Cutlines – Bill Childs
Balloon – Childs Play
WELLSVILLE — Bill Childs has taken over the reins as the balloonmeister of the Great Wellsville Balloon Rally numerous times. As a local hot air balloon pilot who has been involved with the Rally almost since the beginning, Childs is a natural choice.
Childs was the primary pilot for the blue-swirled CarpetTown balloon, which made its debut in the early years of the Rally and became a familiar sight in the Wellsville sky over the years. Today, he flies the Child’s Play balloon.
“We didn’t have a balloon yet when a group of us met with balloon pilot Karl Teitsworth to take instruction,” Childs recalled recently. “We had it shipped to us before we’d taken our first lesson. There were between eight or nine of us taking lessons — Ray Stevens, Chan Whitford, Steve Kane, Tom Fortner and others.”
Over the years, Childs said, he became the main pilot for the CarpetTown balloon. Whitford went on to purchase his own balloon, the orange and red Bloody Mary and fly at the Rally, and Stevens constructed his own balloon.
One of Childs’ best memories of flying in the Wellsville Rally took place at the Bolivar Road Rally site when they “boxed the field.”
“You don’t get to do that very often because the conditions in the atmosphere have to be just right,” he recalled. “It was a perfect morning for flying and we took off headed north. Then we caught a south wind and ended up coming back to the field and landing about 25 feet from where we had taken off. It was amazing.”
Over the years Childs gained more experience flying at rallies across the state — Alexandria Bay, Rochester, Syracuse, Dansville, Hamburg and he remembers a particularly tricky landing on the beach at Lake Erie.
“I saw the lake coming up and knew I didn’t want to fly over it, so I put the balloon down on a rocky beach on the shore,” he said.
All the flying gave Childs the credentials to serve as the balloonmeister for the Wellsville Rally.
The balloonmeister is the decision maker, deciding whether or not the balloons will fly in mass or giving permission to individual pilots to fly if they feel skilled enough for the conditions.
The conditions for flying are determined by the weather. Wellsville uses a variety of forecasts, from Buffalo, Bradford, Pa., and Elmira to make the determination as to whether the balloons will fly.
Childs says that it is important to know the area and to choose the best weather information based on that.
“You have to know the area and what the best forecast is for the area and for where the wind is going to take you,” he said adding that as balloonmeister he has maintained a good score at getting all four of the Rally’s launches off the ground.
As he looks back at the 46 years of the Rally, he said that it doesn’t come as a surprise to him that the Rally is still going strong.
“We always wanted to keep it free for the public and to not turn it into a carnival,” he said. “I think it is perfect the way it is. Besides, what isn’t fascinating about driving along a rural road and coming around a curve to see a giant, brightly colored hot air balloon flying ahead of you?
“People pull off the road to watch and if they help, we offer them a ride, and that is why the Great Wellsville Balloon Rally is still great today.”
