The ClarkNet

Up Up and Away !

On June 18th 2002 we were lucky enough to achieve one of my ambitions and fly in a hot air balloon. It was an amazing experience and not easily put into words, but here goes:

Considering that we were supposed to be on holiday, I can't say that the idea of getting up early enough for a 06:30 departure was all that well received. However hot-air balloons can only fly in virtually still conditions, which in practice means around dawn or dusk. Anyway, it was going to be worth losing an hour or two's sleep!

On waking up that morning, my first job was to peek out of the bedroom window. Yep, no wind, no rain - looks like we'll be going up shortly ! After a hurried shower - well, the alarm hadn't been set to go off any earlier than was really necessary - we made our way down to the hotel reception.

Then followed the most uncomfortable part of the whole experience, as the twelve of us on the flight were crammed into a landrover to make our way to the take-off site. When we arrived, our balloon G-SKYK - a Cameron A-275, needed to be set up and inflated. As the envelope has a volume of 275,000 cubic feet, this did take a little while. After about half an hour, though, we were ready to go!

We didn't know it then, but at about this time, preparations were being made on the other side of the world for the launch of another Cameron balloon. This one, the "Spirit of Freedom" would after 14 days and 9 hours see Steve Fossett make the first successful solo round-the-world balloon flight, travelling over 21000 miles in the process. The statistics for our flight, incidentally are a little more modest - we covered about 8 miles in a flight lasting a little over 1 hour !

Once we were all crammed into the gondola, off we went. The initial take-off was a bit of an anticlimax - at least until we got to treetop height. As we crossed over the trees, the tallest branches just brushed the gondola's underside - leaving us briefly wondering if the flight was about to come to an unscheduled and rather early halt. With a quick blast from the burners - which from where we stood felt strong enough to cause a mild case of sunburn(!) - we began to gain altitude.

As the balloon rose, the view got better and better. Not only could we see for miles and miles but, except for when the burners were running, everything was so peaceful. We hung suspended above the countryside and even time seemed to stand still.

We followed the course of the River Kennet, overflying Hungerford and Kintbury, eventually landing - with just a slight bump - slightly to the south-west of the former airbase at Greenham Common. Had we gone on a little further and landed on the base itself, getting ourselves out would have been slightly problematical!

 

There's a short streaming video clip of our flight. If you want to see it go here