Sam Baxter

The man who started it all!

Sam

Nothing jaded about this angel except it's color.

Jaded angel

Sam is a native New Mexican, born in Albuquerque in 1944. He grew up in Albuquerque's South Valley. He served a tour in the United States Army and completed a tour of duty in Germany. He and wife Shannon were married in August 1997.

Sam is considered the "Father" of the Adams Family. He joined a balloon crew two years before he purchased his first balloon, as he says "To keep myself out of the bars". He started the whole thing when he purchased Angel wings from the Blankenship Realty company in Arizona. He won his pilot's license in 1979. Six months later, he had qualified for his commercial pilots license. Sam's sister Anita Moya soon was bitten by the balloon bug, so she became Sam's first student. Anita and her husband Cass moved to Southern New Mexico. In 1986 he purchased Midnight Angel with Jimmy Hill from a party in Missouri. Sam picked up the balloon in Oklahoma and returned to Albuquerque. Jimmy became Sam's second student pilot. Jeff Stocker who was crewing for Sam decided that flying was for him, so he became Sam's third student pilot and in the process purchased Angel Wings from Sam At that point Sam was looking for a newer balloon and found one for sale by Scott Ricketts at the Adams factory just outside of Atlanta Georgia. He named the new balloon Jaded Angel primarily because of the jade color of one of the spirals. By that time Sam's crew was well over 100 people. In fact during the Kodak International Balloon Fiesta, someone counted 102 people, all crew, at the landing site. One of those was Bob Woodall who had been introduced to ballooning by the Griffins. He became Sam's fourth student pilot and purchased Midnight Angel from Sam. Bob later sold Midnight Angel to Jimmy Hill. Jimmy Hill returned to ballooning and regained his pilots license under Sam's tutelage. Sam has been flying in the Kodak International Balloon Fiesta for 18 years. In addition to "The Big One�", Sam has flown at White Sands Balloon Rally, Elephant Butte Balloon and Boat Regatta, Las Cruces Mesilla Valley Rally, Juarez International Balloon Rally, Deming Duck Races Balloon Rally, Pinetop Rally, Clovis Balloon Rally, Magdalena 4th of July Balloon Rally and Old Time Fiddlers Contest, Raton Santa Fe Trail Balloon Rally, Grants Fiesta de Colores Rally, Los Lunas St. Patrick's Day Rallye, Gallup Red Rock Balloon Rally, Chama Balloon and Snowmobile Rally, Durango Snowdown Rally, Taos Mountain Balloon Rally where he served as balloonmeister in 1994, Pinetop Rally, Friends and Lovers Rally and Jingle Bells Rally in Rio Rancho. He also tethers each Christmas season at the Albuquerque Country Club Balloon and Luminaria Glow. Sam has given tethered rides at elementary schools and special events in the local area.

Sam was elected to the board of the Kodak Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta and served for one year. He was re-elected to a two-year term, but had to resign in order to accept his current position as Field Manager for the KAIBF replacing the legendary Badtoe Benson.

Sam won the prestigious Sid Cutter award for excellence in promoting the sport of Hot Air Ballooning. Sam is considered one of the safest pilots in ballooning as well as one of the most talented. One of his top accomplishments was soaring to an altitude of 24,250 feet. Of course he and his passenger, fellow pilot Jimmy Hill, had to use oxygen during that trip.

Other than his exhilarating ascent to 24,250 feet, Sam feels his best moment in ballooning was when he landed in a 30 mile an hour wind and walked away with zero damage to the balloon system and himself. He credits this to the Adams balloon's pop-top feature.

Sam's crew include:

Shannon Baxter	Jimmy Reeves, Crew Chief	Janie Kemp
Pete Moughan	Robbin Baxter-Busick	Marj Baxter
Sam C de Baca	Patty Moore	Mike Moore
Foots Elwess	Jay C de Baca	Sally Colangelo
Others too numerous to mention	�	��

Sam's personal data include:

Aeronautical Licenses: Private Balloon Pilot and Commercial Balloon Pilot (Required for paid rides.)

Day Job: Field Manager for the Kodak Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

Hobbies: Hot Air Ballooning, Water Skiing, Snow Skiing, Boating Fishing and model train collecting.

You may contact Sam with any ballooning question at:

e-mail address: algriffin@msn.com

Click on a pilot's picture to go to that page

Copyright� 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002. Except for educational entities, no reproduction without written permission of The Adams Family Hot Air Balloon Teams is allowed.