SunKiss Ballooning

GLENS FALLS - Todd Monahan spent nearly 25 years hoping and dreaming that one day he'd take a hot air balloon ride.

"I remember being 5 years old and going to the Warren County airport with my dad," Monahan, 27, said. "Being excited to get up at 4 a.m. to see balloons -- I wasn't a normal kid. But I remember going to the airport all the time just wishing a pilot would ask me to jump in the basket."

No pilot ever did, and Monahan's parents, he recalled, couldn't spare the money to buy him a ride.

So he waited and waited and waited, and in 2005, he finally got his first hot air balloon ride.

SunKiss Ballooning is Monahan's fledgling company, and while it opened last June in Glens Falls, this is his first full flying season in business.

Getting to this point, however, took some work.

In February 2006, Monahan traveled to Albuquerque, N.M. to get his private pilot's license. That allowed him to fly for fun -- and to give rides to friends -- but he couldn't take money for the flights, he said.

"I bought my own balloon after that. And every chance I got, I'd fly."

Despite the freedom he felt floating above the Adirondacks at his leisure, Monahan wanted to take his hobby farther. That meant getting another certification.

"On June 1, 2007, I got my commercial license and started flying all kinds of festivals," Monahan said. "I flew in Burlington, New Jersey, Canada."

The commercial license, he added, was what he needed to get paid for providing balloon rides.

Monahan opened SunKiss Ballooning right after he got this license, and since then, he estimates he's given about 50 rides.

While the money he's made from those excursions is nice, getting rich from SunKiss Ballooning isn't in Monahan's plans.

His day job is with the Council for Prevention of Alcohol and Substance Abuse in Hudson Falls where he works as an adventure program counselor.

Aside from already having a rewarding career, SunKiss Ballooning's earnings are secondary to Monahan because of his passion for flight itself.

"The average ride is about an hour, and it really is a lot of fun," he said. "You meet these people who, before, you had no idea about. It's just you and four people, at most.

"You're standing in this small basket, and you really get to know each other."

And getting to know other people has lead to learning more about the needs of nearby communities and organizations, Monahan said.

Each year, he does his best to donate rides for local events, or to donate money to area charities.

"I donate 1 percent of all my profits to a local, state-recognized charity," he said. "This year, the charity benefits multiple sclerosis."

Monahan also does his best to make sure his paying customers get as much out of their hot air balloon experiences as they can.

Joel and Jennifer Holden of Fort Edward, who got married on Saturday, attested to this.

"We felt very comfortable the whole time," Jennifer Holden said. "We were able to pick out our house during the ride."

"And although we are sunset people, not sunrise, he did make getting up in the morning worth it," her husband added.

The ride itself wasn't the only thing that justified meeting Monahan at 6:30 a.m. on Friday, however.

"After the ride, we had donuts and coffee with the farmer whose field we landed in," Joel Holden said.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience," his wife, added. "I would suggest everyone should do it."