Welcome to LTA Aviation, Inc!

By Jennifer Arend – Plain Dealer Reporter
Reprinted with permission from the July 4, 1998 edition of the Plain Dealer.

Last week, a limp pile of colorful nylon lay out in a field next to Bill Cloninger’s Chagrin Falls home. Someone flipped the switch on the huge fan that feeds the balloon’s wide mouth with air, and slowly it began to take shape, finally extending more than 100 feet up into the humid evening.


	Bill Cloninger and student, Cynthia Hatfield, land their baloon at Twin Lakes, Chagrin Falls.

       "Call it a midlife crisis," said Cloninger, supervising his student, Cynthia Hatfield, as she ignited the double burners, heating the air inside the balloon and causing it to rise. "It was something I always loved," he said. "And I got the opportunity to do what I love."
       A senior vice president at Society Bank in Cleveland only a few years ago, Cloninger decided in 1996 to take his love of flying to new heights – and is currently building his company, LTA Aviation, into a multifaceted balloon enterprise.
       Cloninger, also known as "Capt. Willy", first entertained the idea of the balloon business in 1988 when he and his wife took a ride one morning in Napa Valley, California.
       "I was getting up at 4:30 every day," Cloninger explained, wearing a cap adorned with the picture of his balloon "Beachball." "The pilot said his day was done at 11:00. It intrigued me. After nine weeks of training in 1990 Cloninger had his commercial balloon license.
       Then working as the San Jose region credit officer for Wells Fargo Bank, he moved to Ohio as part of the Ameritrust turnaround team late in 1990. But it wasn’t until 19965 – after Ameritrust was acquired by Society and his contract expired with Society that established what became LTA, for "lighter than air."
       What started out as a small operation for Cloninger has now ballooned into what his wife, Sandy, said was more like a way of life. "He’s very much a doer," she said. "And it’s good for his blood pressure."
       Cloninger recently acquired a distributorship for Aerostar International Inc., which sells more than 40 percent of the 300 balloons sold nationally each year. The distributorship gives him exclusive rights to sell Aerostar balloons and equipment in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, western Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
       Attributing much of his early success with LTA to his banking background, Cloninger said his experiences as a credit specialist have sensitized him to the problems of managing growth. "This is not something new."
       In addition to developing Balloon Camp in Nevada where he teaches aspiring balloonists to fly in an intense, two-week training session, Cloninger also teaches individual students to fly throughout the course of a season – which, in Northeast Ohio, is May 15 through October 20.
       In the off-season, Cloninger also conducts weekend-long ground school sessions, wheh he trains potential pilots to pass the FAA written exam. "He’s a great teacher," said Hatfield, 30, who has been on Cloninger’s crew for seven seasons and is preparing to take the test for her FAA license in a few weeks.
       When he’s not operating his Amish Country Balloon Tours and taking passengers up over Geauga County farms for $180 a ride, Cloninger uses balloons to teach grade and high school students the physics behind lighter than flight.
       "I’m like a one-man band," said Cloninger, 48, who added that he might hire a few more pliots to help his burgeoning business next year. But he is not alone – Mrs. Cloninger "is a full partner" in the company, working behind the scenes.
       "It’s a small world," Mrs. Cloninger said of the niche of balloon enthusiasts, some of which have become the couple’s close friends over the years. "It’s a life."