About Your Pilot

Geoff Ziegler is the president and pilot at Skypoint. He is a lifelong resident of Carmel, Indiana and Hamilton county. Geoff's passion for ballooning is a result of his early interest in the old hydrogen gas balloons and airships of the 1930's. After crewing for an out of town balloonist competing in one of the first Indiana State Fair Balloon Races, Geoff was inspired to take balloon pilot instruction. During his 30 year career as a professional balloon pilot, Geoff went on to compete in many balloon races including the U.S. National Championships, The Great Lakes Regional Championships, the "500" May Classic balloon races, the Corvette Nationals, the Conner Prairie Balloon Races and the Indiana State Fair Giant Balloon Race. Ironically, Geoff now has the proud distinction of being the longest, continuous pilot in the history of the Indiana Sate Fair Giant Balloon Race. Geoff's sponsor, the Estridge Company is now the longest continuous balloon sponsor for this race. Geoff's previous balloon race sponsors include: Coke, The Indiana Pacers, York Heating and Air, Tuchman Cleaners and Preston-Safeway Stores.

You can watch Geoff compete "live" on WTHR TV (Channel 13) every State Fair Balloon Race. Geoff takes the WTHR camera crew on board to film the race and interview Geoff, while the WTHR helicopter camera crew films Geoff's balloon sponsored by Estridge.

Geoff holds ratings in all size classifications of balloons including the largest balloon in the U.S. at the time, 240,000 cubic feet/passenger, which was operated from 1985 thru 1992.

About Our Balloon Equipment

"On a clear day you can see forever", says pilot Geoff Ziegler. "From one of our many launch sites in Hamilton county we often can see downtown Indianapolis and the old Kokomo water tower." As you can imagine, we've seen many changes in the landscape during thousands of flights over the Hamilton and bordering counties.

Our passengers enjoy first class accommodations in our new and spacious hot air balloon. In 30 years we've seen many changes in balloon technology and safety features. Our new balloon incorporates all of the latest updates. Our basket is oversized for more room per passenger. There are no fuel tanks or equipment in our designated passenger area. Our basket sidewalls are higher than the smaller traditional baskets.

Because of the unique design features of our basket, it is particularly well suited for the very young and elderly passengers. It  also offers the perfect environment for marriage proposals!

 

 Our basket will very comfortably hold up to six passengers (depending on combined total weight and temperature of the day.) The average is four. We have a partitioned passenger compartment. The pilot compartment is separated from the passenger compartment and contains the fuel tanks, instruments, radio equipment and burners.

We do not require any minimum number of  passengers.

Special thanks to our long term sponsor Estridge who who helped with the funding necessary to purchase this very special, state of the art and EXPENSIVE hot air balloon.