Can you imagine the atmosphere, if a whole village supports a balloon event? If the population is more worried about the weather than the official meteorologist? Lech am Arlberg, situated at 1500 meters above sea level, was host for the second time. Not only the wonderful launch field in the middle of beautiful nature, but also the support of the whole population was reason enough for the organizers, to choose this village in Vorarlberg for a second (perhaps a third?) time.

So the organizers (Team Polar from Voesendorf) could rely on proved and well known structures. Even before the race great work had been done: Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and even the authorities responsible for the ADIZ gave written permission allowing balloon flights in their territory.

Was that the reason, why championship director Helmut Kocar could welcome all the pilots, observer, volunteers and friends with a little smile at the welcome party on Friday? The next day however, he had to turn on all his charm of Vienna style to declare the meteorological situation, given by meteorologist Dr. Herbert Pümpel, as unflyable. The next briefing was set to Saturday, 1 p.m. Kocar struggled hard, to make a decision, free of an advantage or disadvantage for anybody.

On Saturday afternoon the clouds became fewer according to Pümpel’s prognosis, but only for a few, too few hours. But there was hope grew for Sunday morning. The detailed explanations of the meteorological situation said to expect a launch on Sunday morning. So the balloons should be inflated in the evening and during the night, a final decision should be made at 8 a.m. next morning. More prolongation of the launch window was impossible. Why are there not more days reserved to fly such an international event?

Starkbaum/Scholz from Austria and two or three other crews decided to have their balloons inflated. Levin/Rider from the USA, for the first time with a balloon of the same construction as the five time winners from Austria, also decided for an inflation at night. With the rain, it became calm on the launch field. Do we really start tomorrow? And where will the voyage end? Probably, the sky of Lech was never so much inspected as at this night of Saturday to Sunday, September 2nd, 1990.

At 5 a.m. in the morning, only a few single clouds were left, but almost no chance, to make telephone contact with the meteorologists at the airports of Munich, Innsbruck, Vienna, Milano or Zurich, the telephones were overburden. (By the way: A warm thank you to all meteorologists, your prognosis had been absolutely right!)

Soon the friendly talk with other competitors should also come to an end. Briefing at 8 a.m.: Weather sufficient for a launch until 11 a.m., it had to be launched before the next thunderstorm clouds would approach. Decision (with a slightly worn out charm of Vienna style) to launch from 9 a.m. on. Everybody started to rush, everyone, who had not inflated yet, wanted to have gas, but the inflation team of the gas trailers wanted to have breakfast. And why does our Swiss teams still want to do everything without a coach?

Now confusion started. Minutes of anxious waiting for gas, other anxious minutes. Is there time enough to copy the wind trajectories to the maps? Where is the jury to seal the barographs, where are the safety inspectors to check the radios, transponders and last but not least the electrical supply? And damn, just at that moment, the guys from the TV station wants to have an interview, when we had not yet prepared everything.

It is not the coach, who should care for all of this. Even Joschi Starkbaum gets nervous from this hurrying. Always calm Levin looses orientation in his own chase car, and the balloon of Fink/Oberseider almost lifts off without pilots and basket. The question is asked, why should not a coach take over some general functions and specific duties.

Meanwhile, it had become 9:30 a.m. and under the sounds of the national anthems the procedure of launch began with the balloon Austria I. Until balloon number 6 was to be launched, the time between the launches became longer and longer.

While Wallace/Fairbanks, Hyde/Gorell (both teams from the USA) and Spenger/Stoll (Switzerland) – whose light build net had torn at several places during inflation and had to be repaired first with the help of a ladder – were still equipping their baskets with material, the rest of the competitors had already launched one after the other. But ironically, up to one hour after launch most of the balloons still stood above the launch field in an altitude of about 3000 meters above sea level watching each other until Sjuts/Derks from Germany were the first to discover wind from 70 degrees with 15 knots at 3500 meters above sea level and went away. Follow them as in a hare and hound competition or being an individual and try to find another way? What was with the thunderstorms in the south? And what did the insistently words of Dr. Pümpel mean? Well, up there in the air, the racing fever catches everybody. Soon the sound of their own national anthem can’t be heard from the ground anymore and also the words of Dr. Pümpel who had said farewell to each crew with a handshake again warning them from the thunderstorms in the south have faded away.

So Lewitz/Wagner (Austria), Kuinke/Schubert (Germany), Nater/Anderegg (Switzerland) und Fränckel/Stuart-Jevis (American Virgin Islands), start chasing 71 year old German school teacher Helma in the balloon D-CONTINENTALE.

Experienced Levin/Rider (USA), being in the race for the third time, stay low in the valley and wait. What is their plan? Makne/Antkowiak (Poland) know about their heavy balloon and follow the others only slowly below 3500 meters.

Osterwalder/Sutter (Switzerland) leading the way for Hyde/Gorell (USA) who had now also launched in D-ASPEN flying up to 5000 meters, there heading towards 180 degrees at 25 kilometres an hour. After Spenger/Stoll in balloon JURA had also launched shortly before noon, the chase crews and observers take to the road. First position reports can be heard from Arosa, Chur and St.Moritz, that’s the reason why so many cars with a balloon trailer enter Switzerland at the border station of Buchs.

There is quite a good discipline on the radio. "Do you also need as much sand as I do?" "Do you see the cumulonimbus?" No matter if in Austrian, Polish, English or Swiss language, the frightened questions sound all the same. Soon one can watch 11 competitors moving towards the Engadin, while two try to steal away to the southeast at more than 5000 meters. Nater/Anderegg (Switzerland) in balloon RENTSCH try to fly low in the Swiss Rhine valley. They hope for a local wind, called "Bise", leading them to the high Alps, that may be seen in the cloudless sky of Switzerland. But descending, they don’t make much speed, so they decide to stay high, were they see two thunderstorm clouds right ahead of their track. But bearings indicate, that their flight may pass right in between them.

In balloon HB-BFC JURA the pilots gets wind information from a Balair airplane from Basel. A world champion in ballooning, who flew from Zurzach, frequently announces his heading at 270 degrees. Balloon POLARSTERN has eager discussions with Zurich Info about the weather in the South, while Levin/Rider in a similar constructed balloon try to catch their chase crew on the radio, because they want to land at Sondrio.

Then anxious minutes follow: For the Austrian defender of the title, the variometer indicates a fall of 5 meters per second, the needle is at the end of the scale. Each pilot has two bags of sand ready for dump as they watch the situation. A few meters next to the wire of a mountain cableway the POLARSTERN stands still. Without dumping any ballast, the balloon stays stable and flies westwards in the valley of the Engadin. The wisps of clouds all around move in the same direction. That’s good, so they keep this position. Over the mountain of Maloja with the evening sun throwing its last beams to the massive mountain of the Bernina, they would make some wonderful pictures. Then the five times Gordon Bennett winner climbs back to 3000 meters and is astonished about the radio silence and the loneliness in the air. Where are the other balloons?

In the area of Bergamo, other competitors are also wondering. But at that time, they mostly wonder about how just a few minutes may become an eternity. The cumuli and cumulonimbi, observed by Nater/Anderegg pull so strongly that even several bags of sand they sacrificed could not keep them away. They fall into the clouds, with snow, hail, rain and the needle of the variometer at the end of the scale makes them expect unpleasant things. They finally land in thick fog having to leave everything behind and walking for ¾ of an hour until they find a four wheel drive car with its owner, who brings them in two hours to the next village on roads which are more like the bed of a creek.

What are the Polish competitors doing? They land without seeing anything or knowing, where they are, it is absolutely dark. When deflating the envelope, it falls on the roof of a house creating some scratching noise and awakening the sleeping inhabitants of the house. Shocked, they come to see, what’s going on in the complete darkness. Everybody, who is shocked, will probably use his native language in his first shout. "What are you doing there?" made the pilots listening twice, because they heard these words – in Polish language! This night became a survival party among balloon pilots and Polish living in the exile.

Thunderstorms on the south side of the Alps, even in the plain of the river Po. When does this ever happen? Osterwalder, who had done more than half a hundred alpine balloon flights, had never before seen a thunderstorm in Italy. Anxious minutes also for him when he made his SOLVAY falling from 5300 meters through snow and rain down to 2600 meters, where he came out of the clouds over a mountain pasture. He manages a smooth low flight for two hours, providing him at last the kilometres necessary, to get ahead of all the other balloons caught in the thunderstorm.

Did Spenger/Stoll take profit from their late launch? They decide to fly the night. But more and more lightning and flashes illuminate the night. So they also have to look for a landing place at night.

"Do you know, how the heart beats? Did you know, that one can see the heartbeat even through three sweaters you have on?" Fred Hyde is a doctor and talked about how he had to endure frightening moments with his heart. Over the Adriatic Sea, over the water, running out of ballast. When Gorell sees land under the basket in the early morning both pull the vent line and are lucky to set feet on Yugoslavian earth.

But who is still in the air? This question is also asked by the camera team of the ORF. They even manage, to be at the landing of the repeat winning team and to film it. For the second time a victory three times in a row! That has never before happened at a Gordon Bennett race.

What do you think? Starkbaum/Scholz have additional information, others don’t have? Both take profit from things, other pilots can’t find out? Yes, true. The new victory has the reason, that they have something more. But not what you think!

Scholz is a subtle gas balloon pilot, he understands his partner without a single word. Starkbaum proves his subtlety in a gas balloon by his numerous hot air flights. And both prepare for every competition mentally and organizationally. They also take profit from a personal milieu, only champions have. But ask them yourself, you will see, they also only use water for cooking.

Of course, the lightly build balloon allows more ballast. But how did the balloon look in the morning light after inflation? – Like a plum. Of course, Starkbaum’s job offers an advantage in the air. But information about the wind from pilots of airplanes are useless, because they fly at altitudes, where there are no competing balloons. Of course the professional language of the radio is an advantage, but this can be learned by the others as well if they are interested. Of course, also their coach, working in the background, has his influence. But why don’t we learn, that a coach may have a good influence on teamwork? Of course, the repeat winning crew took profit from their instruments. Yes, they were equipped with the newest navigational aids, but they did not rely on them alone, they also used the normal instruments and in addition had to carry with them a heavy video camera and tape recorder.

I think also Starkbaum/Scholz had been nervous at launch as never seen before. Also, both had more weight than in the previous years. Also, both had to face the same frightening minutes as all the others and did not believe after the landing, that they had won again. So all the others are more or less second winners.

Some more critical remarks about the organization. In former times, better service was provided. Chase crews were not given wrong information, leading to a 1200 kilometres trip by car for nothing. Also a map with little flags, showing the provisional position reports and landing spots was hung up somewhere. But in former times, there were also pilots, who paid a drink for the observer and did not leave him back somewhere on a road in Italy. This incident should normally lead to a severe penalization.

Rolf Sutter

The flight was extremely unstable: The tops of the clouds rose higher and higher and they went up and down. Günter had to watch the variometer and to shovel sand permanently. After crossing the Austrian/Swiss border south of Schrunz, the wind came more and more from the North, we flew above a closed layer of clouds. When the clouds opened up again, we were directly over Davos. The flight went on in the direction of the Upper-Engadin. The bulging of the clouds became still higher, the flight still more unstable and the ballast less. At an altitude of 3000 meters over the airfield of Samedan we almost stood still. Above the Piz Bernina in our flight path stood dangerous looking cumulus clouds. Behind them, in upper Italy, one could already see the anvil shaped tops of the thunderstorm clouds. What should we do? "Park it" in the Engadin and waiting for better weather or continuing the flight on? We decided for the latter, dumped a few shovels of sand and took up speed again. We flew over Pontresina and the glacier of Morteratsch directly toward the Piz Palü. We crossed the summit at 4:15 p.m. Without the mountains of clouds ahead, we would enjoyed this spectacular nature below us much more.

A little time later we climbed at 1 meter per second up to 4800 meters, and a cloud overtook us from below! A few minutes later, it went down like in an elevator. We fell for 2000 meters, until we saw the ground in the picturesque valley of Togno. No faster than walking speed, we flew along the valley heading south. So we had time, to count the ballast left and to think about our next steps. In the South, it still looked like thunderstorms. To reach the plain of the river Po, we had to cover another 75 kilometres, the track would lead over several mountains, more than 3000 meters high.

So the weather looked very bad in the south, which was also reported to us by other balloons so we decided to land at 7 p.m. The landing was absolutely soft on a lawn in 1600 meters, about 200 meters next to the end of an alpine road. We deflated the balloon, then I walked off for a telephone. After 45 minutes, I came to the little village of Bondone. They had no telephone there, but some people with a car. My lack of Italian language was more than equalized by the helpfulness of the mountain farmers. In a rusty Seat Marbella they brought me to Corono. There was an inn with a telephone.