Newsroom
Remembering Jerry Goodnow (2007)
By Danielle Mills
When Topekans head out to Lake Shawnee every September for the annual Huff ‘n’ Puff Balloon Rally, they may not realize the extent of the tradition in which they are participating. Not only is the balloon rally a Topeka tradition, but it is a strong family tradition as well.
The Great Plains Balloon Club, and the city of Topeka, lost one of its greatest proponents of the ballooning tradition in December. Jerry Goodnow, famous for both of his bright pink, blue and yellow balloons and his powered parachute, died after his battle with cancer. His wife, Nancy Goodnow and his son, Tony Goodnow, sat down to talk about Jerry, his passion for ballooning and the beginning of Tony’s career as a licensed balloon pilot. The following are excerpts from that conversation.
The beginning
Tony Goodnow: The way I understood it was there was an ad in the paper talking about needing help for the first Huff ‘n’ Puff. He went out and signed up or whatever you needed to do then and went out and helped out the first year. I remember growing up, he’d drive up the hill on weekend mornings to watch the sky to see if he saw any balloons. If he saw one he’d come back, load up and chase them down. Eventually we started getting calls from pilots to come out and crew.
Nancy Goodnow: Who’d he crew for?
Tony: I’m talking when I’m 3 or 4, sorry. Mike and Holly Blodgett. My earliest solid memories are crewing for Paul [Costello]. I know we used to crew for the Blodgett’s on a fairly regular basis. I can’t remember much before the days of Billy Bob.
Nancy: That was, I would guess, mid ’70s? Well, if you remember it…
Tony: I think we got Billy Bob in ’83
Nancy: Didn’t he get his license in ’76?
Tony: No, he got his private in ’84 or ’86; in ’86 he got his commercial
Nancy: yeah, that was in Jerry’s Steno Pad…in the last [Great Plains Balloon Club] newsletter.
DM: Do you have any recollection of any defining moment when Jerry said he wanted to become a pilot?
Tony: Growing up, that was just what we did. As I got old enough to learn how to fly, I took some interest in it. Paul [Costello] did some teaching, Dad did some teaching and when age 16 rolled around, I had better things to do. I kind of dropped out of it there. When I started flying again last year that was my first logbook entry in like 15 years. Over the years it was always “when are you going to start flying again?” In my teenage years it was “when are you going to get your license? Are you gonna want to?” He always kind of urged me a little bit. I always said, “yeah yeah yeah. Not today, maybe tomorrow.” When we found out he was sick, I knew that was a goal he had for me, so I wanted to do it. I wish I would have gotten it done while he was still around, but he knew I was ready. I was ready 15 years ago…
Jerry’s dedication to ballooning
Nancy: It clearly was a passion, because he expected all of us from day one if he was going to fly, to drop what we were doing and go fly. He had it in the blood, no doubt about it. He honed and practiced his skills with every flight. He always did something when he was flying that challenged his skill.
Tony: In the beginning, he’d drop 4 or 5 baggies every flight, just to play and have fun. He’d take up 4 feet Styrofoam airplanes to throw out. To see what they’d do. He liked being up there; he liked playing around seeing what would happen.
DM: Did he pass that passion on to you?
Nancy: I think Tony was an innocent bystander that got sucked in. The same thing happened to me. I answered an ad for crew training at Felker Park. It was the same way. By the time they showed us the parts and pieces, set it all up and who does what, we’re all just total novices, we have no idea what’s going on. By the time the flight was over, I was hooked.
They have fun, they tell jokes, they diss each other, they razz each other; it’s a family atmosphere. We’re just like every other family; we’re a little bit dysfunctional some days.
Tony: For me, it’s more of a, like anybody growing up with anything, that’s just the way it is. If your family has a boat, well by God, you’ll be at the lake every weekend. That’s just the way it was.
Nancy: Before you could drive, you were stuck.
Tony: Even as a little kid, I was always included in everything…I always had a job. For a long time I ran the fan. I was in charge of the fan. I had my official Fan Man t-shirt. Anything having to do with that 10 feet circle in front of the fan, they were mine to scoot out of the way. That was a big part of what Dad did. He always made sure everyone was involved and felt like they were a part of it. He helped to bring as many new people into it as he could.
Nancy: his list of first timers was impressive.
Tony: I can’t remember how many hours, but he had around 600 hours and had taken up 583 people for first balloon flight. He wasn’t selling commercial rides or anything, 99% of the rides he did were just people he knew, or people that he knew, knew, whatever. 5% of the flights he did were as a commercial pilot, someone calling up and saying, “it’s my birthday, can I get a ride?”
Nancy: Sometimes they got rotated in. When he’d trade out passengers, someone who never expected to fly got to go for a short hop. He did have a passion for it; he wanted to get those people up. And I think he had closer to 700 hours.
Tony: I don’t remember
Nancy: I’m not sure he wrote down his hours in the steno pads. In fact, I know he didn’t. Because that was what he reserved his “I saw 8 coyotes, 4 deer and 3 turkeys,” that’s what he saved for his steno pads and I’m delighted he did and (To Tony) I hope you are doing it too? We’ve talked about this.
Tony: And that’s another thing, too. He liked it and he wanted to remember it, he wanted to go back to it and relive it or check himself on it. He drives by a field one day and thinks “I landed in that field once,” go back to his pad and look it up and there’s a whole paragraph on what exactly was in that field when he landed there. Dad was a meticulous about everything.
Nancy: That he was.
Tony: If it happened, by God, he was going to document it.
Nancy: And he made some pretty pithy remarks. The one coming out in the next newsletter, there’s a good one in there. Jerry kept his steno pad, he flew so often, and he documented every flight. If you go back and read entry by entry by entry, not only did he remember them all, or remember something about them all, every little detail, every memorable detail, at least to his definition of memory, is in that book. It’s a wonderful history.
Tony: He was meticulous in his notes and everything, but he didn’t need them. He remembered everything. That was one of the games he and I used to play. Looking at a picture from the air of a half a block area and we’d see who could figure out exactly where it was first. “Oh! That’s a block west of 21 st and Belle.” From seeing the stuff so many times. You can show someone a picture of their house from the air and they won’t know it. “Oh, it’s a house.” “It’s your house.” “No it’s not.” But we did that kind of stuff frequently enough from flying it and seeing it, we could pick it out clear out in the boondocks. It was fun.
Entries from the Steno Pads
8/15/92 PM
Major Palm Park - SW Topeka
1/2-mile W SW Indian Hills Road
I gave Tony 1/2-hour instruction, then let him solo. We had a flat tire on the truck 1 mile from where he landed.
7/26/03 PM
We flew John Conard. Filmed by KTWU for Sunflower Journeys. John is 83 and was a WWII flight instructor. The nice easy slow flight to the northwest. Greg flew also. Tantillo flew from Bishop [Elementary School]. Low path on Mount Hope Cemetery and VoTech [Kansas Area Technical School]. Easy landing by circle road by Channel 13.
Tony: He was a by the book kind of guy. He didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, still got cancer and died by age 55. He was a by the book kind of guy, that you needed to be doing what you need to be doing. The last time that he flew, we flew from Washburn Rural and landed by Lake Shawnee. I was going to solo, but the winds were fairly light. He was pretty frail by this point, but he thought he could do it. I told him “I don’t want you to get hurt. If you think you can handle it, I’m all for it, but I do not want you to get hurt.” He had a five-gallon bucket to sit on in the balloon because he couldn’t stand up that long. The winds were about 5 mph when we were about to land, it was going to be a good landing but the winds were still about 5 mph so we were going to bump and drag a little bit. So I reached down and put my hand on his shoulder so he wouldn’t bump into the front of the basket. “Fly the damn balloon.” “I am, we’re doing fine.” “I know, you look great, just fly the balloon.” We get down, almost to touching; I reach down there and put my hand on his shoulder. “Fly the damn balloon.” “I am, but I’m holding on to you too.” “Just fly the damn balloon, don’t worry about me.”
Nancy: That’s exactly the way he was. By the book is an absolutely wonderful definition of the man. He knew the rules and the regulations and he followed them to a T. He flew to 1000 feet every flight. He wasn’t shy about telling people they were messing up. He didn’t do it in an unprofessional way, but he was by the book. That’s just the kind of man he was, unless he was working on a project at home and then he just dreamed it up and off he went.
Tony: He took it seriously, but he had fun with it.
Nancy: Oh, absolutely. There were days when I didn’t wanted to crew. I just didn’t want to do it. But by the time we got out there and got to it…the people on the chase crew have as much fun as the people in the balloon. All the time, bar none. One time it was cold. We were headed west on 29 th street. He’d made hot tea. And I got into the hot tea because it was cold. I looked down into the thermos and then looked at the crew. I got on the radio and said, “chase to Hocus Pocus” or whichever balloon we were flying at the time, and he answered me and I said, “You’re fired.” He said, “I’m fired?” I said, “You’re fired from making tea. We got the water, we got the honey, but we ain’t got no tea.” So he had his share of things we could yank his chain about, he really did. And we were never bashful either. He got his yanks in and so did we. It was always fun. And I would always go out with him, even on those days I didn’t want to get out of bed.
Tony: He’d always get out of bed; he didn’t care if it was raining, and he would still get up and check the weather. You just drove two hours to go out to the balloon rally, you were going to get up and go to the balloon rally, and it didn’t matter if it was raining. No matter what, there’s going to be some people out at the field expecting to see balloons, even in the pouring down rain.
A gracious spirit
Tony: Dad was always willing to help somebody out. With anything, not just in the ballooning community, but anyone who needed anything. I can remember growing up going out to some old guy’s house twice a year and he had a big antenna, a big deal you had to climb up. Now, Dad didn’t like heights, he was fine in the balloon and stuff like that where he knew he was in control, but Dad would go out there a couple times a year and the antenna needed to be turned twice a year for something. Every year we’d drive an hour out to this guys house and Dad would climb up this pole, something I knew he didn’t like doing 20 feet in the air and then drive back home. It was an old guy he knew needed a hand with it and didn’t want that guy to have to do it himself so we’d go out there and do it.
Nancy: He was just a generous, big-hearted guy. Everybody appreciated that.
After this conversation, Nancy and Tony went back to look at Jerry’s records. They found that Jerry officially logged 886 flights and 781.8 hours. He took 605 people on their first hot air balloon ride. Over the years, Jerry owned three balloons. Nautilus was first, purchased from Paul Costello, which was renamed Bloomin’ Sunshine in ’87. Jubilee was first flown in December of ’89, logging 317 hours before first flying Hocus Pocus in February of ’95. Tony is now the pilot of Hocus Pocus, after earning his pilot’s license in 2007.