Yes, there really is a hot air balloon floating around Mat-Su

What you need to know:

• A new hot air balloon spotted flying over Palmer and Wasilla is operated by Alaska Helicopter Tours. The company is testing it for future glacier tours and tourism flights.
• The 85-foot balloon can carry up to five passengers and reach about 15,000 feet, Test flights start near Knik Glacier and land wherever winds carry it.
• The company has not yet opened bookings, but interest is already high, with a social media post generating a waitlist of more than 500 people and inquiries about special events, officials said.

• Short on time but need the local news scoop? Get free weekly news in your inbox for Mat-Su, from Mat-Su.

WASILLA -- Palmer and Wasilla residents who spotted a giant balloon cruising over their neighborhoods over the last week aren’t imagining things.

A hot air balloon really was floating above Palmer and Wasilla Saturday and again early this week, touching down briefly in a potato field on Bogard Road late Tuesday morning before floating off into Wasilla.

The 85-foot balloon is owned and operated by Alaska Helicopter Tours, which also runs the Alaska Glacier Lodge near the Knik Glacier. The balloon will be used for glacier tours, at events in Mat-Su and Anchorage, and to take tourists on rides in the skies above the region, said Brandon Schmidt, who runs the company’s marketing.

Alaska Helicopter Tours officials started testing the balloon over Mat-Su last week as they learn how to raise, steer and -- perhaps most importantly -- land it, Schmidt said.

The flights immediately drew attention from curious neighbors, some of whom posted pictures of the black balloon with its northern lights-inspired decorations and Alaska Helicopter Tours logo on social media as it meandered on Saturday’s breeze.

Right now, the team’s flights start at the Knik Glacier, where they use a helicopter to drop the basket and deflated balloon, and end wherever the wind takes them, he said. On Saturday, that stopping point was Finger Lake near Palmer; on Tuesday, it carried them near Lucy Lake off Knik Goose Bay Road.

The balloon’s lift and descent are triggered by turning on and off a 3,500-degree-Fahrenheit flame that generates heated air and pushes it inside the polyurethane-coated nylon. It can take up to five passengers in its basket, travels at about 30 miles per hour, and floats as high as 15,000 feet above sea level, Schmidt said.

Balloon travel is a quiet way to see the area because no rotors or engines are creating extra noise, he said. But yes -- it can also be very chilly despite the hot flame shooting up into the balloon. Ambient air temperature drops about two degrees Celsius per 1,000 feet, and ground temperatures on their recent test days were near 0 degrees in some areas.

Flying a hot air balloon is much simpler than operating a helicopter, he said, but still requires special training. Trained hot air balloon pilots — known as aeronauts — go through a formal licensing process, he said.

Alaska Helicopter Tours has not yet announced prices or opened bookings for its planned excursions but hopes to offer a special price for locals who want to experience the balloon, he said. A social media post published about the balloon last week generated a waitlist of more than 500 individuals from around the globe, he said, plus at least one call from officials at Red Bull who want to stage an extreme ski jump over it.

“You get everything from ‘I want to get married and do my vows on the glacier, and then jump in a balloon instead of driving off in a car,’ and then on the ski side, that’s when you have pro athletes that want to jump out of it in a wingsuit,” he said.

When trips do become available, scheduling will require flexibility, he said. Hot air balloons require good weather and for Mat-Su’s infamous wind to take a break. And just how long any given journey lasts can be as up in the air as the balloon itself, he said.

“There’s an unknown with a balloon,” he said. “You kind of have to go where the wind takes you.”

Like ships, hot air balloons are referred to using female pronouns and are typically given names, local balloon enthusiasts said this week. Schmidt’s team has not yet named its balloon, he said, and might open a naming contest on social media.

Schmidt said Alaska Helicopter Tours officials don’t know of any other outfits flying hot air balloons over glaciers, though the aerostat is certainly not the first to float through the area. Hot air ballooning was all the rage in Southcentral from the mid-1970s to mid-’80s before a spate of balloon lawlessness and in-air cocaine use caused scandal. Later, insurance companies stopped issuing policies to Alaskan balloonists, grounding many users. 

Unlike some of those users of yore, Schmidt said their team is trained, insured and won’t be distributing or consuming illegal substances or even serving in-air alcohol until they’re sure doing so is allowable.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com