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Open festival field...or closed???

Replied Dec. 29, 2008

Open festival field...or closed???

Replied Dec. 27, 2008

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Ray Stevens's Page

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City, Country:

DeLand, FL

About Me:

I got interested in Ballooning back in 1979 when I had my first balloon flight with George Lewis. I was living in Wellsville, NY at the time, I decided I wanted to build a Hot air Balloon and was introduced to Fred Williams, another homebuilder who help me with my project.

My Balloon, Beachball, featured a Starfire Burner from the American Balloon Co. in Alexandria, VA. It was a compact single burner with a tight blue flame and rated at around 10 million BTUs. The metal ring that supported the floating burner was from a wheel chair.

I wove my basket from wicker according to Brian Boland's "Fred II" balloon plans.

I am the founder of The Great Wellsville Ballon Rally, an event that has been held the third weekend in July for over 30 years now.,in Wellsville, NY.

I come from over 20 years in radio broadcasting where I worked behind the mic as a DJ, Newsman abd Talk Show host. Now a Realtor and Mortgage Broker in Florida.

Sold Beachball in the 80s and lost track of it untill recently when I heard from a young lady who purchased the balloon. It looks like new and is still flying.

I am looking for others who have built an ultralight balloon and can help me locate plans and materials.

You can email me at: w2byo@hotmail.com

Thanks!

Ray

Comment Wall (11 comments)

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At 8:20am on January 12, 2009, Nickita Negersmith said…: Glad to hear you've gotten back in touch with Tom ( I was happy to help out with that)! It seems you two have quite the history! Maybe I'll get the pleasure of meeting you one day!

At 4:03pm on January 6, 2009, H.David Werder said…: H E L L-O-O-O-O-W !

At 8:59am on December 29, 2008, Nickita Negersmith said…: Tom is a GREAT friend! I fly often with his son Brian and when it's biannual time...I know just who to call! I'm sure he would love to hear from you, so here's his email address...thomashsmith@optonline.net

At 11:24pm on March 29, 2008, Keith Sproul said…: Yes, I know Christine well. I have seen the basket, but not the balloon. I will also be at the Experimental meet in Mass in May. Christine will probably be there too.

Keith

At 11:15pm on March 27, 2008, Sam Blackburn said…: Usually I use my trusty old Kenwood TH78-A and I have a TM733 in the truck. How about you?

At 9:51pm on March 27, 2008, Keith Sproul said…: No, I have never been to Wellseville before, I am looking forward to it. I know Christine.
Could you send me your email address:

ksproul@skychariot.com

At 2:02am on March 27, 2008, Sam Blackburn said…: Hey Ray,

k0lta here!

At 2:47pm on March 26, 2008, Keith Sproul said…: Hello Ray

I build balloons and am working on web pages with plans. I will be attending the Wellsville balloon rally for the first time this year. I am also a Ham, WU2Z.

I would love to see pictures of your Beach Ball.

My home made balloons are at:

http://www.skychariot.com/schedule.html

Keith Sproul
New Jersey

At 1:25pm on March 26, 2008, jared miller said…: Hey Ray, welcome to aunty monkey, sounds like fun to build your own! There was actually an article in the March/April edition of Ballooning about homebuilt aircraft including balloons and they list Paul Stumpf at www.stumpfballoons.com as a good reference. There is also a website for people to submit ideas/plans for homebuilts at www.xlta.org/plans/ , good luck with it , nice to meet you, Jared Miller .

At 11:57am on March 26, 2008, Adam said…: Hi Ray, Welcome to AM.

Nice to have another homebuilder in our community.

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