Breeze foils pupils’ balloon outing

LINCOLNVILLE – A breeze off Penobscot Bay on an otherwise stellar spring day Thursday grounded Coral Coombs’ fourth-graders.

Pupils were supposed to get rides in a hot-air balloon as a payoff for a yearlong study of world geography and culture, in which they used imaginary balloon travel to learn about the food, currency, industry and other elements of life around the globe.

But the occasional gust across the MBNA Point Lookout soccer field convinced Sails Aloft owners Derald Young and Eric Olsen to keep their 70-foot balloon tethered to the ground. Even so, wind ended up causing the inflated balloon to fold, tipping the grounded wicker basket and toppling its five would-be passengers onto the ground.

A batch of pupils from Lincolnville Central School apparently enjoyed watching the spectacle anyway, with Young and Olsen trying to inflate the balloon, then keep it vertical. And many were able to have their photos taken standing in the basket after the balloon deflated.

Coombs won an education grant from the MBNA Foundation to cover the cost of materials for the yearlong study, which included bringing Sails Aloft to the school Thursday.

In the classroom, pupils readily explained how they learned about the history of flight, creating timelines showing various innovations, including the first hot-air balloon, created by two French brothers.

Nick Murphy, 9, related how the brothers believed that by burning wet shoes and wool – which created noxious odors – they could get their balloon to rise, learning only later that it was hot air that did the trick and that the smell had nothing to do with their success.

Patrick Splaine, 11, said pupils had to plan their mock balloon trips to Augusta, then Washington, D.C., then around the United States. “Every once in a while, Mrs. Coombs would give us a ‘fate card,'” Splaine said. The card might tell the traveler that a strong north wind blew him or her off course, forcing the traveler to plot a new destination.

Coombs said the pupils learned about U.S. cities and states as they traversed the map, using the weather page in the Bangor Daily News to determine whether they could make it to the next stop.

The class then traveled to Africa, where pupils could then plot their own courses to various other countries.

“I went to England,” Murphy said. “Patrick went to Russia. We’d have to learn about the people, what they do, the industries.”

Collin Downs, 10, showed off his travel log, while Gabby Widdecomb, 11, who traveled to Burkina Faso and Chile, showed off her “passport,” which Coombs stamped with the name of each stop.

Jessica Linscott, 10, said her favorite stop was Sweden, while Christopher Bryant, 10, said he enjoyed learning about the Coliseum in Rome during his virtual visit to Italy.

Miniature versions of the new euro currency were displayed on a bulletin board that also featured a map showing where pupils traveled.

Coombs said the class also used datelines from stories in the paper to learn about different cultures.

After the balloon rides were scrapped, Young and Olsen fielded questions from the children. The balloon would cost $25,000 to replace, they said, and when full, it contains 77,000 cubic feet of air, which if cooled, would weigh 4,000 pounds.