Rich Weidenhaefer

Rich Weidenhaefer and his wife Cat own the "Giant Strawberry" and their chase crew Billy and Cynthia Salus are from Clinton, NJ. Rich started in ballooning as a chase for Jon Feller in the mid 90's and bought his own balloon, got his license in 1998 and has been ballooning ever since. On the outside Rich is a captain for United Airlines based out of New York. He is up to 500 hours flying the balloon and 26,000 hours of fixed wing. He is also a retired navy reserve captain who flew A6 intruders on active duty and C-9 transports in the reserves out of NAS Willow Grove PA. "This is my favorite balloon festival!"

Rich has attended the Fair for the past 11 years.