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The Spirit Ballooning crew and passengers on a flight from Great Barrington to Salisbury on July 25 of last year.
Madi Long
Darrel has been a licensed balloon pilot since 1994 when he flew his first solo voyage in a self-built balloon he called Spirit, now the company’s namesake. “I was not only a brand new student,” he said, “I was a test pilot in my own balloon!”
Luckily, the design was sturdy, proven by its place in the company’s three balloon fleet today, three decades later.
Darrel said once the balloon was built, he realized he needed a crew, so he got to building the next element in the process: a family. “We’ve got two sons and two daughters, and they’ve all been involved since they were born,” he said, explaining that the motivation behind Spirit Ballooning was partially to sustain the family’s passion as the kids developed their own interest in flying.
The real purpose, though, is to share the joy of floating above the verdant morning landscape with others, Darrel explained: “We don’t really do it to make a lot of money, we mainly do it to share the experience.”
Darrel Long shows off the burner flame, the primary instrument used in hot air balloon flight.Madi Long
His daughter Madi, who is the Audience Development Editor for The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News, agrees. During a recent conversation, she recalled a young couple the family met at a balloon festival in Vermont over a decade ago.
“When we first started flying them, they were just boyfriend and girlfriend,” she said, but after a few years of taking them up, “we eventually got invited to their wedding.”
“They were our passengers, but then it became so much more than that,” she said, noting that similar experiences of building relationships came to define her upbringing around hot air balloons. She said that when she was growing up in North Canaan, she made many of her friends after having landed on their parents’ lawn in a balloon.
Madi put her pilot training on pause in high school and college to focus on other things, but recently she’s considering a renewed push for a license. After all, it’s in the Long family DNA – “People learn their ABCs, and we just, like, learned to fly balloons,” she said with a laugh.
Her older brother Jordan was the first of the Long children to get licensed when he was 19, and had built his first balloon by 20 – Foxtrot, which also is featured in the Spirit fleet.
Jordan Long checks the rigging as the balloon prepares to launch.Madi Long
Ryan, the eldest, is also licensed, and currently flies balloons in California but is soon to move back to the Northeast where he may help out with the family business, Jordan said.
Now 30, Jordan is a commercial airline pilot for JetBlue by day and globe-trotting balloon flyer by morning, having soared over the Alps, the lush fields of Ireland, and most recently Northeastern Spain, amongst other destinations.
When he thinks about the differences in the two types of flight, he likes to remember a metaphor his friend, who also pilots both, once offered that likened airplane flying to the structure and order of marching band music.
“With hot air ballooning,” on the other hand, “it’s pure jazz.”
“You can have a destination in mind, you can start off in a known location,” Jordan said, “but in the meantime, you can improvise and float around, go on little tangents with different wind patterns and over different natural features.”
Jordan explained that the farms, industries, towns, estates and landscape features of the Northwest Corner and broader region can make it feel like floating above history. “It just brings your hometown to life in a way you otherwise wouldn’t know about,” he said.
Despite having flown balloons in faraway places, Jordan maintained that “there’s no place like home.”
To find out more and to book a flight, visit spiritballooning.com
A summer 2023 flight where all three pilots participated, each piloting a different balloon.Madi Long
Max Ocean at the Subversive Taproom in Catskill.
Provided
As their business grew, fueled in no small part by their fast and flawless menu of elevated tavern fare, so did the number of customers who called themselves regulars. Among those regulars was David Quituisaca, donor organizer and volunteer coordinator at Columbia County Sanctuary Movement, or CCSM.
Founded in response to the political rhetoric of the 2016 presidential campaign, CCSM provides support for immigrant communities while advocating for policy changes at the county, state, regional and national levels. They’ve partnered with many local businesses in a symbiotic fashion, receiving funds and donations while helping to educate employees and patrons about their rights, and what non-targeted citizens can do to help protect their neighbors. In addition to their work in Columbia County, CCSM also teams up with other immigrant support groups in places like Millerton and Salisbury to educate vulnerable residents and community members alike.
After seeing reports and footage of the increasingly violent tactics used by the federal government in its efforts to arrest and deport Spanish-speaking residents, Subversive wanted to do something to help. Around the National Day of Protest against ICE’s tactics in January, Ocean reached out to Quituisaca and asked what they could do. It was quickly determined that a limited run beer and community launch party was the way forward. But what kind of beer would it be?
Subversive is known for their carefully crafted brews, which, while adored by their customers, aren’t always the most accessible to the casual sipper. For this run, they wanted something unique enough to talk about, but easy enough for non-craft beer fans.
What they decided on was creating a more accessible light beer using the yeast from Modelo’s internationally popular Mexican-style cerveza. They call it “Chinga la Migra.” Subversive committed to donating 15% of all sales to CCSM, a pledge they anticipate will net thousands of dollars when all the beer is sold out.
5% of proceeds from Chinga La Migra will be donated to Columbia County Sanctuary Movement.Provided
While the beer and the event will undoubtedly help CCSM’s efforts in raising awareness and garnering funds, Quituisaca notes that their efforts are nonstop. He notes that recent high-profile immigration enforcement tactics have underscored an ongoing need for support, including financial donations and access to larger spaces for classes and seminars on how to navigate an increasingly aggressive federal enforcement environment.
Though the fight may persist, with partners like Subversive, the migrant community and their supporters can kick back with a cold beer every once in a while to celebrate this vibrant community, and all they have to offer.
Subversive Brewing is located at 96 W. Bridge St., Catskill. More info at drinksubversive.com
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