For those who have watched the clouds on a lazy summer day and imagined all kinds of animals and shapes forming overhead, look up on July 23, 24 and 25 near Middletown, Ohio. Those shapes won’t be imagination running wild, they are hot air balloons.

Oggy the Dragon and a huge soccer ball will be floating overhead as a special treat for guests of the 2004 Ohio Challenge Hot Air Balloon Festival.

Mid-First Credit Union, primary sponsor of the festival will bring the Oggy the Dragon balloon to Middletown—all 138 feet of him.  Butler Tech is bringing the 76 foot tall soccer ball to the event.

The special shape balloons are particular favorites of hot air balloon festival crowds. While they take particular care and extra time to inflate and are even more weather and wind sensitive than the other hot air balloons, once they take to the skies, they command full attention from those on the ground.

Oggy’s pilot, Ron Martin, of Tampa, Florida, began ballooning in 1980. An electrical contractor, he began his flying as a fixed wing pilot first, then a hot air balloon pilot. He has flown a champagne bottle, gas balloons and several other special shape hot air balloons before taking on the Oggy balloon.

Oggy is full of hot air—175,000 cubic feet of it, weighs 738 pounds, requires twice the crew of a regular hot air balloon and a larger launch and landing site. Oggy is not only 14 stories high, he is  80 feet wide toe to tail, and is constructed of 3,600 yards of fabric sewn together with 15 miles of thread.

Scott McClinton of Prospect Kentucky will be piloting the soccer ball. He has flown hot air balloons for 15 years and logged over 1,100 hours in the air over 38 states and four countries. He is known to Middletown fans for his appearances in the U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championships held in Middletown during the early 1990s and at more recent All American Weekend events. His “air ball” was the first special shape balloon to cross over the Continental divide in Breckenridge, Colorado, at 18,000 feet and in 18 degree temperatures. The soccer ball balloon at 76 feet by 57 feet, can lift over 1,800 pounds of cargo.

Hot air ballooning fans will surely enjoy the spectacle of seeing the hour-long inflation process required to get these balloons into the skies and then, if the camera angles are just right, see a big green dragon kicking a soccer ball around the heavens.

The competitive balloon pilots, in those other 26 balloons, will be intent on flying their unsteerable craft so that they reach pre-selected areas to hit a target on the ground with their weighted markers. Those who follow hot air balloon competition will be carefully watching to see how each pilot heats the air inside his or her balloon to go up or allow it to cool to go down to catch a wind current traveling the direction they want to go to reach their goal.

The 2004 Ohio Challenge Hot Air Balloon Festival will be held at Smith Park, 500 Tytus Avenue in downtown Middletown. Take I-75, exit 32 and follow the signs to the site near Hook Field airport.  Besides the twice daily hot air balloon flights, weather permitting, the festival planners will also include arts and crafts, the best of local festival foods, a children’s carnival, authentic Indian drum circle and dancing, a family balloon discovery center and entertainment on the outdoor stage. Admission to the festival site is free. Parking is $5 per vehicle, good for the entire three-day weekend. Grounds are open for the early morning flights, however, festival vendors and entertainment are Friday 4 to 10:30 pm, Saturday Noon to 10:30 pm and Sunday, Noon to 7 pm.