ATLANTA — An 8-year-old Georgia boy is now the youngest person ever to pilot a hot air balloon all by himself.
J.T. Head has been flying in hot air balloons since he was a baby.
“The best thing is I like to see all of the people on the ground because they’re so small,” J.T. told Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen.
He’s now in the record books as the youngest person to ever pilot a hot air balloon solo.
His father, Tarp Head, calls him a chip off the old block.
“As far as aptitude, picking up things quickly and doing things out of the ordinary, yes,” Tarp Head said.
In July, on a picture-perfect day in White County, J.T. flew 400 feet up in the air — a trip that he has prepared for, quite literally, since he was an infant.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Delta gets rid of change fees permanently for flights within U.S.
- ‘They intended to raise this baby’: New information released about 1-year-old’s kidnapping
- Nearly 400k Georgians could face eviction as protections run out, experts say
“He was two weeks old, and we didn’t get him far off the ground,” mother Desiree Head said.
Together, J.T.’s mom and dad have 75 years of flying experience, and they build hot air balloons for a living, so all of this runs in the family.
The balloon J.T. used for the solo flight was a specially built miniature model weighing in at about 150 pounds and designed to hold just one person.
J.T. said it was a textbook takeoff — a beautiful flight. And he stuck the landing.
“My heart kept going. It was like, ‘Let me beat faster.’ And I’m like, ‘Wow! I cannot believe I did it!’” J.T. said.
The Federal Aviation Administration requires pilots to be at least 14 years old to fly a full-size balloon. But because J.T. was in that miniature model, his father said the age restriction did not apply.
Cox Media Group
