NATCHEZ — Fresh off being inducted into the U.S. Ballooning Hall of Fame, Bill Bussey of Longview, Texas, is back in Natchez three decades after winning the first Great Mississippi River Balloon Race.

Bussey said the honor was humbling.

“I try my best to give back to the sport, to organizers, new pilots, spectators and the crewmembers,” he said. “I do my best to introduce the sport to new people.”

Bussey, with the help of some partners, bought his first balloon in 1977 and has logged approximately 3,500 flight hours and has won 35 championships as a competitive balloonist. He has also held the sport’s No. 1 ranking multiple times.

On the promotion side, Bussey, who is a retired dentist, founded The Great Texas Balloon Race in Longview and is the first person to organize a balloon glow event in 1980.

“We have given more than $1.4 million in cash rewards back to the pilots,” Bussey said. “That does not count propane, prizes, gifts and hotel rooms — that’s cash.”

Now 73 years old, Bussey still takes flight, but he said it’s less about competition and more about promoting ballooning.

“I like to say I still compete, but my emphasis is not so much on competition as is the image of the sport,” Bussey said. “I like bringing new folks into the sport. A lot of folks don’t understand it, but teaching is still fun.”

Bussey said he won the first two championships in Natchez. While he’s missed a few Natchez races through the years, Bussey said he loves coming back to Natchez and has made more than 25 of the balloon races.

“The truth is I just like Natchez, and I like being here,” he said. “I’m here with my buddies at Fat Mama’s drinking a beer. I just love the small town of Natchez, with 18,000 people, who are so progressive in the promotion of their city: the bluffs, the river, the antebellum homes and just the attitude of the people — it’s contagious and I like being a part of it.”

Bussey said his love for hot-air balloons came at first sight.  He was in Aspen, Colo., taking hang gliding lessons in 1976 when he saw his first pair of balloons tethered together in a field.

“I sat there an hour and a half in the ice and snow in awe,” he said. “I took all these mental notes on how to build one of those — I knew a little lady who could sew some material together, and then I could take a laundry basket and a propane fish cooker and build me a balloon.”

While Bussey attests he could have made his propane fish cooker concoction fly, he never had to prove it to because he discovered balloons could be ordered from manufacturers. He started out in ballooning with partners but eventually went solo.

Bussey said his longest time in the air was from Amarillo, Texas, to Milbank, S.D. The trip took 29 hours, 35 minutes and 11 seconds and was 795 miles. But his longest distance flight was 892.11 miles from Chanute, Kan., to Savannah, Ga.

“My average speed was 82.35 miles per hour and my top speed was 108 miles per hour,” he said. “That flight didn’t last but a little over 11 hours.

“I almost went to Florida, but I wound up in Savannah.”

Ballooning has only gotten better with age, Bussey said.

“As long as I am happy and healthy, I am going to keep pushing the format,” he said. “I love the freedom and the quietness as you are floating, not flying.

“It is gorgeous — the wicker baskets, the fire, the fabric — it is primitive aviation at its best, 100 odd years before the Wright brothers took flight. It is safe, fun and everyone from little children to grandmas love it.”