Reading about the tragic ballooning accident in New Zealand got me thinking back to our own ballooning days. It started with an article in our local paper offering a balloon flight with our local club to the first dozen readers willing to write a sizeable cheque to the club’s designated charity. Husband was right there with the chequebook and on the appointed day we drove with our excited children to the Black Horse pub in Great Missenden, the club’s HQ which had a large field beside it. On arrival husband was immediately put to work as a crew member on his designated balloon while I was instructed to keep the children out of the way. You can see why from this photograph.
The envelopes take up quite a lot of space when unfolded and people have to take care not to tread on them or damage them with fingernails. Roald Dahl lived in Great Missenden and occasionally came along to watch.
The envelope is first filled with cold air blown into it by a fan and becomes gradually harder to hold. Then the pilot has to judge when to do the first burn, while everyone else hangs on to the basket to keep it on the ground.
Once husband’s balloon had taken off, the remaining gear was repacked into the trailer and I set off to follow the retrieve vehicle. First stop was at a local chippie to buy fish suppers to sustain us as we followed the balloon across country – well, it went across country, we were forced to use roads. I’m sure modern health and safety nuts would tear their hair out, but the children took it in turns to poke their heads out of my sunroof as I drove to keep an eye on the balloon.
Ballooning takes place either first thing in the morning or in the late afternoon and evening because of the thermals, so photographs are sometimes a bit hazy. Once a balloon has landed, permission has to be sought from the landowner for the retrieve vehicles to get close to the balloon to pack everything away. The children and I were allowed to help with this and then we all headed back to the Black Horse.
All the first-flighters were invited to the next balloon club meeting, at which one pilot stood up to announce that he had the opportunity to buy a second-hand balloon with all its accessories and was looking to form a syndicate to buy and fly it. Thus the Flying Colours balloon group was formed with husband and three other novices as well as the pilot, which led us to five happy years of ballooning – quite hard work, really.
Boadicea's Chariot 
EEEWW! How exciting!
We once spent some travellers’ cheques (which we had forgotten about and found, in a pocket!) ona hot air balloon flight across the red centre of Australia. Fantastic… though we had to go higher than usual due to the lack of wind…. and the retrieval truck really did go ‘across bush’ – we finished off with a champagne breakfast. I’d love to do it again.
A few years after we had done that trip we heard that a series of balloons came down in an accident caused by ‘stacking’ – where the pilots try to fly one on top of the other.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Alice_Springs_hot_air_balloon_crash
They used to float around up on the Chilterns, probably your club, very jolly to look at but drove the dogs mad.
Resisted the impulse to use the shot gun, just!
We rarely got bothered in Wales which was a good thing as Welsh farmers tend to sue or shoot things in the air that distress stock. They sue the RAF instead, (very reliable payers)!
I must say I really wouldn’t want to chase the thing half way round the county just to get it back, seems a terrible waste of time, but I presume those that do it have the time and money to waste. I’d have thought that the price of petrol and gas would have somewhat inhibited this sport these days?
Yes, it probably was the Black Horse club that was hovering round the Chilterns annoying your dogs, Christina. Pilots generally try to avoid upsetting livestock, but the noise of the burners is loud. We did meet some very pleasant landowners who invited everyone in for a drink. It was an expensive sport and must be even worse now. Even in the late 80s and early 90s a typical flight could use £100 of gas. On the other hand you learn a lot about the weather and mapreading and making quick decisions and you meet a lot of interesting people. The fact that the children could join in too and learn new things was good. They were accepted into the group and not considered as a nuisance.
I still have my glider pilot’s licence, for which a knowledge of cloud formations, winds and terrain is essential, particularly in Blighty. Why anyone would want to climb aboard a mahoosive, uncontrollable Chinese lantern is beyond me, any more than I understand why a parachutist would want to jump out of a perfectly servicable aeroplane.
Having said that, the idea of a dawn flight over Uluru with a champagne breakfast at the end does have a certain romantic appeal. Just don’t tell the NSW I said so, eh!
OZ
They float around here all the time, Sheona. They look wonderful, and the views must be superb, but I have absolutely no desire to find out.
I don’t trust them.
Gliding is another enjoyable pastime, OZ. When I was an Air Ranger our flight used to get invited to the RNAS Condor for gliding days. Smooth, peaceful, no burners required. Lovely young pilots. The “Chinese lantern” is not totally uncontrollable. One goes up and down to seek different wind directions. I wouldn’t mind trying to parachute too.
It is still one of my ambitions to go up in a balloon. I booked a flight over Egypt some years ago, but unfortunately, got food poisoning the night before and didn’t think it was fair on the other passengers if I was literally sick in a tub that far above ground!
I really must sort that out this year as one of my ‘must do activities’… It’s as well I don’t mind doing such things alone – both Bearsy and my daughter will no doubt be happy to play photographer. But both will be waving me ‘cheerio’ with their feet firmly on the ground!
When we lived in Brisbane and used to drive north to Mooloolaba and Noosa for weekends and holidays, A Zangada had to drag me kicking and howling past the gliding club at Caboolture. She would also have had tp drag me snarling and howling to a balloon function at OFFS hrs of the morning.
OZ
While were are on the subject, how about this?
http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/2012/01/09/australian-bungee-jumper-describes-miracle-survival
Friends of mine were up there at the time and were due to jump the next day. I gather it has since reopened.
I have never bungee jumped, but I did make a couple of parachute jumps an the early 80s.
Morning Sipu
Re the Vic Falls bungee cord snapping, I found the video and posted it separately here (Aussie tourist’s bungee cord snaps) for members who might not have seen it.
Our village in Derbyshire was on a regular route south for a balloon club so on fine evenings we were often treated to (bunches of?) highly-coloured balloons moving silently above us.
Do they take the children so that they can use them as ballast?
Note to self, must take up ballooning in next life!
No, Christina, places in the basket are strictly rationed to paying members of the syndicate. So you have the pilot and one or more PUTs – Pilot Under Training. Wives and children are there to work and do the retrieve. The cost of the gas is shared between those flying. Children’s pocket money wouldn’t stretch to that!
Do you mean they should throw the kids out if the balloon gets too heavy? 🙂
I would like a go in a hot air balloon, but I would like even more a flight in an airship. They are no longer the floating bombs waiting to go off that they used to be
I am not sure how much further this latest design is along the development timeline, but they look like fun to fly.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12110386
http://www.hybridairvehicles.com/
Thanks for those links, FEEG. Every time I pass those massive hangars at Cardington I wish I could have a look inside them. The BBC report that these hybrids could be used to deliver aid to remote locations, but I would have thought the skin would be very vulnerable to janjaweed types shooting off guns.
Oh now you’re talking history, Sheona. 🙂 The R100, R101, Barnes Wallis and all.
OZ
FEEG, of course, what a way to get rid of the brats!
Well I’m damned if I’d chase the incumbent spousal unit round the country in a car! Never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life, let him hire a truck to retrieve the wretched thing.
Personally I think I would have used the time to find a replacement with habits more to my liking, like punting with a good claret.
You’re not really a team player, Christina. And how far can one balloon travel with only a gentle breeze to push it? Is punting with a good claret like ordinary punting on the Cam?
🙂
Sheona. Good question!
Have to agree sheona! Hate any team activities, always have. I used to climb when young, but always by myself, retrospectively I climbed some totally ridiculous cliffs etc without ropes. Pity they never had those rubbery plastic climbing shoes that stick in my day. As to tolerating other people’s hobbies, I never got involved with others who wanted to do such things, too boring for words in my book.
We used to have a beautiful antique punt on the Thames and spend lazy afternoons drifting to and fro with a decent bottle or two. We had a lot of friends on the river on the Wargrave reach so could always stop for company and entertainment when required, very good for the soul!
The boy was the same, he was a big swimmer but refused to compete, he turned down a slot in the paralympic team when he was one legged, a damned sight faster than most with two, quite funny really used to piss people off manically when he got out of the pool and they realised. His favourite sport was swimming with the seals off the Cardigan coast, I only used to go for the fresh crab lunch, there is a pub right on the beach just my type of place.
Happy days.
Each to his own! Good thing we don’t all want to do the same things.