The 11th annual Summer Heat Air Festival landed at Delaware County Airport at Johnson Field over the weekend, bringing with it all of the sound and fury of military aircraft, as well as more laid-back carnival attractions.
The major change in this year's Summer Heat was a dramatic increase in all attractions -- other than the balloon flights, that have always ensured entertainment for visitors in case weather proved to windy for airplane flight. Also, this year's festival was held in June, instead of July, for the first time.
Event Coordinator Christie Mers said that the nearly doubled size of the air show and static displays, which were presented by David Schultz Airshows, combined with the tripled size of the arts and crafts vendors and full-size carnival have helped draw the crowds.
"I don't think we've lost any attendence," Mers said. "If anything, we've increased. The thing with balloons is you don't always know where they're going to go, [and] they can't always fly. That's why we bumped up the air show and carnival."
Other attractions around the Summer Heat grounds included monster truck rides, two concert stages, a rock-climbing wall and appearances from two of central Indiana's car clubs.
Two Ball State students, senior history major Joe Gray and senior secondary English education major Megan Bess, came to Summer Heat for the first time -- they came to see the balloons, but flight schedules prevented them from doing so by Saturday afternoon.
"We wanted to see a hot air balloon festival, and we found out about this one," Gray said. "Too bad we haven't seen any balloons yet."
The planned flight schedule called for the main ascension to be on Friday night, but due to high winds, Friday's launch was canceled. One other flight was cancelled Saturday, however every other flight of the weekend went on schedule.
Balloon pilots had been given a 10-knot waiver but were also allowed to fly at their discretion. High winds kept launch plans on the fringe most of the weekend.
Balloon pilot Betsy Kleiss said that the schedule change may have been partially responsible for some of the flight decisions.
"July, August and September are the best times to fly," Kleiss said. "June is kind of iffy, and this is very typical June weather in the midwest."
While both Gray and Bess said they enjoyed themselves at the festival, Bess was quick to single out the carnival as a negative experience.
"The ride prices [were] not cool," Bess said.
Sergeant Greg Ellison of the Delaware County Sheriff's Office has coordinated security for the Summer Heat Air Festival for 11 years, and he said despite the big changes in the event's size, this year's air festival had not been any different from others -- it had been calm.
"I've worked security for Summer Heat since its conception, and there may have been one arrest in 11 years," Ellison said. "Many times it's just somebody who may have had too much to drink, so we'll make sure they have a ride. The spectators are usually pretty calm."
Aside from the normal patrol routine, Ellison said the only occurrence that garnered security attention by press time was a small traffic accident involving cars waiting to pull into the Summer Heat parking area.
But even the security staff had the opportunity to put on a show during the event, with a police escort for Star Wars villain Darth Vader and a group of Storm Troopers.
"We did it when Spongebob was here," Ellison said. "The kids think it's cool. They see the flashing lights and hear the sirens. It kind of wakes the crowd up, and the kids will see it. We always try to do the little things like that."
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