It was still dark at 6 a.m. Thursday when Chris Whitfield convened the pilots’ briefing at Albany’s Timber Linn Memorial Park for the kickoff flight of the 20th annual Northwest Art & Air Festival.

As balloonmeister for the event, it’s Whitfield’s job to determine whether conditions are safe enough to fly. The weather report was a mixed bag, with fitful winds blowing around 4 knots at ground level and a cloud ceiling of about 2,500 feet.

But after checking all the variables and watching the test flight of a small purple “pibal,” or pilot balloon, Whitfield decided to green-light the launch.

“The weather is not perfect, but it is within our minimums and it is flyable,” he announced to the assembled pilots, crew members and passengers.

“The field is open. Have a good flight!”

But as Whitfield and his crew laid out their balloon, fired up the propane burner and began to fill the 90,000-cubic-foot nylon envelope, others held back.

Roy Foote traveled from Boise, Idaho, with his wife, Paula, for the event, but he was leery of the wind, which can make filling and landing a balloon difficult or even dangerous.

“I don’t feel good about flying today for some reason,” said Foote, who has 30 years’ experience as a hot-air balloon pilot. “I’ve just got to go with my gut.”

In the end, Foote was one of several pilots scheduled to launch on Thursday who chose not to chance the winds, but three other balloons followed Whitfield into the sky for what turned out to be an hourlong ride.

The Timber Linn soccer fields, converted to a balloon-staging area for the duration of the four-day festival, quickly fell away as Whitfield’s lighter-than-air craft, Heaven Bound, climbed rapidly toward the clouds.

Once aloft it was picked up by the winds, which bore it south and a little west, crossing Interstate 5 and then paralleling the freeway as it floated down the valley toward Eugene.

Albany’s housing tracts faded from view and were replaced by a patchwork of brown, green and yellow farm fields, stitched together by straight lines of roadway and meandering ribbons of trees.

Whitfield, now in his ninth year as balloonmeister for the Art & Air Festival, said the weather system that brought rain to the valley overnight made for slightly unsettled flying conditions on Thursday, but he was confident in his decision to open the field.

That said, he didn’t fault any pilot who decided not to launch.

“There’s a saying in ballooning that it’s always better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than to be in the air wishing you were on the ground,” Whitfield said.

“We definitely don’t want a pilot in the air who’s not comfortable.”

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The four who did decide to fly all touched down safely in a harvested grass seed field south of Tangent, 8 miles or so from the launch site.

Whitfield predicted better weather conditions for the remainder of the festival, which runs through Sunday, with balloon launches scheduled for 6:45 a.m. each day.

“The rest of the weekend looks good right now,” he said. “I’m really hopeful we’ll get all three flights in.”

Thirty-two balloons are signed up to fly in this year's festival. The pilots come from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California, Nevada, South Dakota, Arizona and New Mexico.

Organized by the Albany Parks & Recreation Department, the Northwest Art & Air Festival brings a variety of events on Friday and Saturday to Timber Linn Memorial Park at 900 Price Road SE.

In addition to the daily balloon launches, the festival features more than 60 artists and craftspeople selling their wares, over a dozen food and beverage vendors, a family zone with a climbing wall and other kid-friendly attractions, and two concert stages with a beer and wine garden.

Classic rocker Rick Springfield headlines this year’s musical lineup, performing at 8 p.m. Saturday, with Eagles tribute band Eagle Eyes topping the bill on Friday.

At dusk on Friday, seven balloons will light up the sky in the Night Glow performance, and the Art of Cars classic car show starts at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

Adjacent to the park at Albany Municipal Airport, volunteer pilots will be conducting Young Eagles flights from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The flights are free for kids between the ages of 8 and 17, with registration beginning at 9 a.m. each day.

As always, admission is free for all events, but donations are accepted to help defray costs. There is a $10 fee for parking.

Last year’s festival drew 64,000 people, and attendance tends to be especially high for the Night Glow. Albany officials are asking festival-goers to follow the directions of parking attendants on their way out and warning it could take up to an hour to get out of the park.

“People trickle in all day long and then they all want to leave at the same time,” city spokeswoman Marilyn Smith said.

“We want people to just be patient, because 25,000 people can’t leave a soccer field at the same time.”

The event is supported by nearly four dozen businesses, including presenting sponsor Central Willamette Credit Union.

For complete scheduling details, see the festival website at http://nwartandair.org/.

Reporter Bennett Hall can be contacted at [email protected] or 541-812-6111. Follow him on Twitter at @bennetthallgt.

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