Backstory - How I Met ChrisBack in July, I was invited out to media day for the Great Reno Balloon Race (forever grateful, Gattuso Coalition💜). After my incredible ride, I found myself chatting with a lovely couple in the Chinese Pagoda Picnic Pavilion (yes, I linked it up so you can rent it out and party here, LOL) at Rancho San Rafael Regional Park. Somehow, our conversation turned to geology, and this amazing man named Robert started telling me a story about how he accurately predicted a volcano eruption and gathered his friends to witness it firsthand. Low key, I felt like someone should have been recording this. How often do you meet someone who’s spent their life studying volcanoes and has been inside them numerous times?
As it turns out, this incredible man was Chris Casaceli’s father. After a long, lovely chat with Robert and his wonderful wife, Terry, Chris stepped into the picture, and what do you know, his parents were there helping crew for his balloon. Fun fact: a typical balloon crew usually needs 3-5 people to help load and unload the balloon, though a dedicated pilot can sometimes get away with just 2.
Chris is a hot air balloon pilot. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to meet balloon pilots. It’s kind of like meeting your airplane pilot (or maybe that’s just me)? I have nothing but respect for them, and for all pilots in general - they defy gravity, spark imaginations with their stories, embody adventure & freedom, and remind us what it means to live BOLDLY. Watching them reminds me that life, too, is meant to be explored... taking risks, following curiosity, and embracing every chance to live fully.
We ended up talking for what felt like an hour, and when I finally looked up, the buzzing morning crowd and spectators had all disappeared.
After all these years of living in Reno, I can’t tell you how many special moments I’ve had just like this one, meeting passionate, down to earth people who are willing to share a glimpse of their world. There's a beauty of connecting with people, learning from their stories and being inspired by their experiences.
Which brings me to this post. Before the 2025 Great Reno Balloon Race launch, I reached out to Chris and asked if he could answer some questions about piloting, so I could help everyone imagine this magical world a little more vividly.
I want to thank Chris’s parents for the wholesome chat, and Chris himself for taking the time to answer my questions and give us a peek into his world of hot air balloon love. I truly hope you enjoy this post.
Chris Casaceli's "Do What You Love" video is a personal vlog style reflection on his college journey and the uncertainties that followed graduation. In this piece, he delves into the challenges of navigating post college life, emphasizing the importance of pursuing one's passions despite the pressures of societal expectations. The video serves as both a personal narrative and a broader commentary on the pursuit of fulfillment over conventional success.
Chris's Story
Born & raised in Reno, Chris Casaceli has been attending The Great Reno Balloon Race for as long as he can remember. In fact, his very first race was in 1996, when he was just under a year old, tucked into a Snuggle baby carrier on his mom’s chest. Since that day, he hasn’t missed a single year.Growing up, Chris became fascinated with the balloons, not just watching them but capturing them. He started taking photos every year and even made scrapbooks of the event so he could look back at all the colorful balloons filling the Reno sky. When he learned there was a photo contest that awarded the winner a balloon ride, he knew that was his chance. His parents weren’t going to buy him a ride, so he poured his energy into photography, spending years learning how to get that perfect shot.
Finally, in 2014, during his senior year of high school, Chris won the annual Great Reno Balloon Race contest that would help fulfill his dream. The following year, he took his very first balloon flight. That experience opened the door to something even bigger. He discovered that by crewing for balloon pilots, he could fly more often, and for free. So, he started crewing for local pilots, gaining hands on experience and becoming part of the ballooning family.
After years of dedication, Chris earned his private pilot certificate in 2024. Today, he’s a pilot, flying alongside the very balloons that first captured his imagination as a child.
Despite being overwhelmed with so much joy and awe, I managed to snap a picture of Chris's balloon from David Dunrud's Serendipity Balloon, an incredible pilot with over 30+ years of experience. Huge shout out to my other incredible host pilots, Zoey Swenson (w/ Imagine) & Sheldon Grauberger (w/ Sriracha), from past media days.
The shape of Chris’s Phoenix balloon is more narrow and elongated, designed with a “sport” or “racer” style envelope. This sleeker design allows the balloon to heat and cool more quickly, giving the pilot sharper vertical control, a feature that’s especially valuable during competitions where precision really matters.
The Interview
Check out Chris's crazy cool time lapse video of the
2018 Great Reno Balloon Races.
1. What do you see from up there that people on the ground will never experience the same way?
I think the biggest difference is that, at any given moment, you are standing in the basket at a position in time and space where, under normal limitations of physics, you have absolutely no business being 😂. And as the flight unfolds, your position is constantly changing as the wind pushes you. So, you get this ephemeral perspective of the world, from a variety of vantage points where, on any given flight, no one in history has ever stood precisely in the same place, or seen the world from precisely that same perspective. There is a magic to all that with ballooning that nothing else in my experience can quite capture.
2. What’s one moment in the sky that completely changed how you see life on the ground?
I think the moment in the sky that was most impactful was the first time I flew to 10,000 feet MSL above the Carson Valley. I could see Lake Tahoe, the whole valley sprawled out in front of me, Carson City, Reno, and even Mono Lake to the south. Having that vantage point in the open air, seeing the place I grew up in, and being able to pinpoint all the little places where essentially my whole life had transpired, seeing all that at once… It made me feel a sense of awe, a sense of humility, and a sense of nostalgia. That was something really special for me.
3. What’s the strangest or most touching conversation you’ve overheard between passengers while floating?
I wasn’t the pilot on this flight, but I was in the basket once where a couple got engaged! And she did say yes haha. It was also their first ride, so they were already excited about it. That was probably the cutest, most touching moment I’ve witnessed in a hot air balloon!
4. What part of piloting is most misunderstood by the public?
I think the public really doesn’t understand the improvisational nature of ballooning with regard to navigation and selection of landing sites. People often think we are experiencing an emergency, or are in some kind of trouble because we’ve landed on a street, or in some kind of area that they wouldn’t expect an aircraft to have landed. The reality is that 99.99% of the time, we have very carefully and safely selected a given landing site based on what the wind directions were that morning, and our own margins of safety regarding the size of the landing site, access for the chase vehicle, and proximity to dangerous obstacles. So, if you see a balloon landing in a cul-de-sac or in a local park, chances are that was precisely where the pilot wanted to land, and they are executing normal flight operations!
5. What's the most memorable place you've landed and why?
This might not sound like the most interesting landing of all time, but it was sort of special for me. On my first solo flight, just before testing for my license, I was lucky enough to fly down into the Carson River near Minden, NV. twice. On the second time, I brought the balloon just above the water, and sort of floated along the water for a bit, following a couple of ducks down the river. Then I saw a rock island in front of me, so I decided to set the balloon down on this little island in the river for a minute. I just stood there for a bit, taking in the scenery, the ducks were looking at me like I was an alien or something, and the river and all the wildlife around me was just so peaceful. It was just so cool to me that I was able to be right there, in that unique spot, all by myself, and then I could just hit the burners again and pop back into the air whenever I wanted to. After a while, I did just that, and flew on. But yeah, that moment of tranquility sitting alone on that rock island was pretty special for me.
6. When you’re drifting with the wind, do you feel more like an adventurer or a passenger of nature?
I’d say I definitely feel more like an adventurer. I think that better captures the intentionality behind navigating a balloon. If you ever stop paying attention to what is going on, where you are going, and how the weather conditions are effecting your flight, you can get yourself into trouble very quickly in a balloon. So, I think “adventurer” better captures that degree of focus and intentionality that you have to employ to make sure you are doing what you need to do to get the balloon where you want to go as safely as possible. Of course, you always have those moments of joy and bewilderment built in, but staying focused and intentional about your flying has to come first.
7. What does being suspended between earth and sky teach you about balance?
I don’t know if it’s precisely by virtue of being suspended between earth and sky, but I think the biggest things that the physics of ballooning teaches you are patience, adaptability, and creative thinking. You can plan a flight as much as you want, and often you can get pretty close with where you will end up based on the wind data you have available, but no flight in a balloon can be completely planned from start to finish. You always have to be able to adapt to what the weather gives you on a given day, and be open to changing your flight plan at any given moment. You often have to be patient with the wind to get you where you need to go, and you need to be okay with things going differently than how you planned them. So yeah, adaptability, creativity, and patience are virtues that I think are really instilled by experience as a balloon pilot.
8. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen from above?
Sometimes you see some funny things in people’s back yards while looking for a landing site. Like, one time I remember seeing this pool that someone had made where they dug a hole in the ground, lined the hole with a big waterproof tarp, and just filled it with water. And then they had built this sort of funny, rudimentary diving board out of plywood and bricks as a counterweight. The whole thing looked like it had just been sitting there with water in it for about a year because the water was super murky and full of algae. So, that was kind of interesting. I appreciated their ingenuity though to give themselves a swimming pool on the cheap!
9. If you could take anyone in history on a balloon ride, who would it be and why?
If I could take one person from history on a balloon ride, it would probably be Neil Armstrong! As a kid, all I wanted to be in life (other than a balloon pilot) was an astronaut, and Neil was my hero. I’ve read so much about him, his life, and his career. Despite being one of the best test pilots in the world and flying nearly every experimental military aircraft in the 1950s and 60s, including the Saturn V rocket, and Apollo Lunar module, I don’t think he ever took the controls of a hot air balloon. It would be an absolute joy to see his face, and hear his curious comments from an aerospace engineering perspective about the design of the flight systems, and the unique mechanics of balloon flight. I’d love to give him some burner time, see what he thought of piloting a balloon, and watch him try to land the thing! Unfortunately, I’ll never have that chance. But it’s fun to imagine!
10. If you could create the perfect soundtrack for a hot air balloon ride, what songs would make the cut?
Okay, here is a playlist for you that I made on Spotify for a hot air balloon flight! It starts off with the Top Gun Theme for Launch, and then moves into a sort of LoFi, lounge kind of music for the rest of the flight:
on Spotify
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| Photo Credit: Nick Schab |
Well, that wraps up this post, but most certainly not my friendship with Chris (& hopefully his parents too). If you see me crewing for him in the future (or venturing inside of volcanoes, LOL), you'll exactly know why. As this post drifts to a close, I hope it lifts your spirits as much as meeting Chris and his parents lifted mine.
NEWS
If you haven't heard yet, the 45th Great Reno Balloon Races is schedule to return on September 10-13, 2026. Yes, that's one whole extra day on top of the usual three day event. Hope to see you there.
***All opinions are my own.
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