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