A Yankee Balloon LLC is owned and operated by Bill Colyer.  Bill is a FAA certified commercial pilot and flight instructor.  He has been flying balloons since 1974. His first flight was in Indianola, Iowa.   It was there that he met Brian & Kathy Boland.  After receiving training from Boland, he decided to build his own experimental balloon.  More recently, Bill has built a two-place balloon that separates into smaller components for travel.

Bill met his girlfriend Pat in 1979 at the Long Island Sound of America Balloon Festival.  Pat was the co-chairman for 11years.  Together they have 10 flights across Long Island Sound, with two landings in the back of a boat!

Besides the ride operation, Bill attends 10-12 balloon events a year.  At these festivals he has been a real competitor, inning awards and prize money.  He has won first place at the New Jersey Festival of Ballooning, the Overall Champion at the Great New England Balloon Festival at Riverside Park, and the Best of Show at Goshen, Connecticut.   Internationally, he takes his all experimental balloon to Ireland almost every year.  There, he was part of the American Team that won Ireland’s Frank Barnes Trophy.  Bill has flown at the Expo in Vancouver as well as many times in St. Jeans Sur Richeleau, near Montreal.  He has flown the Alps, crossing one Alp (ask about that one) in Mauterndorf, Austria at the Fire & Snow Festival.  Bill has also attend-ed the Waiarapa & Waikato Festivals in New Zealand several times.  There, he won the Masterton Balloon Cup.

Bill has been a Balloonmeister at many events in the Northeast.