One man learned to fly balloons because his wife liked rabbits. Another man was a vaudeville-type entertainer who got bit by the balloon bug while performing in an open-air arena with Peggy Lee, and he’s still flying at 89 years of age.

They and more than a dozen other balloon pilots were taking part in the 2023 Chester County Balloon Festival. And there was a palpable buzz among the organizers of this year’s festival because it was in a new location. After years of being held at the New Garden Airfield, the 2023 festival was at Willowdale.

According to Rick Schimpf, the director of the Chester County Balloon Association, “We outgrew the airport,” saying the event had grown so much that the airport didn’t have enough room for all the vendors and that the tarmac would get too hot for comfort in late spring and into the summer.

But vendors aside, the event is about balloons and the people who fly them.

Keith Sproul was a Ham Radio operator and a computer programmer writing data collection programs for MacIntosh computers. He and his wife went to a balloon festival in New Jersey where they saw a balloon in the likeness of the Eveready Bunny and heard an announcement that the crew of that balloon was down a member and asked for volunteers.

“My wife likes rabbits, so I volunteered,” he said. Sproul then became a crew chief and later started flying himself. He eventually started making balloons. And he loves it. He’s been flying for 21 years and has reached an altitude of 10,000 feet.

“It’s neat, it’s fun, and I enjoy exposing people to ballooning who have never done it before. It’s fun to get up and it’s really a thrill to fly something you made yourself. I made this balloon,” Sproul said. “You have to have confidence in your abilities to do that. “I’m betting my life on this.”

Some of the balloons Sproul made can be found here.

The most senior pilot at the festival was 89-year-old Bob Sparks, who started flying in 1966 and earned his pilot certificate by the decade's end. He’s won 10 world records for ballooning, flew in 35 different countries, and taught ballooning in the former Soviet Union. He’s also flown across the Atlantic Ocean in a balloon, a gas balloon, not hot air. In 1975 he became the first person to fly a hot air balloon over all five of the Great Lakes.

To say he was bitten by the balloon bug is almost literal. Sparks said he got started after seeing a balloon while he was performing with Peggy Lee in a Midwest state fair.

“I was on stage next to [Peggy] and she looked up a couple of times. I looked up and thought it was a bug at first. And then I heard ‘Hello, Earthing.’ I looked up again and there was the damn balloon…I fell in love [with ballooning], still in love.”

He said he was invited to go to the Soviet Union while flying across Australia.

“The [Soviet] government had me come over there to teach. They had nobody who had a pilot’s certificate. They had no rules. A guy walked up to me and said, ‘Would you come to the Soviet Union if I arrange it?’ I said yeah and he arranged it.”

Sparks also made two attempts to cross the Atlantic in a balloon. The first ended with him going down in a thunderstorm off the coast of Newfoundland. Fortunately, the gondola he was using could convert to a boat and he was eventually rescued by the Canadian Coast Guard. His second attempt in a gas balloon was successful.

Age hasn’t slowed him down or dampened his enthusiasm. His love for ballooning hasn’t abated.

“When I’m in the air a mile above the ground, I know I’m where I belong.” And he added, “Every family should have a balloon.”

The National Balloon Museum has a page dedicated to Sparks.

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.

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