Hauser resident Robert Raper, 58, inflates "Independence" during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, last month. A hot air balloonist for about 12 years, Raper said ballooning is unlike any other type of flight. - Contributed Photo

In his years of flying hot air balloons, Robert Raper has learned the language of gales and zephyrs. Roaring one moment and whispering the next, it is the unpredictable wind that makes ballooning an enticing and challenging sport for the Hauser man.    

“If you’ve ever wondered what the wind felt like, how the wind would feel about things, you become that. You feel all the turbulence. You feel the calm, the serene, because you are the wind,” said Raper, 58. “In ballooning, the only thing I have control of absolutely is coming up and coming down. The rest of the skill is tied up in recognizing which direction the wind blows.”

An experience he described as completely different from cruising along in a commercial jet or even a tiny Cessna, hot air ballooning has become one of his greatest passions since Raper took up the sport 12 years ago.

Not that he’s spent his life flitting from cloud to cloud. A former North Bend School Board member, retired natural resource specialist for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, husband and father, Raper believes in hard work and giving back to the community. But with his retirement before him, he said he plans to enjoy it in the gondola of one of his three hot air balloons.

“It’s certainly a breath of fresh air. It’s something you have to keep active in. And that’s what I do. I’m a moderate risk taker. ... It’s something that isn’t very common and things that I do are not very common,” said Raper, a sturdy man with a shock of white hair ringing his scalp. “When you are up there, everything down below is a different perspective you don’t see all the time.”

His favorite event, and the one that first piqued his interest in hot air ballooning, is the annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, held in New Mexico during the first week of October. The nine-day fiesta draws about 750 balloons, hundreds of balloon pilots and thousands of spectators and volunteers for a number of activities including mass ascensions, night flying and a visual parade of unusually shaped balloons.

“The first day, if you could just imagine ... all at one time you see this large grouping of balloons start to take off,” Raper said of the mass ascent, in which all 750 balloons launch at once. “You begin very tightly connected on the field, and then, within 45 minutes, the entire valley is covered in balloons going in different directions.”

During the event last month, in which Raper flew all three of his balloons —  Independence, Midlife Crisis and Retaliation — balloonists spend time testing their skills in a variety of competitions that typically involve dropping items from the gondola of a balloon onto a target. As much as he enjoys and does well in these competitions, Raper said flying in Albuquerque is a challenge in itself, especially since the area has become so built up that it  can make landing difficult.

 “Albuquerque is such a big event. It offers up challenges you can’t find anywhere else,” Raper said.

He added that while he loves flying, he also attends the event to exchange ideas and share experiences with his fellow pilots and crews, which assist pilots in inflating and inspecting the balloons. He said having a capable crew is important because balloons can be very expensive, depending on the size and shape of the contraption’s envelope, or balloon, and must be thoroughly checked to ensure the safety of its passengers.

The nine-day event also includes reaching out to the local community. Raper said he and other balloonists participate in “Albuquerque Aloft,” a program that involves speaking to students at 15 area elementary schools about the dynamic art of flying hot air balloons. He said he held similar programs at North Bend Middle and North Bay Elementary schools.

“It’s exciting to watch the expressions on kids faces in looking at something as different as a balloon,” Raper said. “Those guys always have the most interesting questions and it’s enjoyable to be able to pass the ballooning world on to them.”

When he’s not participating in ballooning events, Raper said he likes to go aloft in Allegany, Medford, Portland, Bend, Roseburg, the Willamette Valley and Grants Pass.  

Fellow balloonist Bill Woodhead, of Grants Pass, said he began flying with Raper about 10 years ago, after Raper moved to the state. He said they often participate in ballooning events together and has found Raper to be a capable pilot and a good friend.

“He’s a top-drawer guy,” Woodhead said. “He’s willing to step out and he’s willing to take on new challenges and to challenge himself to new experiences.”

Raper became interested in ballooning shortly after he and his wife first attended the International Balloon Fiesta. About a month later, Elaine Raper said she made what she describes as her “mistake,” and bought her husband a ticket for a balloon ride for his birthday.

“He went up once and it couldn’t have been more then a week later that he was finding someone to give him lessons,” Elaine Raper said. “I just say it facetiously — I launched his balloon career by mistake. I also helped him get the name for his first balloon  — the Midlife Crisis — because that’s how I described it to everyone.”   

Although she likes jumping in the gondola once in awhile, or helping when she’s needed, Elaine Raper said she leaves the flying to her husband while she spends time showing bulldogs. She recently moved to Miles City, Mont. for her career with the BLM and will be joined by her husband later this year.

“It’s always good when someone finds their passion in life,” Elaine Raper said. “I don’t go up, ... (but) I’ll help him do it as long as he can.”

She said she believes the hobby is so appealing to her husband because he’s a bit of a bulldog himself.

“He’s tenacious. Once he gets ahold of something, he wants to figure out how to make it better, how to do it better.  There’s always a challenge in the flying because every day is different.  It meets the things he likes to get challenged on,” she said.

 Once he moves to Miles City, Raper said he plans to start up a commercial business offering hot air balloon flights to people who would like to experience the power of the wind themselves.