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About Us
Troy Bradley
Troy is a full-time balloonist with over 7,732 balloon piloting hours (322 days aloft). As one of the most prolific record-setters the sport has ever seen, he has set 64 World Records in Hot Air, Gas and Rozier (hybrid) balloons. Troy has flown 235 different balloons ranging in size from 8,000 to 500,000 cubic feet. He has flown balloons on 5 continents, including 16 countries, and in 45 of the U.S. states.
He has claimed the title of New Mexico State Hot Air Champion four times. In 1995, he was a pilot on the winning team at the U.S. Hot Air Team National Championship.
He has flown in 9 America's Challenge gas balloon races (winning in 1998) and represented the U.S. in 7 Coupe Aeronautique Gordon Bennetts. He won the National Gas Balloon Championship in 1996. In 1992, he made the first U.S. to Africa balloon flight during the first and only balloon race across an ocean. During that epic flight, he and Richard Abruzzo were the first to stay aloft for over 6 days in a balloon. In January 2015, along with Russian pilot Leonid Tiukhtyaev, he made a flight from Japan to Mexico and set new distance and duration records for helium filled balloons; 160.6 hours aloft and 6,656 miles.
He is the only three time recipient of the highest international award in ballooning: The Federation Aeronautique International's Montgolfier Diploma. He is the past President of the Balloon Federation of America, past President of the Albuquerque Anderson/Abruzzo International Balloon Museum Foundation Board, and serves on the Balloon Museum Board of Trustees. He is an inducted member of both the United States Ballooning Hall of Fame and the Federation Aeronautique International Ballooning Commission Hall of Fame.
Tami Bradley
Tami grew up in Albuquerque, home of the largest annual balloon event in the world, and never remembers a time without balloons. Her mother and father purchased their first balloon in 1988 to promote their chain of dry cleaners. An ambitious teenager, Tami began learning to fly at a young age obtaining her hot air balloon Pilot Certificate at 17 years old. She moved on to gas balloons at the age of 20.
Tami is one of the few pilots in the United States that has logged more piloting hours in gas balloons rather than the more common hot air balloons. She has flown with three lighter-than-air gases; hydrogen, helium, and anhydrous ammonia. She has competed in 5 America's Challenges (winning in 1998), 2 Coupe Aeronautique Gordon Bennetts, and a World Gas Balloon Championship. To date, her greatest distance is 1,389 miles and her greatest duration is 59 hours aloft.
Her most memorable flights have been being rescued by helicoper after landing deep in the Canadian wilderness and landing in a remote area of Mexico well known for drug smuggling and disappearances.
Besides being a busy mom and accomplished pilot, she is President of three companies: Clean, Inc., Bradley & Associates, Inc., and Star Trail, Inc.
Savannah Bradley
Savannah, 19 years old, was born with no chance but to be a balloonist. She had her first free flight at 5 months old with her great-grandfather, Jim Dutrow, as the pilot. She is a very active member of our ground crew and the Crew Chief for Heavenly Dream, our 148 pound Ultralight balloon, which she can proudly pack by herself if necessary. She has provided endless support for her brother as his crew chief, and has now moved on to flying as well. She soloed on her 14th birthday and received her Private Pilot Certificate on her 16th birthday! These two milestones are feats achieved by very few at such a young age.
A great deal of Savannah's enjoyment of ballooning comes from the travel to different events. She has participated in many flights in several U.S. states, Japan, Turkey, Belgium, Mexico, and the Czech Republic. She was the youngest pilot at 16 to fly in the 2016 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
On her 3rd birthday, Troy launched on a record balloon flight from South Dakota landing 14 hours later in Kentucky and to honor the occasion named the project Savannah 3.
She has piloted our 105,000 cubic foot balloon, Little Bit of Heaven, to 17,308 feet above sea level. This is higher than most balloon pilots have ever been! She flew that same balloon solo on a long jump of 117 km (73 miles) on a flight from Grants, NM to Los Lunas, NM. At age 13, under the watchful eye of her father on board, she piloted a balloon from launch to landing across the rugged Sandia Mountains, east of Albuquerque. She has made 3 Sandia Mountain crossings to date.
She is an outstanding student who graduated from Albuquerque Academy in 2018. She is currently an second year student at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, where she studies mechanical engineering. She hopes to continue to specialize in Aeronautics in graduate school.
Besides balloons, she also pilots gliders and drones. Her other passion is music and she loves playing the piano, cello and violin.
Bobby Bradley
Bobby was born to fly! His first balloon ride was when he was 11 months old. He first operated the burner a 4 years old and hasn't wanted to let go since. Piloting became an obsession for Bobby; he wanted to fly at every opportunity. Bobby had a desire to fly solo after several years of dual time. Most student pilots solo at a much more advanced age, but Bobby had the desire and the skills necessary at the tender age of 9. The opportunity was realized by flying an Ultralight balloon that falls under a different section of the Federal Aviation Regulations than standard balloons.
On June 4, 2011, he became World famous by becoming the youngest trained balloon pilot to solo in a hot air balloon. The notoriety was a result of his achievement but never the goal. Bobby is very humble and thankful that he had the opportunity to achieve such a lofty goal at a young age.
Bobby is the youngest person to fly over the Sandia Mountains in a balloon and the youngest pilot to fly in a balloon event; the 2011 Leon, Mexico Festival Internacional Del Globos. He has also tethered at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta and the National Balloon Classic in Indianola, Iowa.
Now 17 years old, he is an senior at the Albuquerque Academy, and a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist.
Bobby plays basketball, guitar, video games, and chess.
