AUBURN – A dozen kids learned Monday what’s so hot about hot-air balloons.
“Do you know how a sunburn feels?” said Evan Davies, 10, of Litchfield. “It was sort of like that, but really, really loud.”
The blistering heat from the balloon’s burner, combined with Monday’s mid-80-degree temperatures, gave the kids plenty of reason to sweat. But it didn’t ruin their moods as they floated into the air, their hands clamped firmly to their ears.
“You get used to the sound, after a while,” said Lewiston’s Tom Applegate, 11. “I only kept my ears covered part of the time.”
Balloonist Jim Rodrigue of Androscoggin Balloon Adventures took three or four kids at a time up 70 feet in his hot-air balloon “Sky Patches.”
It was opening day of the first-ever St. Dom’s Aviation Camp at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport. Director John McGonagill was approached by St. Dom’s camp organizers last fall to see if he was interested in hosting it. He quickly pulled together a week’s itinerary.
The camp includes trips to Owl’s Head Transportation Museum near Rockland, the Federal Aviation Administration control tower in Portland and a patrol squadron tour of Brunswick Naval Air Station.
The kids will make their own model rockets during the week and launch them on Friday.
“I’m calling it my grand finale,” McGonagill said. “I guess it might not be that grand, but it’ll be fun.”
He had even bigger things in mind when he started planning the camp. He enlisted the help of a half-dozen area pilots to spend a day showing off their aircraft and giving the kids rides. The Catholic Diocese grounded that plan, saying liability was too great an issue.
McGonagill settled for bringing the pilots in on Friday. They’ll show off their aircraft, from powered ultralight gliders to hand-made and experimental airplanes.
Next year will be different, McGonagill said. He hopes to expand the program to several weeks and get the kids flying.
“I’ll fly down to Portland myself and give the bishop a ride, just to get him over his fear of flying,” McGonagill said.
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