Just before 7 a.m. at Rancho San Rafael Park, the sun lit a field of hot air balloons lying flat on the grass before takeoff. This is where Karalyn Mumm instructed her crew, made up of her balloon family and her 17-year-old son, on how to prepare Citrus in the Sky - her multi-colored, striped hot air balloon.
“My flight bag, please!” Mumm said to her crew.
Before we climbed into the brown wicker basket, Mumm recalled when she first discovered her love of balloons in 2011. She has never looked back.
“We'd just moved here. My ex was in the casino industry, and we were living in the casino, four kids, two cats, so if there was something to do outside of said casino, we did it,” Mum said. “So we came to the great Reno Balloon Race.”
As we started our smooth ascent into the skies above Reno, she recalled volunteering the very next year and getting her commercial license in 2018. Mumm got her start after a retiring pilot sold his hot air balloon to her at a discount. Mumm knew her presence was meaningful when she flew at an event in Wisconsin as a brand-new pilot.
“I was the only girl there. One of the dads came up to me, and he goes, ‘I can’t thank you enough for coming to this event because you showed my daughter, who wants to be a pilot, you showed her that women can do this.”
Mumm isn’t just a pilot. She’s also a librarian at Dodson Elementary School, a mother of four, and a hot air balloon instructor. And if that wasn’t enough, she’s the director of the High Sierra Balloon Camp for ages 13-17. One of the most common questions she hears from her young students is one humans asked long ago: How does a balloon fly?
During the peaceful, smooth, and quiet float, Mumm said her mind was moving a million miles a minute. She wasn’t only looking out for other balloons, powerlines, and a dog she spotted from high above; for the first time, she shared this experience with her 20-year-old son. This year they’re flying at the same time. In years past, COVID-19 and a torn ACL kept them grounded.
“I’m watching my kid fly, he’s 20, and he can fly circles around me, and I trust him a whole bunch, but it's still your kid.”
But as the balloon drifted toward a nearby neighborhood, Mumm sprang into mom mode as her son’s voice crackled over the walkie-talkie.
“Baby bear to mama bear. Did you see that?” William Vavra asked.
The wicker basket of a higher balloon brushed against the top of her son’s balloon. He said he needed to land, and Mumm directed her ground crew to pick him up ASAP.
“Go for William,” Mumm said over the walkie-talkie. “It’s calm. I’ve got a neighborhood with no power lines. If I have to sit and wait, I'll sit and wait.”
After confirming her son had landed safely, she pushed aside her worry and focused on getting to the ground safely as well. During the descent, Mumm greeted each small dot of a person waving from below.
Citrus in the Sky made a graceful touchdown in the middle of a neighborhood street. Once on the ground, Mumm let two little girls climb into the basket and squeeze the burner.
“Do you feel the heat?” Mumm asked the young passengers in her balloon.
