Ascending heights: A woman pilot’s Balloon Fiesta experience

Freshly painted acrylic nails reach toward two handles connected to a propane tank, releasing a rush of sound and fire into the Wind Waker hot air balloon. As the aircraft gently floats farther into the sky, Eileen Jones smiles as another one of the hundreds of flights she’s taken in her 34 years of ballooning, and her second year at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, goes successfully.

Residing in Diamondhead, Mississippi, Jones never planned to become a balloonist. A balloon pilot friend of hers needed crew help, so she obliged. Six months later, Jones realized she didn’t want to crew; she wanted to fly.

“I decided I needed to do this, too, so I went and bought my own used balloon and got my license,” Jones said. “Having control and doing my own thing and sharing in that sport with him was important to me.”

Thirty-four years later, Jones and her entire family — husband Gary, daughter Laurel and son Geoffrey — continue to pilot balloons across the country. Gary became her flight guinea pig — she practiced teaching him how to pilot a balloon in order to gain her commercial license to teach in addition to flying.

“I taught Gary a few lessons, but he had to go to someone commercially licensed to sign off on everything since I didn’t have mine yet,” Jones said. “Within the same weekend, he got his private and I got my commercial license. That was 30 years ago this weekend.”

The ballooning bug bit the family. Years later, her son earned his pilot’s license and her daughter received her student license.

And, Jones found a new family within the ballooning community.

“When we went to California, we got adopted by the community out there,” Jones said. “We’ve got people that we meet here from the southeast and people from the West Coast, and we’re a really tight-knit community, and somebody out there knows at least five or six other people.”

Jones also said her chase crew — Lissee Spiller, Laurel Jones, Dee Stephens, Tim Gremillion and Karen Morris — a close group who are always watching out for Jones, have become close over her time ballooning.

“Having someone who knows how to put the balloon together is great because we can do things much more quickly and more efficiently,” she said. “I always say if they offer me more crew, I would never turn down more helping hands.”

Flying at Balloon Fiesta

After gaining her commercial license and getting her husband on board, Jones’ next goal was one many balloonists have: flying at the Balloon Fiesta.

However, life was busy for Jones. As a mother, she couldn’t just up and leave home to travel to Albuquerque.

“For many years we thought about coming, but with kids and all the kids’ activities and it taking a whole nine days plus two or three days of travel time from Mississippi, we just never could,” she said.

Eventually, Jones and her husband retired after her children grew older and left home.

When the 50th Balloon Fiesta came about in 2022, Jones tested her luck, but unfortunately, hundreds of balloonists from across the world wanted to fly for the momentous occasion.

“They were very, very selective about who they took and most of the people had a lot of experience flying here and, of course, we had none, so we couldn’t come to the 50th,” Jones said. “We pretty much knew for the 51st it would probably easier to get in, and we did. They vet every applicant very carefully.”

One of her hardest flights was at Balloon Fiesta. Jones had a great flight on the last day of the event in 2023, but as she was landing, she realized the wind was pushing her balloon faster than she had anticipated. As she flew into the city, close to several hazardous objects, she managed to gain control. With the help of her chase crew and another balloonist’s crew, she was able to safely land. Coming into Balloon Fiesta this year, Jones was ready to shake off the rough landing.

This year, Jones had smooth sailing. She took Albuquerque Journal staffers for a flight in the Wind Waker on Wednesday. The balloon hit a peak elevation of 2,700 feet, went 8.4 miles in an hour-and-a-half from the Balloon Fiesta Park and into Rio Rancho, hitting a top speed of 19 mph.

For the 2024 Fiesta, Jones flew a balloon of her own design. At her 30-year mark of flying, she decided she wanted to celebrate by crafting and designing her own balloon instead of purchasing used balloons. Jones knew she wanted to fly something larger.

“My husband did the design work and I worked on the color work, mostly since he’s colorblind,” Jones said. “When my daughter saw the design, she said, ‘Oh, that’s Wind Waker.’ It’s a (Legend of) Zelda game and it has the colors of Link (the main character of the video game franchise) within the balloon, so it was a no-brainer.”

The Wind Waker is a yellow, green and blue balloon 92,000-cubic-feet in size — the equivalent of something that can hold 92,000 basketballs. The balloon also has turning vents to rotate the balloon, which is a feature Jones never had in previous balloons. Though the balloon is sometimes mistakenly called Wind Walker, Jones is incredibly proud of her balloon and holds it dear to her heart. The basket of the balloon even holds a small white ribbon with the name Wilson on it, in honor of her dog, who died three weeks before this year’s Fiesta.

Being a female pilot

Jones said piloting a balloon is a great experience and is always testing her.

“It’s awesome,” she said. “All we have is up and down, so just being able to go up and find currents that take us in a particular direction, it’s pretty exciting when you can actually steer a balloon and that’s what we’re attempting to do.”

For Jones, being a female balloonist in a male-dominated field isn’t a huge deal .

“I think I find it interesting,” she said. “We’re really on the same footing. I don’t feel like I’m at a huge disadvantage at all to any guy, and I have a good time when I can score better than a bunch of them (in competition). I think it’s fun being a woman in this male-dominated field.”

Jones hasn’t noticed a change in ratio between men and women pilots. She said for every two female student pilots, there are six or seven male student pilots.

“I don’t think it’ll ever be 50/50,” Jones said. “I think women may limit themselves. A lot of people already think (all balloonists are) nuts for doing this sport to begin with. Maybe they don’t push themselves to want to do that. If you want to do this, do this, but you have to get out and fly. Practice makes perfect.”