Nebraska
Balloon Club
Pilots
Mike Shrum became interested in ballooning in 1992 while residing in Longview, Texas. After moving back to New Mexico in 1995 to help with the family business, he entered private ground school in October 1997. On February 28th, 1998 he received his private Lighter Than Air free balloon license. In November 1997 he bought an Aerostar RX-7 that he flew until May 2000, when a 90,000 cubic foot Aerostar RX-8 was purchased.
In August 2001, La Ristra, the world's largest Chili Ristra, was acquired by Mike and his wife Denise.
The following is taken directly from Mike's website, www.LaRistra.com:
La Ristra was built in 1997 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota at Aerostar International. It is made up of 4300 yards of Aeromax diamond weave rip stop fabric. It took 13 miles of thread to sew it together over a span of six months. With 56 chiles, La Ristra stands 128 feet tall and 70 feet wide when inflated. The envelope weighs in at 800 lbs. La Ristra’s maiden flight was at the 1997 Albuquerque International balloon Fiesta, and as of 2006 it has 114 total flight hours.
The Balloon represents "chile" as it is correctly spelled, which is a pepper grown in the Rio Grande river valley in New Mexico. In September 80% of the crop is harvested, leaving the rest to turn red on the plant. It then is harvested and the red Chile is hung on a string to dry, thus you have a "ristra" or string of red peppers. Used for decoration around the holidays, or it is crushed to make red pepper seasoning. Chopped and processed, La Ristra would make 17 million, 4 ounce jars of salsa.Contact Mike at mikeshrum@att.net or www.laristra.com
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Last updated 7:00 PM 4/7/2008.
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