U4 Hot air balloon sponsorship rides

U4 sponsorship gets four free rides during the Elkhart County Balloon chase. These are the times and dates this year of the balloon chases.

Friday July 21st 2006 6:00 PM
Saturday July 22nd 2006 6:30 AM
Saturday July 22nd 2006 6:00 PM
Sunday July 23rd 2006 6:30 AM

Elkhart County Balloon Chase is a committee of the Elkhart County 4H Fair Board. You can find more information about the Elkhart County fair and the Balloon chase here on the 4H Fairs website: http://www.4hfair.org/


Here are this years riders:
Friday - Cancelled
Saturday- Bill Rondeau
Saturday- Zak Wolfinger & Ben Plikerd
Sunday- Kariann & Jason Yotter




Most pilots only allow for one rider, but Ed Chupp from Balloon Fantasy 574-534-2000 out of Goshen, Indiana allowed two riders to go. Ed gives rides for $190 per person or $355 per couple. Each ride is usually over an hour long.

One small interesting thing to know about Ed Chupp, he works for Eagle Quest cement that came and poured our cement slab in the back of the building at 101 E. Main St Syracuse for our generator. It’s amazing how small of a world it is.

Here are a couple of pictures of the launch of the balloon, take off, flight, and landing. This was Zak’s first ride in a hot air balloon. Every rider this year except for myself was a first time hot air balloon rider.