SANDY KNEELAND

Sandy is a native of Denver, Colorado.  She began crewing for Chauncey Dunn in late 1969 after seeing his new hot air balloon at a demonstration for his office staff.  In April, 1973 she earned her Commercial Pilot Certificate as Sandy Branham,  but then didn’t have anything to fly.  She formed a flying club, Rocky Mountain Hot Air Balloon Company, bought her first balloon, The Grape Escape, and began instructing students.  She has completely or partially instructed 22 students, and has flown rallys and races, and Coors Balloon promotions in Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, Iowa, South Dakota,  Washington, Oregon, and California.  Sandy is a Founding Member of the Colorado Balloon Club.

Repairing balloons just happened because she knew how to sew, but quickly became a passion and profession.  Rocky Mountain Hot Air Repair became an FAA Certified Repair Station in 1977, and she has accumulated over 3900 repairs and annuals.  She continues to happily work with balloons at the repair station that Ken Tadolini took over a few years ago.