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By Charlene MacKenzie

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SUSSEX - Pilot Doug Shippee is the man who introduced Sussex to the sport of hot air ballooning.

“I had the first balloon flight in the Sussex area, in 1981,” he said.

“I was the first licenced balloon pilot in Atlantic Canada. When I flew in Sussex, it caused quite a lot of excitement.”

He persuaded a half-dozen more balloonists to come fly in Sussex and a few years later, a committee chaired by Sussex florist Art Goold got the town’s first balloon fiesta organized.

Shippee, who works at Carnaghan Taylor Fowler Insurance in Saint John, has owned three balloons over the years, starting out with the Puffin, then the High Hopes, then the Marco Polo, a rainbow-hued balloon bearing the image of the famously fast Saint John clipper ship by the same name.

He got his balloon pilot’s licence in 1980, has an instructor rating and has flown in most Canadian provinces.

“Ballooning is a unique sport,” he said, “there are only about 250 balloon pilots in Canada.”

Shippee has also flown in the United States, England, Denmark, Switzerland and France.

In 2006, he flew in the Lorraine Mondial Air Ballons event in Chambley, France, which, with 934 balloons, tops the festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico as world’s largest ballooning event.

Despite his travels, he’s proud to consider Sussex his “home port” and is looking forward to this year’s fiesta, Sept. 5-7 at Princess Louise Park.