AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - April 2011 - 57

Man the balloons!

The fog lifts just enough to launch three balloons from the Wyoming Balloon Company owned by Andy Breffeilh (pronounced breff’ ul). But photographer Mike Fizer notices the light is not good enough for video and photography, so we stay on the ground and later join Breffeilh for breakfast at Jackson’s Bubba’s Bar-B-Que. Here are a few of the stories the former attorney tells from his years of flights. BULL ELK: “We were hovering over a stand of aspens and could hear the bull elk bugling inside it, but we couldn’t see him. Every time we’d hit the burner, the elk cows would run out and look at us, and then he’d bugle them back inside. Finally, he’d had enough of us and stomped right out in the field, put his head down, and issued us a challenge. One of my passengers said, ‘You’re not thinking of landing here, are you?’” CHAMPAGNE: “We don’t ser ve champagne in the balloon. We serve it after the flight. It is true that the higher you get, the higher you can get.” DICK CHENEY: When then-Vice President Dick Cheney moved to Jackson Hole, restricted airspace around

his house included the balloon operating area. It is basically a 3,000-acre ranch west of Jackson and near the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. “I was getting close to the vice president’s house but found a wind that was moving me away. It was so slow that it was almost imperceptible from the ground. The tower called me on the aircraft frequency and said, ‘Secret Service requests you vacate the area.’ I said, ‘Roger, vacating to the north at two knots.’” GEICO: “I took a famous billionaire in the balloon. I guess ever ybody in the balloon was a billionaire. And I was thinking, how can you get a billionaire to sign your liability waiver? So I just walked up to him and said, ‘My insurance carrier, Geico, requires that you sign this.’ He started laughing, because it was his company.” SUPREME COURT: “We took a United States Supreme Court justice up in the balloon and landed in a pretty fresh field of cattle. Seeing him having to tiptoe out of the field in his Italian loafers, pulling up his pants legs, was pretty amazing.”

Wyoming Balloon Co. The Wyoming Balloon Company has flown 20,000 people over 22 years. The company will operate five balloons during the coming season, but does not fly in winter. Wyoming Balloon Company owner Andy Breffeilh has 2,000 hours in balloons and 2,000 more in airplanes and gliders. Breffeilh will self-publish his first novel on Amazon.com soon called The Screaming of Horses, a psychological thriller set in Wyoming. Breffeilh taught his niece, Margaret, to fly balloons, and now she is starting her own company. Ballooning is the oldest form of flight. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin witnessed the first manned flight in France on November 21, 1783. When asked, “What good is it,” Franklin replied, “What use is a newborn baby?” It was a common phrase at the time. Originally two condemned prisoners were to ride in the balloon, but two noblemen volunteered.

AOPA PILOT • 57 • APRIL 2011

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AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - April 2011

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