Ballooning started for Chris Healy when he was 13 years old. A hot air balloon flew over his house in Middletown and he jumped on his bike and peddled as fast as he could to the landing site about a mile away.
After it landed, the pilot asked young Healy to give him a hand with packing it up. Seeing how industrious Healy was, the pilot offered him a job as ground crew on the spot and Healy accepted just as promptly.
“So for years I was this young guy following this old guy in a balloon, and then he taught me how to fly. I was 18 when I got my [balloon] pilot’s license in 1986, and it’s just always been there for me,” said Healy.
The years flew by and Healy just came to the realization that now he is the old guy in the balloon being followed by the other young guys in his crew on the ground. One could say that things have come full circle.
Healy and his partner Deana DeRosa now run their business called Above the Clouds with Healy being the pilot and DeRosa maneuvering the administration on the ground. In fact they even met on a balloon, one fateful day, when DeRosa was a passenger on a fight that Healy piloted.
We witnessed the afternoon flight on a balmy Friday evening on May 29 with one of the biggest balloons that the company uses. It carries nine people.
