THE 1970'S: 1972-1979 SID STORIES COLLECTED BY WALLY BOOK AND KIM VESELY IN A LIFETIME OF FLYING, IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING THAT SID CUTTER HAD HIS SHARE OF ADVENTURES IN BOTH AIRPLANES AND BALLOONS, AND THROUGH THEM TOUCHED MANY LIVES. A WORLD COMPETITOR, TWO-TIME NATIONAL HOT-AIR BALLOON CHAMPION (1978 AND 1986), AND PROMINENT CORPORATE PILOT, HE WOULD SOMETIMES GET APPROACHED TO DO UNUSUAL THINGS WITH BALLOONS. SOME WORKED OUT BETTER THAN OTHERS. HERE ARE A FEW WALLY BOOK COMPILED IN CONVERSATIONS WITH SID’S WIFE JEWEL AND OTHER CO-CONSPIRATORS. n the early 1970s Sid contracted with the pilot, Greg Navy to assist with a couple of jobs associated Wilson, took the with repairing cables on the east side of the 105,000 cubic Hawaiian island of Oahu. The first involved ft. Roadrunner inspecting and repairing a Very Low Frequency II balloon. Sid antenna cable stretched across the Lualualei and a Navy tech I valley on the east side of the island. Sid and his on a 1600-foot sidekick for this mission, Roadrunner balloon chief UTTER tether completed C WEL inspection/repair JE of the antenna Y S installation using a TE UR large resonance/ O impedance sniffer S C O probe. Rumor T has it that Richard PHO Nixon was there to celebrate the completion of the project. Also, according to a historical Navy record, there was a “manned tethered balloon” used to remove the remains of orange warning marker balls from a very low frequency antenna cable stretched across Horseshoe Canyon of the Pali Mountains at 1600 ft., a project which likely involved Sid’s business partner Tom Rutherford. ® 42 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta