- Hey, I'm Brenda Piekarski, host of KSMQ's Let's Go, Minnesota!

Today, we're gonna be goin' up, up and away in a hot air balloon.

Joining me will be Ayub HajiOmar, an up and comin' artist from Rochester, Minnesota, and our pilot, Ed Chapman.

But you know what, we gotta go!

They're inflating the balloons.

Let's go, Minnesota!

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(cheerful music) (whistling) - Ease it right on down.

I'm watchin' my toes.

Good.

- This is just for inflation.

Takes about eight gallons just to stand the balloon up.

So rather than use our usable fuel, we'll use this, use this tank.

That way we'll actually take off with 40 gallons of fuel rather than 32.

- [Man] Well, that's quite a difference.

- Yeah.

Almost 25%.

(metal clanking) (cheerful music) Looks like a tangled mess at first, doesn't it?

- [Man] (chuckles) Yeah, but then it all comes out!

(whooshing) - This is a helium balloon.

- Okay.

- Toy balloon like you'd have at a party.

- Okay.

- We can get briefings from the weather people and as accurate as they want to be and as accurate is the computers usually are.

There's nothing that beats seeing what's goin' on right now, because everything else is a forecast, best guess, all that sort of thing.

- Yeah.

- But when you release the helium balloon and it goes up at about 200 feet per minute-- - Wow!

- It allows you to see what's going on upstairs.

- Okay.

- So what really counts is what's the wind doing at about 200 feet?

- Okay.

- And the way we know that is using the (mumbles) because on the surface we could say, "Oh this seems real nice," but if you released this and it goes up and it takes off like a shot, heading for Milwaukee or Chicago, you say, "Whoa, much stronger winds up there "than what we wanna work with."

- So if that's the case, do you not fly?

- You don't fly.

- You don't fly, okay.

- So since we released one a while ago we know it's gonna go up and it should go more towards the east.

- And here it goes!

- Here we go!

(cheerful music) - That looks pretty good!

- Yes, it starts off towards the northeast.

(cheerful music) - [Brenda] You just watch it until it's out of sight?

- [Ed] Light wind.

You'd be able to watch that up to about 5,000 feet.

But I'm seein' some small movements in a more easterly direction.

- Whew!

Lost it in my camera.

- And that's good.

(cheerful music) (fans whirring) - [Brenda] What do you think?

- Amazing, really cool!

(whooshing) (whirring) (basket creaking) - [Brenda] That's a tiny basket!

How do we get on?

- [Ed] There's steps on either side.

- [Brenda] Okay!

(whooshing) Welcome aboard!

- (grunts) Thank you!

(Ayub and Brenda chuckling) Oh, man, I just can't wait to fly and get up there, see how the world looks from up there.

- [Brenda] We're gonna be like little birdies!

- I'm gonna to go to school on these guys to see which direction they go and at what altitudes.

Put this in the trailer!

- [Ayub] That is cool.

(whooshing) (Brenda mumbles) - All right, thanks for pointing that out.

We only 188, we could've had two more people in here.

- Wow!

(Ayub laughs) - [Brenda] Whew!

Look at that, that's our shadow!

Isn't that the coolest thing?

- [Mark] You can't ask for a better evening than this.

- I know, it's gorgeous.

- Because it gets-- - Just gorgeous.

- The flying around here is just as good as anywhere I've ever flown.

- Yeah.

- It's awesome.

(whooshing) - [Ed] First started flying these, I had a full head of hair, you know?

- Yeah!

(laughs) I should've tied the curls down!

Oh, no!

- World's biggest hairdryer.

(whooshing) - So how do you know when it's full?

- You'll feel it'll feel lighter.

- [Brenda] Okay.

- [Ed] Prepare for the release, please.

(whooshing) Release.

Here we go, it's all right, here we go.

- [Brenda] Bye!

(giggles) (slow rock music) Oh, so far, so good!

All right!

Hey, we're up in the air!

(slow rock music) Oh, my god, this is beautiful.

It's so quiet when you're up here.

(whooshing) Whoa, yeah!

You did that on purpose.

(laughs) So how much can we move around while we're in this thing?

- [Ed] As much as you care to.

These are tough to capture sometimes, these shadow shots.

- [Brenda] Yeah.

(whooshing) - So how high up do we go?

- Tree tops or perhaps 1500 feet.

- So tell me a little bit about the air in there.

So it's hot air in there that you use, right?

- It is.

It is 'cause hot air rises.

- [Brenda] Okay, that makes sense.

- [Man] So how many years have you been doin' this?

- This is my third flight now, so far, started two weeks ago.

(woman laughs) Just kidding!

(man laughs) About 12 years or so.

(whooshing) - Look at that air balloon, how it has that face on it.

- Oh, that's the Vulcan.

- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- [Ed] You know, from the St. Paul Winter Carnival?

- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah!

- The Vulcans?

He flies that balloon specifically for the Vulcans.

- Okay!

There he is!

So what happens if we bump into these guys right here?

(whooshing) - [Ed] Like two big marshmallows.

- Oh, really?

(whooshing) That is definitely hot on the forehead.

- Yeah.

I was thinking.

- So what do you think, Ayub?

- Oh, beautiful, amazing.

- Yeah!

- Amazing.

- [Brenda] Oh, my god, look they'll go by that farm.

(people talking faintly) (whooshing) How many balloons did you have go out today?

- We have eight today.

- Okay, okay.

So can you fly in the rain if it's raining?

- Yeah, but it's frowned on because you don't wanna get the fabric wet and then you pack it up, you don't wanna get any mold and mildew and all that sort of thing.

- [Ayub] So serene, quiet.

- [Brenda] Yeah, it is though.

So, Ed, I'm curious about you said you set a couple of world records?

World records?

- I set 20 world records over the years in different sizes of balloons for distance, long distance, made a flight from Minneapolis to Traverse City, long duration, 19 hours, 12 minutes.

- That's amazing!

- And also for high altitude, I've had five flights above 30,000 feet.

The highest was 38,901 feet.

- Wow!

- Wow.

- [Brenda] So when did you start flying balloons?

- Oh, 1976.

Let me just reach up here.

- Okay.

(whooshing) That's pretty big, so when you do a night-- It was a 19 day trip or 19 hours, right?

- 19 hours.

How many times do you have to land and that to refill your propane?

- You're not allowed to land.

- [Brenda] Wow, you have enough propane for 19 hours?

- Well, on this flight, you can see we have 40 gallons of fuel.

On those flights, the distance and duration flights, I had 250 gallons of fuel.

- Wow.

- So I flew all through the night and all during the next day and landed approaching sunset.

- Oh my gosh flying at night, it must've been magical.

- It was very interesting, yeah, yeah.

Lot of fun.

- [Brenda] Oh, were you by yourself?

- I was.

We also carry a black box, similar to an airliner's where you record your altitude and your speed, all those things are recorded and then it's read out after you landed by a directing official of the National Aeronautic Association.

- Okay.

- Cool.

- They're the ones that certify records.

Otherwise, anybody could say, "Oh yeah, well, I did that two weeks ago!"

No, no, no, it's gotta be official.

A lot of paperwork involved.

- [Brenda] Do you normally fly this low?

- We're able to as long as we're out in the country.

Couldn't do this over the city.

(whooshing) Let's count up to make sure we're taking into account everybody.

I got one, two, three four, five, six, seven, (whooshing) and Nifty Gadget is just gettin' off, he's number eight.

So we've accounted for all eight.

We know that there's nobody directly above us.

(whooshing) Close and personal view of the soybean field.

- It's so beautiful.

(whooshing) Is this your balloon?

- It is.

- Okay.

How many balloons do you have?

- [Ed] I have three.

This one is the workhorse.

This one is the one I fly most of the time.

- [Brenda] Okay.

- [Ed] People name their balloons like you'd name a boat.

- Oh, yeah!

- You might see the name on the back of a boat.

- Do you have a name?

- This one is Fire and Frost.

- I like it!

- The Frost is the silver fabric, the Fire is either the red centers in each of those geometric formations or the burners themselves, your choice.

(whooshing) - [Brenda] So why do you fly this one as the workhorse as opposed to the other ones?

- [Ed] Good lifting capability.

I've got one that's got a lot of artwork on it.

I want it to last for years so I only fly that a couple times a year and one that I use for training or for tethering.

- Okay.

- So that gets a little bit more wear and tear.

- [Brenda] So you're an instructor?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- Every commercial hot air balloon pilot is automatically an instructor for hot air balloons.

(whooshing) - Okay.

I would imagine there's not that many hot air balloon pilots.

- [Ed] I think Minnesota probably has about 40 or so.

Not all of them are active.

- [Brenda] Okay.

How often do you come out?

- [Ed] You know, it just depends on the weather.

- Okay.

- Normally, by this time of the year, I would've had about 30 flights.

(cellphone rings) Good afternoon, hello?

- [Ayub] It's so beautiful up here.

- [Brenda] It's so beautiful.

Look at that.

- Wow.

It's so cool how there's a shadow on half of our view.

- Right!

- And then the sun is shining on the other half.

- [Brenda] I like how they just kinda bounce up and down-- - Yeah!

- Slowly.

Like a billowing sheet.

Well, what a beautiful day it turned out to be.

- [Ayub] Amazing.

- [Brenda] Very fall-ish, October-ish looking earlier today.

- [Ayub] Yeah.

(whooshing) - I wasn't sure how it was gonna turn out.

(whooshing) So what do you think, Ayub?

- Really cool, I like the greens and the reds in the trees that you can see on the top over there.

- [Brenda] Oh, yeah.

Yeah, you can see the fall colors starting to kick out but they're not quite peaked yet.

- Yeah.

- But, yeah.

Looks like cinnamon.

- [Ayub] (chuckles) Nice.

- [Brenda] Little cinnamon drops.

So what kind of art do you, anyway?

- I'm an Islamic contemporary artist, and so I'm a painter.

- Oh!

- That's my main medium.

- Okay.

- And I make pretty big canvases, kind of.

I try to-- Go ahead.

All right.

(Brenda chuckles) I try to break the negative stigma that kind of comes about when you hear talk about Muslims or Islam.

I do this through paintings.

There's kind of like three components to a lot of my artwork.

There's the background usually or the painting itself which tries to capture the viewer's attention and I do this through patterns or symbols.

And then also, I have Arabic scripture which usually comes from the Quran, I write the Quran and on my canvases in also eye catching colors, such as gold or just something that would attract the viewer.

- That's great!

- And then, yeah, so the symbol is usually people can relate to but then the verses, people have a hard time understanding because it's an Arabic.

- So can you say something in Arabic?

(Ayub speaks in foreign language) - [Brenda] What's that?

- That means welcome or hello.

- [Brenda] Can you say it again?

(Ayub speaks in foreign language) (Brenda repeats in foreign language) - Yeah, or (speaks in foreign language).

So I try not to be political-- - Yeah.

- But I do try my best to address contemporary issues, things that are happening right now that are affecting large groups of people.

I just kinda try to be a voice for people that are not being heard.

I try to kind of be a spokesperson for people that are going through a lot in the world.

- [Brenda] That's wonderful.

- Thank you, thank you, yeah.

And also for Muslims and Islam 'cause we already have a bad picture painted of us.

- [Brenda] Yeah, so you can paint a different picture.

- Yeah!

- Yeah, exactly.

(whooshing) Okay.

(chuckles) You must hear that sound in your sleep.

- Huh?

- You must hear that sound in your sleep.

- I'm sorry?

- Yeah, exactly.

(laughs) - Nah, I'm kidding.

No, you get used to it.

- [Brenda] So do you feel inspired at all today?

Can you see a painting coming out of this?

- Yeah!

- Yeah?

- I think, yeah.

I feel inspired a lot of the time, but this is just like a whole different type of feeling.

I don't know, it's just so relaxing, calming, I would say.

It would inspire me.

A lot of my paintings have a lot of things going on, a lot of distractions and stuff.

This would inspire me to do something more relaxed.

- More relaxed.

- Yeah.

My name is Ayub HajiOmar, I am a contemporary Islamic fine artist.

I am also a student here at Winona State University, as well as Rochester Community and Technical College.

(subtle and melodic music) So fine art, to me, is really focusing on the little details and delicacy of my works of art.

I think one of the main things, is a lot of times there are pictures that I try to paint that, from within my mind, I try to kind of reflect onto the canvas and then also I use the Quran as a medium as well.

And so when defining the Quran through my artworks I also have to think about that, as well, and so doing that research kind of getting the specifics, sometimes even using really small brushes to kind of reflect that really fine details in my artwork, I think it's really important.

And that's what defines me as a fine artist.

(subtle and melodic music) I think about ideas all throughout my painting.

And so as I start my painting, I might be halfway through it and I might come up with a completely different idea and add different components to the painting.

It's kind of a story that unfolds slowly but surely as I'm painting.

And so it's never really finished.

Even when I'm finished, I kind of think about different things and different topics and different ways that it can be looked at.

(subtle and melodic music) So in each one of my paintings, I use a verse of the Quran.

The Quran really tickles my fancy because it has such vivid imagery and interesting stories that everyone can relate to.

(subtle and melodic music) I try to visually define the Quran via my artwork.

And so for example, if I were to use a verse that picture would almost be a definition visually of the verse itself.

(chants in foreign language) "It is Allah who made for you the earth, "a place of settlement, and the sky a ceiling, "and formed you and perfected your forms, "and provided you with good things.

"That is Allah, your Lord; then blessed is Allah, "Lord of the worlds."

I really hope that my artwork inspires people to go and study other people's cultures, other people's religions, other people's thought processes and stuff like that 'cause I think that would be really important.

And I also think that that would contribute to a more inclusive society and a more inclusive world.

(subtle and melodic music) And so I also try to be a voice for those unheard.

I feel like art really to me is a calling.

And so I love art because I can be me.

- [Mark] It's the one place in the country to see just tidiness in so many places here.

Here and Northern Ireland, particularly, you see it, I think.

A lot of steps put away like that.

- [Man] That sort of top of the silo it's like (chuckles).

- [Brenda] Oh, look it, they're landing over there!

- Yup.

I'm looking at some grassy areas they had here that might be suitable candidates.

And we'll watch as we get closer to see if we find a good one.

If we do, I'll give you plenty of advance notice three minutes to go, one minute to go, 30 seconds to go.

At 30 seconds.

I'd like you to hold on to one of the uprights or the edge of the basket.

- [Brenda] Okay.

- At 10 seconds, I want you to flex your knees a little bit as if you're jumping off the bottom step of a stairway.

And then most important part is after we've touched down, don't get out of the basket till I say it's okay to get out, otherwise we'll go poppin' back up in the air again.

- [Brenda] Yeah, we don't wanna do that.

- [Ed] When you're not in your own home territory, it's better to just find a good spot.

No crops no livestock, no barbed wire fences, no power lines.

- Yeah.

- [Ed] I've never had a problem with the landowner relations so I take great pains to make sure that we're not gonna disturb livestock, that we're not gonna be a problem for crops.

I'm gonna get right down to 10 feet off the ground and see whether or not the winds are a little bit different there.

I'd like to shift a little bit to the left.

(whooshing) - Wonder how the roads would be to get up to that one.

(man mumbles) Up to here and angle up that way and come back.

- [Woman] I'm surprised we haven't seen any deer.

- Yeah, where are the deer?

- With all this corn, and it's kind of dusky getting.

- Yeah.

- You know?

(man mumbles) They get kind of scared of the burners.

- [Man] Oh, there's some deer!

- Where?

- Straight ahead.

- [Man] Oh, yeah.

- Oh, yeah!

- Oh, yeah, yup.

- [Woman] Cute!

Like the Wizard of Oz.

(whooshing) We'll touchdown run right up in there where they're runnin'.

(whooshing) - [Ed] Okay, I got no power lines.

(whooshing) No power lines in sight.

We're to take this a cut alfalfa here.

(whooshing) There's good access for it.

- [Brenda] So you're plannin' on landing on this field right here?

- Yeah.

It's about another 250 feet.

- [Brenda] Okay.

- Here's one access point here, this field road that you can see.

- [Brenda] Yup.

- [Ed] In fact, we can't do much better than that, so 30 seconds now to touchdown.

- [Brenda] So you want us to hold on?

- [Ed] Yes, please.

(whooshing) 10 seconds.

Pilot lights are out.

We'll touch once, we'll skip forward.

- Whoa!

- [Ed] We're okay.

We're gonna skip forward two or three times to dissipate that energy.

(Brenda laughs) - Nice!

- I'm gonna go one more time here.

We're just dissipating that energy slowly.

- [Brenda] So we're not all gonna tip over face first?

- [Ed] No.

(Brenda laughs) Now I'm gonna let it drag.

- Whoa!

(laughs) - Still, still hang on.

- [Brenda] Nice!

- One more.

- One more.

(Brenda groans) Thankfully, there's a giant, padded propane tank is here to cushion that.

- And that's why we pad them.

- [Brenda] Yeah, I can see why.

(Brenda laughs) - Mark is probably gonna do the same thing over here.

- [Brenda] Nice landing, Captain!

- Thanks, here we are.

- Good work!

- We'll call my retrieve crew.

Chase one, Fire and Frost.

- So what'd you think?

- [Ayub] Amazing.

- [Brenda] Yeah?

Would you do it again?

- Of course.

- [Brenda] Yeah!

(laughs) I would do it again.

(slow rock music) - Just go ahead and squeeze the air out of it.

(slow rock music) - Well, the sun is setting on our hot air balloon adventure and I wanna thank our Captain Ed for safely bringin' us to the ground on this beautiful fall day.

That's it for today's episode!

Let's Go, Minnesota!

Yeah!

(cheerful music) - [Woman] So tell me, how it was it?

- Amazing.

- It was beautiful.

- Relaxing.

- It was very relaxing!

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous to go and once we were up, it was very chill.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Absolutely.

I liked those trees.

I don't know exactly where they are now but there was a group of trees where there was three different colors.

I think it was red, green and orange, orange-ish yellow.

I think that was really cool.

And then how the sun was shining on it.

Looked pretty cool.

- The sun was great.

I think for me it was two things.

One was kind of what you would expect just to see the balloon kind of in the air against the sun dropping in the sunset.

But also I think the most impressionable thing was actually-- - Oh, yeah.

- The propane!

(Brenda laughs) - Yeah.

- 'Cause they was just so loud and warm and he'd flick it on and it just (makes whooshing sound).

And we had to do that like every 30 seconds.

I don't know if we got barely a full sentence across (laughs) that whole time.

- Yeah!

(chuckles) - And we were all very toasty.

- [Ayub] Yeah.

Especially our heads.

- Yeah, right here.

Right on here on the forehead.

Honestly it went so fast.

It was like we went up and we came down.

- Came back down.

Yup.

(laughs) - Yeah.

(laughs) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.