BALLOONING

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PICTURED ABOVE: Cincinnati Balloonfest, the Midwest's Largest Ballooning Event, circa 1986

This is the story of how the Kanis Family went from hot rods to hot air...

It all started sometime back in the late 1950's when three engineers left General Mills in Minneapolis, moved to neighboring Sioux Falls, South Dakota and formed a corporation by the name of Raven Industries. They had secured an Office of Naval Research contract to design and build a modern-day version of the oldest form of flight, the hot air balloon. With weight being the primary factor, the engineers calculated the size of balloon envelope it would take to create enough lift to carry a grown man, an onboard heating system and enough fuel for an extended flight. Raven then proceeded to design and build what was to become the first modern day hot air balloon. On October 22, 1960, Ed Yost was indeed successful in flying that balloon on its first flight for one hour and thirty-five minutes. In 1972, Raven received a standard FAA type certification and began marketing "sport balloons" to the general aviation public. Ballooning being the spectacle that it is, soon became the perfect vehicle for aerial advertising. 

My first exposure to ballooning predates that first modern day hot air balloon flight by just a few months. It was the summer of 1960. My father took my brother and I to the grand opening of the new Cherry Grove Plaza near my childhood home on the border of Anderson Township, Ohio. As part of the grand opening festivities, a smoke balloonist by the name of Captain Eddie Allen from Batavia, New York was about to perform. When we arrived, a crowd was gathering and the smell of kerosine permeated the air. There was a large, smoky fire burning down in the field adjacent to the shopping center. Around that fire, a number of men were gathered holding a mammoth, soot covered, balloon bag over the flames collecting the smoke and heat. When the 85-foot-tall balloon bag was fully inflated, Captain Eddie grabbed onto a trapeze-like bar that was attached to the base of the balloon by cables, waved goodbye to the crowd and signaled to the men to release the balloon. That balloon took off like a rocket, rapidly ascending into the sky with Captain Eddie dangling from below. This in itself was very exciting to see to say the least. But to add to the dramatics, an ambulance with its sirens blaring and lights flashing, raced out of the field chasing after the balloon leaving us all with the impression that we were about to witness a tragedy. The balloon was still in sight when suddenly something appeared to go terribly wrong. The crowd screamed in horror as Captain Eddie fell from the balloon and was plummeting to certain death. Simultaneously, and adding to the suspense, the balloon bag turned upside down billowing out a huge cloud of black smoke. It was all very dramatic, especially to a five-year-old child. Then, much to everyone’s relief, a parachute opened breaking Captain Eddie's fall returning him safely back to earth. Wow, what a show! The crowd went crazy. As I recall, we later learned that the balloon bag was found draped over the roof of someone's house down on Hopper Hill Road. I’m not sure if it was a case of repressed memory or what, but I had forgotten all about witnessing this traumatic event until my father had reminded me of it years later, well after I started flying balloons myself. A quick side note, I was flying at an airshow sometime in the 80’s or 90’s in Traverse City, Michigan and much to my amazement, Captain Eddie was there. He was up in age by then but was still performing his death-defying smoke balloon act.

Fast forward to 1976, sport ballooning was still in its infancy. There were only a few hot air balloon pilots in Ohio and even fewer balloons. A business associate of mine had just bought a one-third interest in one of those balloons. One Saturday morning, he asked me to come out and crew for him. In return, I was promised a ride. I just forgot to ask exactly when that would be. After crewing for what seemed like a month of Sundays, I finally got to go up on my first hot air balloon flight. That was all it took, I was hooked! I ended up crewing that entire summer but only got to fly twice. I had a great time, but I knew I didn’t want to crew for the rest of my life. 

Early that next season I began the process of getting my balloon license. Unfortunately, there were so few balloons around that I just couldn’t get the flight time that was required to obtain a rating. So, at the age of twenty-two, I set out to buy my first hot air balloon. However, I quickly found that if I ordered a new balloon from the local dealer, it would be a three to six month wait for delivery. Being an instant gratification kind of guy, I began searching and happened upon a hot air balloon dealer out in Albuquerque, New Mexico by the name of Doug March. Doug was the largest Raven dealer in the U.S. at the time. He just happened to have one of the first, brand-new, Raven Rally balloons in stock. The Rally was a new concept in ballooning. For lack of a better term, it was the first “mass produced” balloon. The Rally had a simplified design, came in limited color patterns and had an entry level price point. The concept was to keep potential buyers that didn’t want to wait the three to six months from being forced back out into the marketplace. The Rally now made it possible for anyone to buy a new balloon system "right off the lot". So, I wired Doug the money, at that time it was only $6,995.00 plus tax, and the balloon system arrived in less than a week.

As fate would have it, that same summer, I started a new job and was working in Piscataway, New Jersey. My time was limited but I was able to come home on weekends to fly. By August of that year, my instructor deemed me to be proficient enough to fly solo. After completing my solo flight, a hair-raising experience by the way, I was "signed off" which meant that I could legally fly on my own. The rest of that season I flew as often as time allowed. I accumulated more than enough flight hours required for not only a private rating but for a commercial rating as well. 

That next spring, I took my commercial check ride with Al Nels, the current world hot air balloon champion at the time and a designated FAA flight examiner. Al told me when he was signing me off that I was the first balloon pilot that he knew of to have bypassed a private license and go straight for a commercial rating. 

In my first few years of ballooning, I had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know the Shiels brothers, Dene, Dennis and Steven. They were a bit older than me and were some of the sport's earliest balloonists. We all had a great time together on and off the launch field. This began a lifelong friendship between the Kanis and Shiels families that continues even to this day. The Shiels were successful with their own businesses outside of ballooning. But they also owned a fledgling hot air balloon company by the name of Sky Signs Unlimited. As their balloon business began to grow, they needed another pilot to pick up the slack. So, being one of the only available pilots in town at the time, I was glad to jump in. 

By 1985, the Shiels were so busy with their growing families that ballooning was no longer the priority it once was to them. Surprisingly, that spring they gave me the opportunity to assume ownership of Sky Signs Unlimited. Without that opportunity, I would have never been able to accomplish what I did in the sport and business of ballooning. I will be forever grateful to them. 

I was different than the other cowboys flying balloons out there. Most were basically looking for a sponsor just to cover their expenses. I, on the other hand, was a sales and marketing guy whose vehicle just happened to be ballooning. It was a real business to me, and I treated it as such. So, I began calling on anybody and everybody that would talk to me and pitched my balloon advertising concept. I quickly learned that selling a hot air balloon advertising program was one of the most difficult tasks that anyone could ever undertake. To help that cause, I developed the first cost per thousand analysis in the industry. It showed in definitive numbers just how effective ballooning was as an advertising tool. That CPM analysis would eventually be used industry wide. 

Each year, one balloon at a time, we were able to secure more and more commercial contracts. By 1988, we had grown the business of Sky Signs Unlimited into the one of the largest commercial balloon operations in the nation. That same year I entered the largest single hot air balloon order ever received by Raven Industries and was recognized as one of their largest dealers at their annual meeting. At its peak, Sky Signs had a total of ten balloons in our hangar, operated a number of balloon advertising contracts, had a booming balloon ride business, a substantial Raven hot air balloon dealership and a staff of 19 pilots and crew. Recently, Dennis Shiels and I attempted to assemble a list of the balloons that Sky Signs Unlimited had sold and/or operated since the company's inception in 1974. We came up with a number of around forty or so, but we may well have forgotten a few.

Over the years we flew countless live radio and TV broadcasts, filmed a number of TV commercials, did a numerous photo shoots for newspapers, magazines and print media, flew surprise engagements, weddings in flight, anniversary events, celebrated birthdays, sprinkled ashes of loved ones and even tethered over an archeological dig. We made lots of friends and had an absolute great time. I also traveled and flew at balloon races and events all over the U.S. and the world for that matter often with my young family in tow. Some of the ones that standout in my mind include the 200th Anniversary of Manned Flight in France, many appearances at the International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, Merrill Lynch’s annual event in Maui, The Remax Balloon Festival in Denver and many other national and international balloon races. But probably the most memorable trip of all was traveling “down under” to fly at Australia's Wonderland, Cincinnati based Taft Broadcasting’s amusement park just outside of Sydney. While I was there it was arranged for me to fly in the Australian National Championships being held in neighboring Canberra, the capital city of Australia. I had the pleasure of meeting a number of Aussie balloonists and had an absolutely incredible time. On one of the flights, I tracked directly over the Australian White House at about 100 feet eventually landing on a nearby cricket field. There's something you can't do in America! 

However, the event that I am most proud was the one that we started right here in my hometown of Cincinnati. Balloonfest began in 1980 as The Great Zinzinnati Balloon Race and ran for thirteen years. It was hailed as the largest balloon event in the Midwest and was one of the premier ballooning events in the nation. It was a major media event and was broadcast live on the number one FM radio station in town. Balloonfest always received a tremendous amount of television and print media coverage as well. It was said to be one of the most photographed events in the city with Kodak sponsoring it for many years. Balloonfest featured over fifty hot air balloons with a series of mass ascensions and a balloon glow with fireworks. It regularly drew crowds of 100,000 over the weekend period. It took the entire offseason to plan and coordinate the event each year. Balloonfest was a huge undertaking. Over the years, the entire Kanis family became involved. I acted as the Balloonmeister and flew the lead or "hare" balloon, Jerry Kanis was Director of Operations, Tom Kanis ran the chase crew lost and found, Rick Kanis was a launch director, Ron Frey flew as a competitive pilot and my sister Kate Kanis Frey was his crew chief. And I couldn't have done it without my wife Teresa and my mother Babe doing anything and everything else necessary to make certain the event was always a huge success. We all had the time of our lives!

Around the mid 1990’s the winds of change were beginning to blow. Corporation’s interest in using hot air balloons as an advertising tool was waning. The digital age was upon us and many new avenues of advertising and promotion were now becoming possible. The American lifestyle was changing too. People were not willing to make the time commitment to ballooning that they once did. I was one of those. We just had our third child, I was working out of France and traveling all over the United States and Europe for business. Raven’s hot air balloon sales began a steady decline from a record high of 365 a year at its peak in 1988 to less than 50 balloons annually. The hot air balloon product curve was dropping off.

Early in 2006, Raven Industries announced it was withdrawing from the hot air balloon market citing declining sales and continuing liability issues. Larry Manderscheid, VP at Raven Industries in Sioux Falls, told me that if ballooning were ever to make a comeback that it would not be with Raven. The people who designed and built the first modern day hot air balloon were walking away from the business. Ballooning had run its cycle. I too passed the torch of Sky Signs onto the next generation around that same time. 

However, my love of  ballooning didn’t stop there. I did keep one new sport balloon system and continued to fly privately. I even got to teach my oldest daughter Lindsey how to fly, one of the joys of my life. My relationship with Raven Industries continued on as well. For a period, we had another business venture together outside of ballooning. Today, Raven Industries is bigger than ever. They are a substantial engineering, manufacturing and technology company publicly traded on NASDAQ with annual sales approaching the $400 million mark. 

Looking back, it was the people that I met, the friends that I made and all the absolutely incredible times we shared together that made ballooning what it was for me. My middle daughter Susan is named after Susie Stevens, the woman I did my first balloon race with at Cincinnati's Union Terminal. Susie is still a close family friend to this day. Larry Manderscheid of Raven Industries and I became great friends as well. I also met and flew with countless celebrities and politicians over the years including a number of Cincinnati's mayors, some of which I still see around town. And when I wanted one of the famous Forbes "Capitalist Tool" balloons to appear at one of my events, I could call straight through to Malcom Forbes office. He was always happy to accommodate me. 

Sadly, a lot of the people that I became great friends with early on in ballooning are gone now including two of the three Shiels brothers, Dene and Steven, Larry “Crash” Askren, “Crazy” Carl Hilker and “Uncle” Chuck Healy to name just a few. They were all great to me. I wouldn't have wanted to have gone through life without knowing them along with all the of the other colorful characters that I met while flying. And I think Chuck put it best actually. One of the last things he ever said to me was, “we just didn’t know how much fun we were really having”

- John Kanis III