Jon Lyman took his first balloon flight as a first-time member of pilot Jim Mount’s chase crew in 1979. Jim flew eight passengers that morning, four at a time doing a double hop.  At Jim’s second landing, at the side of a road, he motioned Jon to get in.  Jim flew over a row of trees and traverse all of 200 feet away from where Jon got in, on a farm road.  The chase crew took off to get ahead of the balloon, lost sight of the balloon, and did not return for an hour and a half.  Jon was enthusiastic about his first flight and filled with thoughts of, “I could do better as a chase person, why did they take so long to find us?”.  Not exactly humble in how he thought about it!  However, six years of chasing Jim’s balloon without maps or radio made Jon a much humbler crew person.  Jon then connected with a balloonist who was an actual rocket scientist, a physicist, Dean Mauer who he trained Jon.  Jon earned his private pilot license in 1990 and soon followed up with his commercial in 1992.  Jon has piloted, special shapes, and several types of balloons: Aerostar, Balloon Works, Cameron, Thunder Colt, and Ultra Magic. He currently flies a Lindstrand AX7. Ballooning as a hobby has taken Jon to fly in Canada, France, and numerous states. He is based in New Jersey, with great areas for flying and most importantly, landing.  Jon, recently retired as a school psychologist, plans to apply to fly in several new venues that he previously did not have time to go to.