Barbara Fricke (USA)

Barbara A. Fricke has been a hot air balloon pilot since 1989 and gained her gas rating in 1996.  She has more than 800 hours of pilot time including flights in Canada, France, Germany, and the United States.  She served as president of the Albuquerque Aerostat Ascension Association in 1995-6 and chaired AAAA's Education Committee for many years before being president.  She organized both ground schools and the early Fiesta Safety Seminars and was awarded the AAAA's Bob Ruppenthal Education Award in 1994.  In 2001, Barbara along with Peter Cuneo won the 6^th America’s Challenge Gas Balloon Race at Fiesta.  Later that same year, they flew in Virginia carries geese in an experimental migration study that was featured on 20/20.

Professionally, Barbara is a retired professor from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine who works a little as a medical laboratory scientists at Sandia National Laboratories.