Rain dampens but can't drown out balloon festival

PLAINVILLE — If hometown pride could hold back the rain, the Plainville Fire Company’s presentation of the 25th annual Hot Air Balloon Festival would have lifted off as scheduled.

Joanne Edman, walking her small dog, Rascal, through Norton Park Saturday shook her head sadly.

“I’ve done a lot of traveling in my lifetime,” she said. “But, after all the bright lights and big city glamour it’s always nice to get back to Plainville. And now this.”

Edman made an arc with her left arm, the one not restraining Rascal. Before her scattered knots of festivalgoers wandered in the soft rain from craft booth to craft booth while a rock band entertained a small crowd of listeners stationed in front of the bandstand.

“Every year the firefighters knock themselves out to make the festival a success,” said Kirby Deegan. “To have many of the activities limited by the weather is a real shame.”

Standing under a tent, shielded by the rain, Peter Crowe, chairman of the festival, said in 25 years this weekend was the first time the festival has been fully rained out. The hot air balloon launches, fireworks and other shows had been canceled. Nothing was scheduled for Sunday.

“We still have a couple of live bands and vendors,” Crowe said, who chairs the festival committee made up of eight department heads. Members of the nonprofit, all-volunteer fire company work the festival — the largest community event of the year.

“Understandably the crowds have been slight this year,” he said.

Crowe and his committee have been working since January to ready the festival for this weekend. He said he was thankful to the people of Plainville and for their never-ending support. He estimated the cost of getting the annual festival up and running at around $40,000. Profits help operate the Plainville Fire Company; 10 percent of the revenue goes to a high school scholarship fund. In previous years annual scholarship funds have totaled as much as $6,500.

One vendor attracting customers despite the rain was Pat’s Fudge. Pat, who declined to give her last name, sold a visitor a quarter-pound piece of rum raisin fudge for $4. She said sales this year have been slower than in previous, sunnier years.

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Balloon company lets air out of dream flights

Customers of A Great American Balloon Co. complain of multiple cancellations


For its phone number, A Great American Balloon Co. uses digits that spell out the phrase We Do Fly.

Clever enough.

Trouble is, more often than not the hot air balloon company doesn't fly, leaving paying customers grounded for months, sometimes years, waiting for a chance to cash in on their prepaid journeys.

In the past several weeks, three readers have written to What's Your Problem? to complain about the Evanston-based balloon company, which flies out of several spots in the upper Midwest, including Fox River Grove and Plainfield.

In all three cases, the readers or a loved one prepaid $175-$200 for a ride, only to be told repeatedly that weather conditions did not permit flying on their scheduled days.

"I think they're hoping I'll die," said Gloria Byczynski, an Ottawa senior citizen whose children bought her a balloon ride for her birthday three years ago.

Byczynski said she's scheduled a half-dozen flights since August 2006. A Great American Balloon Co. canceled every one of them, citing bad weather.

"I'm even wondering if they have a balloon," Byczynski said. "I've been going around with these guys for quite a while."

So has Bob Ruckoldt of Huntley, who wrote to What's Your Problem? on July 30, one day after his scheduled flight was canceled. It was his fifth cancellation.

Ruckoldt said friends bought him the balloon trip two years ago. He's still waiting for liftoff.

"They tell you it's the upper atmosphere, but it looked like a perfect day," Ruckoldt said. "They keep selling new flights, and the rescheduling just gets further and further away. We figure we probably won't get a flight again this year."

Hank Strunk is equally pessimistic. His children bought him a balloon ride last year for his 75th birthday. He said he's tried repeatedly to book a flight, but each has been canceled.

Frustrated, his daughter, e-mailed What's Your Problem?

"These people are just -- I don't want to curse -- but I feel like they're blank liars," Sue Strunk said. "All they do is take money and then string people along until they are so worn down that they stop calling."

Byczynski and Ruckoldt both said they asked for their money back but have been rebuffed. The balloon company has a no-refund policy.

Almost two weeks ago, the Problem Solver called Ron Lake, manager of A Great American Balloon Co. in Illinois.

Lake said flight cancellations are common in the Midwest, and that less than one-third of scheduled trips actually take off.

While some customers take off on their first scheduled trip, a half-dozen cancellations is pretty standard, he said. One group, he said, had to reschedule 15 times.

"We have to be so careful," Lake said.

The last two summers have been uncharacteristically rainy, further slowing operations, he said. Even so, the company flew about 1,800 people last summer, and it expects to fly a similar number again this year, Lake said.

Asked why he doesn't refund money to dissatisfied customers if their flights have been canceled a half-dozen times, Lake said he has no intention of giving money back.

"We would simply become a bank," he said. "The money [would go] back and forth, back and forth."

Lake promised to move Strunk and Ruckoldt to the top of the list of customers, ensuring they would get on a flight quickly.

"We'll get someone to bird-dog them and get them up as soon as possible," Lake said.

He said the company would call the men if there was a last-minute cancellation, then put them in the air that day.

"Whenever we fly, there's usually two or three people that just don't show up," he said more than a week ago.

Several days later, the company called Strunk -- to schedule a flight in October. Strunk said he complained and was given a new date of Sept. 9.

"I was dumbfounded," Strunk said. "I came to a conclusion. I asked myself if I trust or have confidence in these folks, and the answer is no."

Ruckoldt said he received no calls. He and his wife remain scheduled for a Sept. 17 flight, but he has little confidence it will happen.

"If that gets blown off, the season's over," he said. "It could still go on for a long time."

HAVE A PROBLEM? E-mail your story, providing as many details as possible, to yourproblem@tribune.com or write to What's Your Problem?, Newsroom, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Please include your name and a way to contact you. We cannot respond to everyone, but we'll get to as many as we can and publish the results Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

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