Keely Mahony was seven years old when her mother Kay first introduced her to the sport of hot air ballooning.
“She was a single mom and started dating a guy that was into balloons. She started getting into it and loved it,” Keely said. “She started crewing and going out on the balloons and then decided she wanted to learn how to fly.”
Keely tagged along with her mother, waking before sunrise, and attending balloon festivals and other events. “I was a kid growing up in the San Francisco Bay area and going to these events and having the freedom to run around but yet have this small balloon community watching out for me.”
Kay created a buzz when she bought her own balloon and started flying at her family’s Northern California farm. “My uncles were like ‘what is going on,’” Keely said.
Her passion, however, was contagious.
Keely began taking flying lessons at 13 and, following in her mother’s footsteps, became one of the youngest female pilots in the United States. Keely’s family is one of the largest in the sport with 10 balloon pilots. “My uncle is a pilot, he married a pilot, and they have a daughter who is a pilot. But it all started with my mom. She fell in love with it, and nobody could stay away.”
A photo of Keely’s first flight with her mom at age seven hangs next to one of Keely and her husband Damien, also a certified pilot, flying many years later. The photos sit among a collage of other colorful balloon portraits lining the walls of Keely and Damien’s business – Black Hills Balloons. The Custer-based operation provides hot air balloon tours over the beautiful southern hills, but more importantly Keely and Damien are helping to keep the sport of ballooning alive.
Owning their own balloon company, however, was not always the plan.
Keely received her pilot license a few days before starting college but rarely had the opportunity to fly. After earning a degree in marketing, she took a summer job teaching a camp at Sea World Orlando, a position that turned into a marketing internship. Keely remained in Orlando for the next 15 years working in marketing for Sea World and then for Hard Rock corporate – a job that took her all over the world.
Her time in Florida also reignited her love of flying. “It is like this sense of freedom, and there is just something about it. If you haven’t been out for a while, you just need to go,” Keely said. “I Googled who flew in Orlando and what they flew. I wanted to be around the type of balloon I was familiar with.”
Keely found Don Edwards – an experienced balloon pilot and longtime event director for the famous Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. He is also the man who introduced Keely to her future husband, and later piloted for Black Hills Balloons.
Damien, an immigrant from County Kildare, Ireland, came to the United States with a friend to work at an Irish pub, Keely said. He rented a room from Don who one day solicited Damien’s help with ballooning. “At that point he had nothing to do with balloons,” she said. “Before he knew it, he was flying for a living and loved it.”
Keely purchased her own small balloon and spent weekends flying around. “My little two-person balloon was like having my own sports car.” While Keely was flying her balloon, Damien was piloting a 22-passenger balloon, which at the time was the largest in the country. “I would come out, and I was this little bug in the middle of all these big balloons.”
The two became close friends and soon started dating, together fueling their love of flying. Each summer, the two would travel to South Dakota, where Keely’s mother and stepfather Mark West lived. Mark is also an avid balloonist and former president and senior engineer for Aerostar International, the one-time manufacturing of the balloons. Mark and Kay organize the historic Stratobowl Hot Air Balloon launch each September. “They said bring your friends out here, and we will give you a balloon to fly,” Keely said. “Damien fell in love with the place. “
The couple came to the Black Hills regularly until a unique opportunity arose.
Steve Bauer, founder of Black Hills Balloons, reached out to Kay and Mark looking to sell some of his used equipment. “We called him up and asked if we could buy the business,” Keely said. “We didn’t want to live the big city life forever. We felt like we were running too fast. I loved my job but was traveling a lot and was working crazy hours and was under so much pressure.”
Damien, the general manager and chief pilot for Orlando Balloon Rides, knew his next step would be to own a balloon business.
“I don’t think he was thinking of selling; he didn’t think anyone was into it,” Keely said of Steve who started Black Hills Balloons in 1984.
The sport of ballooning had its heyday in the ‘70s and ‘80s back when many businesses used hot air balloons as an advertising tool. However, the popularity had waned. “Now, people don’t know how to get into it. Ballooning doesn’t come to mind unless you are around it,” Keely said.
Steve agreed to sell, excited that a new generation would carry on his decades-long business. Keely and Damien purchased Black Hills Balloons in 2015 and have been flying high ever since. They have three balloons lovingly named High Plains Drifter, Ozzy Airborne, and Puff Daddy and fly every day, weather permitting, from May to mid-October. Keely also still has her two-person balloon, High Fidelity or HiFi, used by crew members to build up flying hours. They both are FAA certified repairmen and maintain their own equipment along with 30 other hot air balloons from the region.
“We feel so fortunate to be doing this and in such a cool place.”
Each balloon flight is different because you use the wind to navigate, Keely said. “You are at the mercy of Mother Nature.”
But that is also the charm of ballooning. Every day is different. You don’t always know exactly where you will launch or land. Keely and Damien just hope each passenger enjoys the freedom and beauty of being high above the Black Hills.
Kay, one of 14 designated pilot examiners in the United States, and Mark continue to mentor Keely and Damien, and you never know when Don and Steve may make an appearance.
Like Kay, Keely and Damien’s passion is contagious.
Through Black Hills Balloons, they continue to create an interest in ballooning. Crew members helping on the ground get inspired and want to fly. “We lose some of our best crew, but it is all part of keeping the sport alive.”
Read more in the "Up In the Air" Issue of Elevate!