Meet the youngest pilot at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

While most 15- and 16-year-olds get beyond excited at the prospect of obtaining a learner’s permit and ultimately their license to drive a car, Marissa Vereb set her sights significantly higher — literally.

At age 16 she got her student certificate to pilot hot air balloons. “I actually had a balloon before I had a car,” she said.

Now 20, Vereb holds the distinction of being the youngest primary, or main, pilot of a balloon at this year’s Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

Raised in Tampa, Florida, Vereb caught the ballooning bug from her father, Fred Vereb, who has been flying hot air balloons for 38 years, and who also has a balloon in this year’s fiesta.

“I was maybe 3 years old when I first went up with my dad and kept going up with him over the years, but I mostly crewed,” she recalled. “It was always fun and I just enjoyed it so much that around eighth grade I started thinking about actually pursing (a pilot’s license).”

By her sophomore year in high school, she had applied for a student pilot certificate and was flying more often with her father and “getting all the ground knowledge.”

It paid off, and in October 2024 she received her private balloon pilot’s license.

The theme of the 53rd fiesta is “Painted Horizons,” and Vereb is doing her part to paint the horizon with her yellow, orange and red Aerostar balloon that she named “Mini Bob.” It was purchased from a man named Bob, she explained, and because the envelope volume is 54,000 cubic feet, it is considered on the smaller side of non-commercial balloons (which average 77,000 cubic feet), and hence the name, Mini Bob.

Although Saturday morning’s mass ascension was canceled due to high wind conditions, Sunday morning was ideal, and Vereb experienced her first balloon fiesta mass ascension as a primary pilot, sharing the sky with more than 500 balloons that launched from Balloon Fiesta Park. She was accompanied by one passenger, a 14-year-old girl, also from Florida, who has just begun learning about ballooning and wants to be a pilot.

“It felt really great to be out there and to be the primary pilot, calling all the shots and leading the crew,” Vereb said. “The wind direction was so variable, but I had a nice and gentle landing in a dried-up alfalfa field. It was awesome. There has never been a time when I’ve gone out ballooning and not had a good time. You can just touch the treetops and see everything. It’s just like no other kind of flying.”

And she would know. Vereb also pilots fixed-wing aircraft. She is currently enrolled in the aerospace administration program at Polk State College in Lakeland, Florida, coincidentally the alma mater of Bryan Bedford, the new administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Flying a Cessna 150 single-engine airplane, Vereb has earned her private fixed-wing license and her instrument rating, “and I’m supposed to finish up my commercial license in November,” she said.

“After I get my commercial, I want to go for my certified flight instructor rating to teach. I’m still looking at all my options, but I’m thinking maybe airlines, but I’m also interested in flying airships, like the Goodyear blimp. It’s like a combination of fixed-wing and lighter-than-air. I think it would be really fun.”

For now, Vereb is focusing on enjoying the balloon fiesta and the community of balloonists from around the country and the world who share a common interest. She also said she stands in awe looking at how the whole fiesta gets put together.

“It’s amazing how the team here organizes all the pilots and everything. It’s a lot of work and I can’t believe they do it every year,” she said. “It’s like the most organized event I’ve ever been to.”