By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
CARIBOU, Maine — Due to technical complications, cluster balloonist Jonathan R. Trappe was forced to cut short his attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a small boat tethered to 366 colorful helium balloons — but not too short.
Launching out of Caribou the morning of Sept. 12, Trappe landed his aircraft about 12 hours and 466 miles later in Blow Me Down Provincial Park in Newfoundland to safely conclude his adventure toward the eastern hemisphere — and by doing so began a whole new adventure in the bug-filled bog where he landed.
Before posting the detailed story of adventure on his website clusterballoon.com, Trappe first recounted the experience for a few dozen community members at the Caribou Wellness and Recreation Center. He spent hours telling his story, answering questions, taking photos and writing out Air Mail — a ballooning tradition — for folks in attendance who helped inflate the cluster of colorful balloons.
Audience members asked Trappe two questions he’d clearly been asked before: what would he change, and will he do it again?
As far as the changes, Trappe said that he’d rearrange the ballast bags, space the helium tanks on the inflation field a bit farther apart to account for any wind, and the balloon type.
“What we really need to do is try a new balloon type, test it unmanned … with a tracker, see where it levels out, see where it fails, then cluster them and fly a manned flight over land.”
The second question he’d clearly been asked many times and when giving his answer, Trappe apologized for those who’d heard it before.
“To try again, I need two things … I need a municipal dump truck — no light pickup, I need a municipal dump truck. And the city of Caribou has an orange one driving around, I might be able to borrow that dump truck, so we have a good line on a dump truck,” Trappe said with all seriousness. “… I then need to fill it with money.”
The talk included dozens of photos from all parts of the flight and video — including the abrupt, foggy landing at dusk — but the story started at its chronological beginning at the Soucie Memorial Ball Field, when hundreds of volunteers came together to inflate the balloons and assemble the cluster.
“What a spectacular day at the airfield,” Trappe said to his audience.
The audience knew well that Trappe’s journey began in Caribou and put down in Newfoundland, in fact many of those in attendance had tracked his path online during the 12 hours of flight.
Using incredible photography and photos, Trappe spoke of all the smaller stories contained in the larger journey — how he almost mistook the cord connected to his laptop case for ballast and at the last second avoided rendering the computer to gravity’s pull, how he was determined to land safely in Newfoundland as to avoid needing the services of search and rescue, how after all his tremendous preparation and planning he found himself in a Newfoundland bog without bug spray — all three bottles of the stuff had been given to volunteers during the inflation process.
He described how the complex weather conditions and multiple cloud layers hindered uniform heating conditions for the balloons, meaning that once he broke free of the clouds and was ready to halt his ascent, the sun would heat the balloons and instead of the aircraft hitting the breaks, it would step on the theoretical gas pedal.
“It’s not the easiest aircraft to fly, but it’s also not the most practical — have you seen a picture of this thing?” he joked to a laughing audience.
Trappe had used 66 of the 166 bags of ballast he’d brought with him on the 12-hour flight.
“I gave it some thought that the issue was this: I either make it to landfall at Newfoundland and put down in Newfoundland, or I put down in the middle of the Atlantic. And the problem with putting down in the middle of the Atlantic is one, it’s the middle of the Atlantic, and two, I can’t recover myself. So that means I have to rely on search and rescue, and I was loathed to evoke search and rescue,” Trappe said.
As those who are familiar with Trappe’s story know, he didn’t need search and rescue; but even before his team could extract him from the bog he’d landed in, a news helicopter desperate for an interview came and picked him up. In a hurry to take off, however, the helicopter pilot wouldn’t allow Trappe to head back to his ship to retrieve his necessary documents (like his passport) or other necessities.
“You’ve seen the footage,” Trappe joked with the audience, “It was all downhill after I met the reporter from CBS.”
Out of the bog, out of Newfoundland, back to the States and back to Caribou, Caribou Parks and Recreation Superintendent Kathy Mazzuchelli explained to the crowd the impetus for Trappe’s talk on Oct. 8 when she introduced the balloonist who needed no introduction in this city.
“Knowing how enthralled everybody was with Jonathan Trappe, I literally chased him down the road because I had some people ask me if he might do this, and ask him if he could give us one more night,” Mazzuchelli said. “And I also told him that if he let us have a little sleep,” she said, alluding to the all-nighter volunteers put in to help inflate the aircraft, “we’d probably come back and do this all over again, wouldn’t we?” Mazzuchelli asked, and the group applauded their response.
A detailed story about Trappe’s adventure can be found on his website, clusterballoon.com and clicking on “Full Story” next to the title “Trans-Atlantic attempt becomes: The Newfoundland Express.”
