The Gordon Bennett Cup is the world’s oldest gas balloon race, having started in 1906, and balloonists come from around the world to compete and see who can travel the longest distance. This year, Noah Forden, EAA 539700, and Brenda Cowlishaw represented the United States as USA Team 1, and they took fourth place after traveling 1,382 miles over the southern United States in Intrepid.
Sixteen two-member teams from nine countries launched from the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in New Mexico on the evening of October 7, 2023. Because the Gordon Bennett is a race judged purely on distance traveled, it doesn’t matter how long a team is in the air, the path they take, or where they land. Each team of pilots must decide the best strategy to put the most distance between them and the launch site, and Noah and Brenda shared with us all the nitty-gritty of racing a gas balloon: the preparation, the bone-chilling cold, the stargazing, and more.
USA Team 1 departing the launch site in New Mexico. Photography by Brooke Ridgeway
Meet the Pilots
Noah has loved aviation since he was a kid. He grew up building kits and small gliders with his grandfather. When he was 18, he started building radio-controlled airplanes, and eventually built an RC hot air balloon complete with a hand-woven basket that he’d bring to balloon festivals around the country. During college, Noah also designed software to develop patterns that define the shape of a balloon, which he’d use to create a record-breaking pattern in 1989.
“Then I graduated, and I didn’t want a real job. I wanted to work in ballooning,” Noah said. He moved from Rhode Island to South Dakota to work for Raven Industries, a company that played a key role in the revitalization of hot air ballooning in 1960. “I went to work there as a balloon design engineer, and ultimately a project engineer, and worked on all kinds of balloon systems and baskets and burners and envelopes.” In addition to his work at Raven, Noah cited some highlights of his career being his work with Lockheed Martin, assisting on a spacecraft that flew through the tail of a comet and even a Mars lander.
Noah got his balloon certification in 1991 and his fixed-wing certification in 2000. Since then, he’s flown several fixed-wing aircraft and even built a Van’s RV-7A, which he has been flying for 12 years now. To tie it all together, Noah designed a hot air balloon that fits in the baggage compartment of his RV. “It’s a little one-man balloon that’s 25,500 cubic feet, and it doesn’t have a basket. It just has a powered paragliding harness that I sit in. … I love bringing my balloon to AirVenture. It’s always fun to see the looks on people’s faces when they see you strapped into this balloon that’s got a 15-foot flame over your head.”
Noah has competed several times in the America’s Challenge gas balloon race, being the current reigning champion from his first-place win in 2021, as well as the Gordon Bennett, finishing in 9th place in 2022. This year, he teamed up with balloonist Brenda Cowlishaw. Brenda has competed twice in the America’s Challenge, and this year marked her first Gordon Bennett race.
Growing up, Brenda’s aunt and uncle lived right down the road from the annual National Balloon Classic in Indianola, Iowa. “We would travel there every summer and we would just walk down and see the balloons. Something about those balloons, I just fell in love with them. So, I told my parents then as a small child that when I grew up, that’s what I wanted to do,” she explained. Ironically, Brenda was terrified of heights, but after she took her first balloon ride in 1995, she wasn’t so afraid anymore.
The very next year after her first ride, the cards fell into place, and she started working toward her childhood dream of becoming a hot air balloon pilot. A friend connected her with a local crop duster/balloonist who got her started. “He had recommended some books for me to read, and in the back of one of the books was a designated examiner in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I called that guy, and he said, ‘I’d be happy to train you!’ so that’s where I got my training.”
Brenda received her private certification in 1996 and then her commercial certification in 2000. On top of her regular job, Brenda flew hot air balloons commercially for six years. “I was flying paying passengers and flying a couple of corporate balloons, but it got to where it was more work than it was fun.” Cue the fun in 2019 when Brenda participated in her first America’s Challenge, where her and her teammate (also a first-year competitor) came in fourth, coming out ahead of many seasoned teams. This was also when she started flying the gas balloon, Intrepid, previously owned by retired balloon competitor Phil Bryant.
A Totally Different Animal
“Gas ballooning is a totally different animal than hot air ballooning,” Noah explained. Hot air ballooning is limited by the amount of fuel you can carry, and that usually translates to only a few hours of flight time. With gas balloons, you aren’t burning fuel. Instead, the envelope is filled with lighter-than-air gas, like hydrogen. After launch, the altitude of the gas balloon can be controlled by reducing the load of ballast (usually sand or water) to climb, or by venting gas out of the envelope to descend. Gas balloons are capable of flying multi-day flights, with the Gordon Bennett record being just over 92 hours.
Filling the many sand bags is a group effort! Photography by Brooke Ridgeway
“Certainly, flying in a gas balloon before the race as much as you can is a huge help. In the United States, we’re not able to do that as much just because of the cost [of hydrogen] being so high. So, we practice by flying hot air balloons, which is much more affordable. … It’s not exactly the same, but it’s pretty similar,” explained Noah.
Surprisingly, Brenda and Noah had only met in passing before teaming up for the Gordon Bennett this year. Noah’s usual partner, Bert Padelt, was not able to compete as he was still on standby for ideal conditions to embark on a transatlantic balloon flight, but Brenda was excited for the challenge when she got Noah’s call. “We had roughly two and a half weeks to prepare, and you typically spend at least three months preparing for this sort of flight,” explained Brenda. In the little time they had, the new USA Team 1 organized everything they’d need to compete including a command center back on the ground for meteorological advice along the way.
Though, some things you can’t fully prepare for. When you think of balloons, it’s unlikely extreme sports come to mind, but balloon races like the Gordon Bennett Cup are exactly that. “Preparing for me is, in large part, just being ready to be very uncomfortable for a good long time.” Noah said. He explained being at sustained high altitudes, sometimes as high as 18,000 feet, it gets very cold and dry, and competitors often will be on oxygen for hours or days at a time. They also can’t move around much in the broom-closet-sized basket, as one pilot usually flies while the other sleeps, so it’s a lot of sitting around as the bone-chilling cold sets in. “It’s an endurance race for sure, and being ready mentally for that is one of the hardest things.”
Competitors’ daily routines are also important to their success and safety in the race, explained Brenda. “Flying the balloon is number one, and then checking up on each other as co-pilots is number two. Making sure that we’re getting adequate sleep, that we’re getting adequate nutrition and enough water to drink, that was a big thing. We actually had that as part of our hourly checklist.”
Noah shared that they ate pretty well for being thousands of feet in the air: salmon, cheese, crackers, fresh vegetables, and dehydrated meals. “It’s important to eat well for energy, but also to keep your mood up,” he said. They even brought a small boiler to make hot coffee, oatmeal, and to make themselves hot towels, “You can’t take a shower, but you can put a hot facecloth on your face, and that just feels amazing… Those small things that can make you feel a little more human can make you have more endurance and want to keep going, so they’re very important.”
Closer to Nature… in a Balloon
Sharing a frozen floating basket with someone for days on end does have its perks! It would seem you’re closer to nature at 10,000 feet in the air than when you are on the ground. “In gas balloons, I would say [my favorite thing] is seeing the shooting stars at night so much closer. And the no light pollution and being able to see everything so clearly, it’s amazing. You can actually see the different color changes of some of the shooting stars,” said Brenda.
And it’s not just the spectacular views, Noah shared. “One of the things I love about gas balloons is they’re totally silent. … You can hear things in this type of aircraft that you could hear from no other aircraft… We heard so many coyotes on this last flight calling to each other. We heard owls calling to each other.”
Not only do balloonists get a different perspective on nature, but nature also has a say in their success. Balloons are not steered in the traditional sense, rather, with help from their command center, pilots utilize the varying wind patterns at different altitudes to move around. “I’ve always told people that these races are really kind of a chess match, a 3D chess match among meteorologists, and we’re just the pawns on the board,” Noah said, “They’re a huge part of our team. They’re up all hours of the day and night looking at weather.”
The command center also watches the airspace in the balloon’s path to avoid closed space or to negotiate with air traffic control as needed, and they discuss the supply of ballast with the pilots to determine how much farther they can go before having to land. In addition to the command center, a chase crew follows the balloon throughout the race to be there when the team lands – experiencing their own adventurous road trip along the way. Before the ballast supply gets used up and it’s time to land, the command center will look ahead on Google Earth to find a suitable landing zone. Obvious hazards like wind turbines, electrical wires, radio towers, and populated areas are avoided, and swampy areas, tall crops, and forests are not ideal.
After two days and 17 hours in the air, Noah and Brenda landed in Johnson County, Georgia, in a field of small pine trees on hunting grounds, and they were warmly greeted and assisted by local emergency services before their chase crew caught up. After their long journey over the United States, Noah and Brenda claimed the fourth-place spot in the 66th Gordon Bennett Cup.
There are no prizes for winning the Gordon Bennett aside from bragging rights and claiming the trophy for the next year, but competitors leave with something new each time. “Every flight is memorable. Every flight is special. Every flight is something I hope to remember for the rest of my life,” Noah affirmed. “It’s all unplanned and it’s always going to be different and it’s going to be fun.”
“Every place we’ve ever gone, we end up meeting people that you would otherwise never probably get to sit down and talk to, so the people is a big part of ballooning for me,” Brenda added. “We definitely need more women to realize that it’s not just a sport that men can enjoy. It’s definitely a sport that anyone can enjoy, and it’s also a huge family sport. It’s something that my kids were raised around. Everybody can get involved.”
Header photography by Brooke Ridgeway