DEKE SONNICHSEN
DEKE SONNICHSEN - National Balloon Museum
DEKE SONNICHSEN - National Balloon Museum
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<strong>DEKE</strong> <strong>SONNICHSEN</strong><br />
A Founder of the Balloon Federation of America<br />
INDUCTED INTO THE U. S. BALLOONING HALL OF FAME<br />
July 29, 2007<br />
By The Balloon Federation of America at the<br />
National Balloon Museum, Indianola, Iowa<br />
HallOfFameHandout.pub
<strong>DEKE</strong> <strong>SONNICHSEN</strong><br />
Deke Sonnichsen began his aviation career in 1951 with the 82nd Airborne during the Korean War.<br />
He graduated from Parachute School at Fort Benning, Ga., Jumpmaster School at Fort Bragg, N.C. and several<br />
other military schools. He served in a variety of assignments in the 325th AIR in the 82nd until his honorable<br />
discharge in 1954. His first "sport" parachute jump was in 1953 using his own 'chute, near Fayetteville,<br />
North Carolina.<br />
Deke founded the California Parachute Club in 1956, and was a member of the U.S. Parachute Team<br />
at the First Adriatic Cup Championship in Tivat, Montenegro, Yugoslavia in 1957. He was Team Leader of<br />
the U.S. Parachute Teams in 1962, '63 & '64 at the World & Adriatic Cup Championships in: Orange, Massachusetts;<br />
Portoroz, Slovenia, Yugoslavia; and Leutkirch, Bavaria, Germany. Deke is a former President of<br />
the Parachute Club of America (now USPA).<br />
Deke took up ballooning in 1964, and is Commercially certificated in both gas and hot air balloons.<br />
Deke founded the Daedalus School of Free Ballooning in 1965, the first such school, and he has personally<br />
trained over 40 balloon pilots. He won the Piccard Trophy at the St. Paul Winter Carnival Balloon Race,<br />
White Bear Lake, Minnesota in 1966. Later that year he set World's Records for Altitude, Distance and Duration<br />
for Class AX-4 Hot Air Balloons. Under SBS USA stewardship, in 1967, Deke organized the very<br />
first International Hot Air Balloon Race from the "Top-of-the-Tram," Mt. San Jacinto, 8500 feet above Palm<br />
Springs, Cal. He placed 2nd to winner Ed Yost in that challenging and spectacular Distance race, traveling<br />
31 miles in 46.5 minutes at altitudes up to 15,000 ft. Deke won the 7-Up International Balloon Race, Columbus,<br />
Ohio in 1969, and he received the Founders' Award from the Balloon Federation of America at Indianola,<br />
Iowa in 1973. Deke received the BFA's highest honor, the Shields-Trauger Award, in 1975.' (Deke has<br />
flown with both Francis Shields and Bob Trauger, for whom the award is named.) Deke was awarded the Sid<br />
Cutter Trophy from the Albuquerque Aerostat Ascension Association in 1976 and the Comite d' Aerostation<br />
Safety Award in Paris, 1983. In 1997 the Pacific Coast Aeronauts honored Deke with their "Excellence in<br />
Ballooning" Award and Honorary Life Membership.<br />
Deke is Co-Founder (1965) & Current President of the Sport Balloon Society of the USA, Co-<br />
Founder(1967) of the Balloon Federation of America, and Founder and Past Editor of Ballooning, the Journal<br />
of the BFA (1968-1971) He and his wife Joanne founded in 1965, and continue to host, with Deke as<br />
Ballonmeister, for the Whiskey Hill-Atherton-Menlo Oaks Ballooning And Sporting Society<br />
(WHAMOBASS) Balloon Rally in Coaling Station A, (Coalinga) Cal., which will conduct its 43rd Annual<br />
Balloon Rally in 2007.WHAMOBASS holds the world's record as the longest continuous balloon event in<br />
history.<br />
A member of the Screen Actors Guild, Deke piloted a Yost-built, Dakota Industries, 260,000 cu.ft.,<br />
six-place, 'special-shape' balloon for the 1968 Warner Brothers-Seven Arts film "The Great Bank Robbery."<br />
He was back-up pilot in the balloon sequences for "Skidoo" and made parachute jumps for "In Harms Way,"<br />
both Otto Preminger film productions. Deke was first designated in 1967 as FAA Pilot Examiner for balloons,<br />
and he has examined and/or certificated over 300 balloon pilots to date and is the current LTA<br />
(Lighter Than Air) Pilot Examiner and Accident Prevention Safety Counselor for the San Jose, Cal FSDO.<br />
He is a BFA Accredited Instructor and has lectured at Balloon Safety Seminars on both coasts, in the Midwest<br />
and in Europe.<br />
Deke is a California native and graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. He worked for<br />
33 years on special projects with Space Systems Division of Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. from<br />
1959 to 1992. Deke with his late wife Joanne, resided in Menlo Park, Cal. where Deke has operated his own<br />
specialized engineering consulting service since 1963. Their late son Kirke began flying in balloons at age 6<br />
and, at age 14, was issued the first Student Balloon Certificate in the USA when the age requirements<br />
dropped from 16 to 14 in 1974.<br />
PublisherFiles\HallOfFame\HallOfFameInduction2007.pub