’s feet remained dry. McGraw remembers that the instructor said after the landing, “You’ll do.”  

McGraw and some buddies working for the major appliance division of General Electric headquartered in Louisville discussed that it would be “a great thing” if they could create a balloon because there was no balloon at that time based in Louisville competing in the balloon race held prior to the Kentucky Derby.

They talked a GE dealer in La Grange, Kentucky, into sponsoring a balloon, and designed and ordered the custom-made balloon. By the time it was ready in 1977, the race had expanded to about 40 balloons as ballooning became more popular in the U.S. The years they competed in the race before the Kentucky Derby, their balloon displayed a 16-foot high GE logo.

By 1981, the GE dealer who sponsored the balloon was no longer interested in that form of advertising. McGraw bought the balloon, peeled off the GE logo and flew it for more than 10 years as his personal balloon.

After living in Louisville many years, McGraw eventually moved to Tyler in 1988 to work for Trane. Besides flying, McGraw had a career associated with different manufacturers as a teacher who traveled all over the country teaching dealers about refrigeration, heating and air conditioning.

In Tyler, McGraw flew the hot air balloon with the Trane Company logo for awhile and also made charter flights, often on a Sunday morning or a Sunday afternoon. “My balloon had the ability to carry four people, myself included. By the time I got to Tyler, ballooning was pretty common,” McGraw said.

McGraw flew in local races and participated in national races mainly as an official. He said he liked the camaraderie.

One of the reasons that ballooning is a very expensive sport, McGraw said, is that it requires a ground crew of usually four people with a chase vehicle and trailer to catch up with the balloon when it lands to pack it up and return home.

That’s no small feat. It involves human muscle since the wicker basket weighs 156 pounds, four cylinders carrying propane weigh 280 pounds and the fabric of the balloon weighs 186 pounds.

When inflated, McGraw said his balloon was 70 feet tall, 55 feet across and handled 70,000 cubic feet of air inside. A wind speed of six to eight miles an hour is best for ballooning, McGraw said. “You don’t normally want to fly when the wind speed is above 12 miles an hour,” McGraw said. “You can only fly in good weather.” 

Balloons can fly over 20,000 feet high, but people on board need oxygen at that height. McGraw was not equipped with oxygen and usually flew 1,000 feet to 5,000 feet high.

“That way you were out of reach of power lines and trees and could see everything,” he said. “I enjoyed the view in the air.”

The basket is almost five feet square, big enough that passengers can walk around looking out on all sides.

The basket comes up well above the middle of the chest, McGraw observed.

That height is important for passengers to feel protected and not have the sensation that they might fall out. “You want them to be comfortable and relaxed while you are flying along,” McGraw said.

“Probably one of the funniest flights I ever had was in Iowa (when) a young lady wanted a hot air balloon ride for her birthday,” McGraw said.

She was leaning over the side of the basket and telling her husband, “Oh honey, look at the deer.” Her husband was a 6-foot-3-inch tall Marine who was initially so frightened that he was frozen, gripping the balloon uprights so tightly with both hands that McGraw thought he might break his fingers.

But McGraw said all of his passengers ended up finding the ride fun.

“I’ve never had anyone with me in a balloon who said they would not come back,” McGraw said.

One of his most unusual flights was when he was one of three balloonists flying a wedding party, McGraw recalled.

The pastor, bride and groom, the best man and matron of honor were in one basket. Other members of the wedding party were in two other balloon baskets, one flown by McGraw. A herd of cars followed on the ground, honking and carrying on, he said.

The pastor spoke the words of the wedding ceremony. Afterward, all of the balloons came down not more than 150 feet apart.

“That was one of the good times,” McGraw said. “It worked just perfectly.”

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