Wind causing concerns for Petit Jean Mountain hot air balloon eclipse event
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – We’re just 4 days away from eclipse day, the day many have been planning for several months.
Monday, April 8 will be a day thousands will never forget with the once in a lifetime total solar eclipse taking place in the sky.
On this day, the moon will align with the sun and the Earth, and thousands will be aligned together to witness.
“We’ve been looking forward to this for over a year,” Brandi White, manager of the Cedar Falls Lodge on Petit Jean Mountain said.
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White says eclipse weekend has been fully booked for a year.
“We’ve got quite a few people that are traveling from California and Florida,” she said.
At Petit Jean Mountain, visitors will have the chance to view the eclipse from a hot air balloon but there could be a little turbulence with that plan.
“We are at the mercy of the wind for sure,” hot air balloon pilot, Mark Epperson said.
Thursday, Epperson arrived at Cedar Falls Lodge with his hot air balloon. He was planning on doing a test fly, but the wind postponed that activity.
“Are we going to have winds that are going to be favorable for even flying a balloon that day,” asked Epperson.
He said another concern he has about flying is the most important concern, landing.
“If everything is as covered up as we think it might be, there may not be anywhere you could land.”
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But there’s a backup plan in place for the people to still enjoy the eclipse from the sky.
Epperson says they’ll “probably just do some tether rides that morning.”
Tether rides are with the hot air balloon is anchored but still able to hover up and down.
This will create a great view and memories to last.
Epperson says he wanted to have several balloons flying on eclipse day, but it’s tough to gauge how many people will be coming out to that specific location, so they just decided on 2. For more information on eclipse events at Petit Jean State Park, visit PetitJeanEclipse2024.com.
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