Good morning.

And it's a beautiful day here in New Hampshire.

If it weren't a beautiful day, actually, we wouldn't be here, because today we're going to be going up in a hot air balloon.

So sit back and relax, because the next half hour is one that you won't want to miss.

♪ Good morning.

Welcome to Windows to the Wild.

I'm Willem Lange.

And today, we've got a real treat for you.

In keeping with our commitment to explore wild places on land, on sea, and in the air, today we're going to take to the skies in a hot air balloon based in Londonderry, New Hampshire.

We're going to see fall foliage the way very few leaf-peepers get to see it.

And here to introduce us to hot air ballooning is our capable pilot, Paul DePew and his wife, constant companion, and crew member, Jennifer.

Now, you've been at this I read your curriculum vitae.

You've been at this 35 years.

Correct.

Yep.

And you look pretty healthy.

I still feel pretty healthy.

I find that very reassuring.

But before we fly in the big balloon, Paul releases a much smaller one.

The pi-ball here is just used generally to check wind direction.

That's going to tell us which field we're going to take off from, and the prevailing winds.

Today we got what, a southwest wind, maybe sort of a light breeze?

Correct.

It's going to be a beautiful day.

Okay.

Absolutely.

Be in the air about an hour or so?

About an hour or so depending upon the direction of flight.

We don't want to come down in the ocean.

Well, hopefully we won't get that far.

We won't be going anywhere until we unpack and begin assembling the aircraft.

And when you unwrap it.

Let's unwrap it first.

This part is the bottom.

And you slide it in.

Ready to go up.

♪ We do something new every chance we get, right?

This is something new.

Next, I suppose we'll try surfing.

Not.

[chuckling] Washer, cable... Cable, cable, washer.

How many times have you done this?

In 36 years?

I've lost count.

A lot.

You get as excited now as you did?

I love it.

Absolutely.

[torch blowing] Remember what I said about listening for the balloon besides seeing it?

You can hear it.

That's what you're listening for.

Obviously, you're just going to grab it, and you're going to run for your life.

It's remarkable, really.

Here we are on the front lawn of an office building, unfolding and rolling out 200 pounds of cloth that will carry us to the sky.

♪ ♪ [fan blowing] ♪ [fan blowing] ♪ [fire blowing] ♪ Okay, so... Ready to go?

Oh you bet.

I’ve been waiting for a week!

Let’s go.

Here we go.

♪ [fire blowing] The release from the ground is slow and gentle, as if gravity were suddenly shut off.

Riding a balloon feels a lot like floating.

It's quiet and peaceful.

♪ This is great, Paul.

I can see how you got hooked.

[inaudible] ♪ It's got to be spectacular from behind us looking at this thing in the morning.

Oh, it is.

It is.

Woah!

Look at that.

[clanking] [fire blowing repeatedly] ♪ In ballooning, this is the star and it's easy to see why.

But what's missed by most observers is critical for the pilot and passengers.

The ground crew Jennifer, Erin, and her friend Jake do their best to follow us.

Knowing the wind direction and area roadways is important.

So our role is the crew, we're chasing.

And everybody else besides the driver of the car is trying to keep their eyes on the direction that the balloon is going.

So if for some reason they need to land quickly or they need our assistance, we can get to them right away.

They'll give us a heads up if they’re coming down into the tree line so that we’ll know that we won't be able to physically see them.

And we're here, and we listen for the radio.

Endeavor chase.

Go ahead, Endeavor.

We're just poking along here.

We're not moving very fast at all.

I'm down in the trees trying to get a left.

We ought to come out fairly close.

If I get a little bit of left turn down at the... photography studio.

Copy that.

We'll stand by at the photography studio.

♪ So that helps me because he knows now I can't see him with these trees that are here.

That tells me that he's going in this general direction instead of me having to turn around and go back that way.

So... typically, most of our flights head in one direction or another.

So there are spots that we know on a regular basis where, you know, to stand by and wait for them to catch up to us.

So that's what we're going to do now.

♪ Paul began flying in a very different way as a kid.

16 years old, skydiving.

Yeah.

I bought a parachute through Mechanics Illustrated.

I can hear your mother, My God... It was my mom and dad both, but it was kind of interesting.

I had the parachute sent to the bus station because I knew if my mom and dad ever found out... So they called me and said, It's in.

Yeah.

Saw my mother called my dad, Paul has a package at the bus station.

Pick it up.

So we did that.

So, I'm sitting living room.

My dad brings the package in and he puts it in front of me, and he said, Midwest Parachute.

What is that?

And I said, Fruits, vegetables.

He said, Open it up!

So I opened it up and it was a parachute.

And my dad says, And what do you expect to do with that?

I just beat on him verbally for months, and finally dad said, you know, Just to shut you up, let's go out and see what it's going to entail.

One of the instructors sat down with mom and dad and told them it's relatively safe.

So, that's why your son has an emergency parachute.

Yeah.

You know, He has a chest pack and a backpack.

And he said, the boy is going to be on static line, so he doesn't have to worry about opening the chute up.

It's going to open automatically.

So out I went.

They gave me a bad spot that day.

And when I went out, I ended up about 100 yards into a cornfield.

So I landed in the cornfield, and I’m gathering all my stuff.

I could hear somebody crashing through the corn.

It was my dad.

He yells at me, Are you okay?

And I said, Yeah, I'm fine.

Dad says, You're not going to be when I get a hold of you!

Your mother's just freaking out.

So that's how I started.

I started in skydiving, then I progressed to fixed-wing airplanes.

Then I saw a show on TV about sailplanes, and I thought, That's really neat.

No engine.

It's just nature.

Thermal activity.

So, I started flying at Griffin, Georgia, and... one afternoon I landed in a 1-26 Schweizer; I put the canopy up, and I'm unstrapping, and I heard this whooshing sound.

[makes whooshing sound] And I'm looking around, and I saw a splotch of color through the pine trees, and it came right over the top of pine trees and landed about 100 yards in front of me on the grass strip.

So I said, That's really neat!

So I crewed for him three times.

He gave me a ride.

It was in the fall.

Of course, Georgia, the fall isn't like it is up here.

And as soon as I got out of the balloon, I said, I'm buying a balloon.

♪ Now, I've been in planes many times.

I've even dangled at 5,000 ft from beneath an oversized kite.

What's different about this experience is how Paul maneuvers the balloon.

Feel the wind in your face?

All right, I'm going to get down in here.

We ought to start taking a left turn.

♪ Here it comes.

And I have to hop over these trees.

♪ That's really neat.

You got a left turn out of that.

I kind of call this channeling.

In an area that's depressed like this, you see that you see the cut down through there.

Most of the time, if you can drop the envelope down in that, you're going to pick up the turn.

So after this tree we're going to get real low... and start moving in that direction.

♪ The trees below in this part of New Hampshire are mostly red oaks and white pines.

Beautiful.

Not too spectacular, but just good, solid New Hampshire.

The colors of dark red, bronze, and green spread away to the horizon.

♪ One of the highlights, I think, in my ballooning career, is when my son and I fly together.

We have two balloons, and I've waited for that for a long time.

So has he actually.

After spending a lifetime in the sky, Paul's planning for more time on the ground.

He plans for his children to take the reins.

I've been actually studying for my pilot's exam.

My brother had his solo, which is the next step into completing his pilot’s license.

I've been doing the written test and hopefully by the time I'm like 20, I get my license.

That's what I'm aiming for.

♪ There's not a whole lot.

Once we cross 93, there's not a whole lot of landing sites, so we're going to try and stay on this side.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Well, we can land on 93, right in the median.

How does that grab ya?

The state police would grab me!

[laughing] That's been done several times, but they frown on it.

♪ Yeah.

Here we go.

People have been left.

Yep.

Oh, yeah.

I'm liking this.

Yep.

♪ Now you're venting a little out, is that it?

Yep.

That’s correct ♪ Watch your camera.

Here we go.

Ka-pow!

[branches scraping] That'll get your attention.

Okay, now, if we just slow down just a little bit.

♪ Endeavor Chase, Endeavor.

Endeavor.

It's getting a little quick on the trees here.

We're going to get down in the trees, see if we can get a left And we're going to look for the first field of opportunity.

Can you give me a general direction of where you are right now?

Stand by where you are for the moment.

He said it was getting kind of quick.

So he's coming down into the trees to slow him down a little bit.

The challenge here in this area is to make sure that you don't fly into Manchester Airport their airspace, where aircraft are going to be.

That's a big challenge.

So you don't want to do that.

♪ When I lose him in the trees and I can't have visual contact with him, he gets to an area and I can't see him, he can talk down from the balloon to the neighborhood and say, What's your address?

Good morning!

What's the name of this road right here?

Windsor Boulevard?

♪ While he's never been to Oz, ballooning’s taken Paul to some impressive places.

You know, we've been to the White House; we opened the World's Fair in Knoxville; met Malcolm Forbes in the Virgin Atlantic.

Down below on back decks, it was Sunday morning.

People were looking up and waving that very friendly way.

They were probably glad we weren't landing in their backyard.

We got the neighborhood dogs going.

Oh, yeah.

♪ Jen, we're getting fairly close to Mammoth Road, but we're still paralleling Windsor.

[Jennifer responds] ♪ Yeah, we're picking up speed a little bit.

We got to slow down here.

Jen, I may be crossing Mammoth Road.

I'm not sure yet.

One second.

Crossing something.

I think I'm crossing Mammoth Road now.

♪ Okay.

We got some fields up here.

Good.

Hopefully that slowed us down a little bit.

Maybe not.

Something did.

Now, the fun part is that it's 7:45 on a Saturday morning, so we're probably waking people up.

So people will come outside without really thinking because they can see the balloon.

They'll be in their pajamas and all sorts of interesting outfits to welcome us to their neighborhood.

Got a visual.

All right, stay with us if you can.

Yes, sir.

If we get somewhere we can do a dropline, I think we’re gonna do that.

Copy that.

We're going to have to turn around.

Yeah, that's fine.

No problem.

When you're coming into an area that's kind of tight, where you don't have a huge open field, and you want to be able to grab on to the balloon basket and bring him down in a controlled area, that's what we use the dropline for.

Well, I'm impressed.

Whenever we hit a tree, I get really excited.

[chuckling] The trees are just to slow us down a little bit.

They do that, all right.

We missed a couple fields, but we got plenty up ahead Yeah.

I don't need much of a field.

Yeah, see how we slowed down?

Yeah.

We're almost stopped.

We've slowed right down.

Yeah.

♪ This to me is the beautiful part about ballooning just looking at this like... Yeah, it’s lovely.

Pretty neighborhoods like that.

You've still got a visual, Jen, or are you still turning around?

Got a visual on you.

We've slowed way down.

If you parallel me, sooner or later, I'm going to cross the road here.

Copy.

You still have a visual on me, I'm assuming.

I’m to your right.

Okay.

That's a soggy spot down below.

♪ Jen, we've stalled in this hole, so I'm going to pop up and see what's going on Copy that.

♪ Jen, I'm bearing off a little bit to your if you're pointed in the right direction, it’d be your 9:00 position.

♪ I'm going to pop up to get a little bit of movement.

We have actually just stalled out.

♪ You didn't think you were going to have a birthday in a balloon before we got on the ground, did you?

It'll be a while.

It'll be a while.

It's just great.

I'm in no rush.

All right.

You got gas?

I love this stuff.

This is what I live for.

We're just in a real gentle climb here now.

We do have some fields in this area.

After an hour in the sky, it's time to look for a landing strip.

Today, it's a neighborhood cul-de-sac.

Now, let's talk about landing.

Landing is going to be a little brisk, so we want to make sure that cameras and everybody are secure.

You will face to the direction of flight and hang on.

Do not get out of the basket until I tell you to.

If you do, I'm immediately airborne again.

[laughing] Hasta la vista!

Yeah.

You got a field here?

We got some up ahead.

I'm trying to slow down here.

Yeah.

♪ We're going to drop it down right here I think.

If we can get in there.

♪ Jen, I think we can get in here.

♪ Oh, yeah.

What a great spot.

Out of the wind.

♪ Hey, come over here for a second, will ya?

All right, I'm gonna put it down right here.

Just grab onto the basket for me.

Come on, young guy.

Hang on.

Grab on.

Pull me right out there.

There we go.

Keep going, keep going, keep going.

All right, hang on to it.

Hang on to it.

Hang on to it.

Right there.

Hold me down, hold me down.

Atta boy!

Good job.

Just hang on.

Let’s go!

It woke me up this morning, so I came out!

I'm yelling at the boys, Derek!

Get up, get up!

Hold it down.

Watch your toes!

[fabric falling] Oh my God, that was amazing.

This is pretty typical.

Neighborhoods without power lines and nice neighbors.

That's where we land.

Who are these guys?

These are my sons, Kaden and Derek.

And Derek definitely wants to go up in one.

Oh he does?

Yeah.

We were watching it from our neighborhood when you were hitting the top of the trees.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They were chasing you around the neighborhood.

Yes we were.

Is that right?

In your bare feet, you were chasing us in your jammies!

Well, I didn’t have time to get my shoes on.

She was rushing me.

I was.

Well, it's fun.

You should try it when you get a chance.

We’re gonna have to do that.

We're going to have to try that because that is really cool.

So now we got to roll this thing up, right?

Right.

Or stuff it, I guess.

Put it back into the bag and back into the trailer.

Oh, there you go.

Bring it to us.

About what I expected.

You know, exciting.

Looking down thinking, [laughing] Would I splat?

Going over ponds, I thought, I wonder, Could I get into that pond.

No, I didn't do it.

But when you hit a tree top and the basket goes like that, you think, Woah!

But Paul wasn't at all excited, so I figured we were doing something right, you know, doing everything right.

And it was perfect.

Came right down here in this beautiful cul-de-sac.

Friendly neighbors.

And the guy who's yard we landed in gets a bottle of champagne.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

About 18 years ago, somebody landed about four houses down on this side of the street.

It was a long time ago.

Here you go.

Well, we appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

I really enjoy you.

♪ We're safely back on the ground.

Paul has brought us safely down, and we're having our this is a ritual, the champagne toast.

Absolutely!

After every flight?

Absolutely.

I like this sport.

Well, gesundheit, everybody.

It was a great trip.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And thank you, Jen, for coming.

God, you're a great crew.

And you guys are pretty good too.

Yes they are!

Well, it's that time once again when I have to say goodbye, so I shall.

Bye bye.

I'm Willem Lange, and I hope to see you again on Windows to the Wild.

♪