Personal:
Born in Albany, GA, and now living in Snellville near Atlanta, Harold married Janet Kraft in1967 and has two married daughters and six grandchildren. Among his interest outside his family and hovercraft are his church and going on mission trips. He has traveled to 46 states including Hawaii and four trips to Alaska, 24 countries, and five continents. He served six years with the Georgia Air National Guard and would have been a pilot except for a high frequency hearing loss; however, he obtained his private pilot certificate, ASEL, and later was awarded the first commercial hot air balloon certificate in Georgia.

Education:
Harold earned college credit from four colleges and universities in four majors and was extremely fortunate that all credits counted towards his BS Degree in Industrial Technology from Georgia Southern. While at Clemson, he was in the Air Force ROTC program.

Career:
Upon graduation, he worked for Union Carbide Corporation as a Technical Representative in the Consumer Products Division. Although he had a liberal expense account with a new station wagon each year, he grew weary of driving about 1,000 miles per week and being away from home (10 state territory) so he accepted an offer as Business Development Director with the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Harold’s love of aviation landed him a job flying a D-7 at the Chamber, a desk with seven drawers! While at the Chamber, he learned a great deal about smoke and mirrors and hot air (inside joke) and resigned to start his own hot air balloon business in 1973, Balloons, Inc., of which he was president. For a brief period in 1978, Harold was the number one competitive hot air balloon pilot in the nation and he competed in the HAB World Championship in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1979. He has accumulated about 2000 hours flying airplanes, sail planes, a gyrocopter, and hot air balloons! He built several hot air balloons, overhauled a Benson Gyrocopter, and obtained several Supplemental Type Certificates from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Hovercraft Experience:
In 1994, one of Bob Windt’s Universal Hovercraft ads caught his eye and he sent off for plans for the UH-12T4 which he built and had operational in nine months. In 1997 he purchased a SCAT II to play with while he installed larger engines in his 12T4. The 340 cc snowmobile engine he purchased never really ran correctly so he purchased the late Bob Carter’s (no relation) StarCruiser in 2000, made several modifications including installation of a Kevlar bottom and a new paint job and that is his hover of choice today. His SCAT has been sold but he still owns the other two craft. He has operated hovercraft in 12 states accumulating about 380 hours and has been a Hoverclub member since 1996.

Committees and Contributions:
Harold enjoys promoting this unique sport by giving rides at Hover-ins and Rallies (he is often the first one there and the last one to leave), sharing at gas stations, etc, on the phone and on the Internet. He is a regular contributor to HOVERNEWS. He has served for two years as the National Cruise Coordinator and with the help of fellow member Bill Callahan, he has had a catered picnic both years at the National Cruise. Carter was elected to the board in June, 2005. In September, 2005, he, along with seven HCA members from five different states traveled to New Orleans in an attempt to assist in rescue operations after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the gulf coast.