Last year, in January, I bought Daisy a special (requested) present for her 30th Birthday — a hot air balloon flight. It wasn’t until this year she started to book flights, having had to extend the voucher somewhat. Anyway, at the beginning of April we rushed off one morning to a field in Sherborne to be told it wasn’t safe to fly. We booked a few more in advance (just in case) and they were all cancelled the evening before due to the forecasted weather. May 24th we rushed off, this time to Shaftesbury, to be told the same thing — too windy.

However, last week we were went out to Shaftesbury again. It was dead calm – looked good – until we got there and it was pretty foggy. Obviously you can take off in fog, but landing in fog is pretty much impossible in a hot air balloon. However, the pilot was optimistic and suggested we get the balloon ready for take off just in case it cleared up. There were 16 people due to fly in the balloon including us, so everyone helped to spread the balloon out flat on the ground.

[photopress:DSC00220.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
The pilot gives us our pre-flight briefing

[photopress:DSC00222.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
Pulling the balloon envelope off the trailer

[photopress:DSCF0001.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
Spreading the envelope out into a balloon shape on the ground

[photopress:DSC_9576.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
Ready to be pumped up

I was charged with overseeing the fan that blew the air into the balloon. The balloon billowed and became huge in no time at all. The pilot was still concerned about the fog, so we stopped preparing and waited 30 minutes.

[photopress:DSCF0004.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
The balloon begins to pump up

[photopress:DSC_9579.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
One of the ground crew holding open the envelope for the air from the fan to get in

[photopress:DSC00244.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
Now waiting a bit until the fog clears

We all sat around on the trailer until the pilot came back over to us. He suggested we stand the balloon up — just in case. So, on came the burners to heat up the air in the balloon. ROAR – they fired into the envelope. Slowly the balloon began to stood up and the basket righted itself.

[photopress:DSC_9585.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
The burners fire into the envelope

[photopress:DSC00247.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
As the top of the balloon heats up, it begins to stand up

[photopress:DSC00249.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
The basket rolls over as the balloon stands fully upright

We looked around and amazingly the fog appeared to be clearing. The sun struggled through and suddenly, with incredible speed, the fog retreated from our field. The pilot must be a clairvoyant.

“Everybody in!”, he shouted, and there was a sudden bundle towards the basket. It’s not too easy getting in the basket and we had to give Daisy a bit of a leg up to get in. Once secured, the pilot quickly went through our landing procedures while the burners fired up into the balloon heating it up further. Apparently the air at the top has to be around 100 degrees centigrade for the balloon to lift off.

With a creak and crack the basket began to get light on its feet. The ground crew pushed us away from the Land Rover and it was mere seconds before the balloon began to go up.

[photopress:DSCF0007.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
Waiting for the balloon to reach temperature

[photopress:DSCF0009.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
Lift off!

[photopress:DSC_9599.low_1.jpg,thumb,centered]
[photopress:DSC_9601.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
[photopress:DSCF0015.low.jpg,thumb,centered]

As the balloon begins to rise the pilot switches off the burners and, other than the other 12 passengers oohing and aahing, it’s very quiet and serene. The odd pop of the burners just keeps the balloon in ascent. In no time the ground is a long way away and people and cars look like toys. The pilot takes us up to about 3,000 feet where he gives us our in-flight champagne (in plastic cups!) and takes our in-flight photo, which they charge us a fortune for later.

[photopress:IMG_9727.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
Our in-flight photo – we’re on the left at the front

The whole flight is wonderful. For people who don’t like heights, ballooning is a perfect way to enjoy the world – you really don’t feel high; as a passenger you relate entirely to the basket and the breathtaking views almost seem unreal. We took off from near Shaftesbury in Dorset, and flew over the village of Motcombe before landing near Sedgefield Manor.

[photopress:DSC_9610.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
[photopress:DSC_9617.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
[photopress:DSC_9619.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
[photopress:DSC_9631_sat.jpg,thumb,centered]

One of the things I was most interested in, and honestly concerned about, was the landing. The pilot went through the landing procedure again; we put our backs against the soft railings around the basket compartments, facing away from the landing direction, and we bend our knees. That’s it. The pilot pointed out the field we were going to land in, and as the balloon got lower we were told to get into this position.

[photopress:DSC_9665.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
Getting lower – we scared the sheep in this field

It’s strange that a commercial service like this is designed to end in a crash landing, but the pilot did very well and the basket thudded into the ground and dragged along a bit — but not far. While we were sitting there with hoping not to roll over, the pilot was jumping up and pulling on various ropes to get the balloon to actually come to a halt (presumably taking hot air out of the top). Once the balloon had stabilised we had to wait until the ground crew found us and and went to the owner of the field and asked “Mister, can we have our balloon back, please?” If he’d said no we would have had to take off again… unfortunately for us, he said yes.

[photopress:DSCF0023.low_1.jpg,thumb,centered]
Having got permission from the farmer to get the balloon, the ground crew entered the field

We were then all involved with packing the balloon up again for the next time (and trying not to get covered in cow pat at the same time!).

[photopress:DSC_9674.low.jpg,thumb,centered]
The envelope is rolled into a snake and dumped back in the bag…

[photopress:DSC_9676.low_1.jpg,thumb,centered]
…if you can get all the air out!

The flight was an amazing experience — even though I got it as a present for Daisy, it was a great treat for me too. I was so enamoured the first thing I did when I got back was to find out how to become a balloon pilot. Doesn’t sound too difficult to get a private pilot’s licence, actually. There’s lots of information at the British Balloon and Airship Club website.