Fuel tanks indoors overnight

Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything in here! We last flew on the 2nd October 2011 and then the weather decided to go against us and stopped us flying all through the winter! Every week I would check the weather to see if it would be flyable at the weekend, but each week it turned out that it would be unflyable! Finally… 4 months later… there looked like a flyable weekend – hurrah!

We decided that we would go out nice and early as it was due to be snowing later that morning and the wind to be increasing. Also, due to the cold I would bring the fuel tanks into the house overnight so that they could keep warm and we would get good pressure for the flight!

Inflating G-BOOB

The alarm went off really early and it was really cold, I had that thought of “what am I doing!?!” A couple of snoozes on the alarm later I got up and loaded the fuel tanks into the van and set off to pick up the crew.

We arrived at the launch site in Bath, where we met another balloon team. It was just becoming light but we had plenty of time, so we took our time in getting things ready and remembering what went where seeing as it had been a while since we had all been out! It was about -4 degrees celcius so it also gave us a chance to warm up!
I inflated and took off at 8:05am and drifted slowly back towards Bristol – not ideal but I knew from the weather forecast that the wind higher up would take us more towards the north.

We went up to about 1000ft and we did get a slight change in direction, but not much. The other balloon team decided to land. We flew on and followed the edge of Bristol towards the North and as we got further North I decided to go up much higher and see if there

Packing away after a great flight

would be any direction change further up. We went up to a maximum height of 3,700ft and got a change in direction of just over 90 degrees! We were now going directly East! The temperature had now dropped to about -10 degrees celius at the height!

We carried on as we could see there was a common on the edge of the village of Yate, I decended and we suddenly increased in speed to around 18kts! We weren’t going to land on the common at this speed as by the time we got down to the right height we had already flown over the far edge of the common.
We had plenty of fuel so I wasn’t worried, we just carried on at a few hundred feet until we came across a nice big field with a gate at the side of the road. I just brushed the tree as I came in to land and once down, Ian got out and towed me towards the gate.

John, who was following in the van, was only just down the road so we started to pack away and soon warmed up, almost to the point of taking my coat off! Once everything was back in the van it was on to find some breakfast, and a Weatherspoons pub in Kingswood did the trick nicely.

Thank you to both Ian and John for coming out in such cold conditions. I had gread fun and the video turned out really well (you can see this on the video page).

The view from 3,700ft over Yate

Sorry for the delay in writing this, I really must update it more often!

The Bristol International Balloon Fiesta has passed us for another year, this time with more success than last year. The Phil’s Balloons team enjoyed 3 flights over the weekend. This was a surprise to most people as the forecast for the weekend at the start of the week was looking very poor, with high winds and rain. Luckily we didn’t see any of this and although the start of the weekend was a bit iffy, the middle was certainly great.

Although the decision from the organisers was that of “good to fly” on Friday morning, I actually decided against it – along with many others I must add. There was very low cloud and it was due to start raining soon. There were around 60 or so balloons that did fly though, and I’m sure they all had lovely flights. I tend to make my decisions based on if I was in the launchsite on my own, with no other balloons (or even a fiesta) around, if that decision to fly would be no, then it will still be a no at a balloon meet, regardless of how many balloons around me are taking off. Luckily my crew see this as a good way of thinking and we managed to enjoy a bacon roll and a cup of tea whilst watching some balloons flying!

Our first flight was to be Friday evening and it was such a great flight, although short. We took off and flew low over the crowd, and continued to fly low over the top end of Ashton Court. We took off in the middle of all the balloons so could see the balloons ahead of us heading straight towards Durdham Downs, so we did exactly that. We flew over the Avon Gorge, the Clifton Suspension Bridge and then low over Clifton to give us the direction towards Durdham Downs. We landed amongst many other balloons and the retrieve crew were right there to help us pack away – we then enjoyed a nice beer whilst watching other balloons landing around us.

Our next flight was to be Saturday evening as the morning was cancelled. It was quite windy so I decided to watch a few balloons first to see what the direction was and how fast they were actually travelling. Thankfully it wasn’t as windy as I thought and the direction was straight across Bristol. As it was the night glow that evening, I decided that it was going to be a short flight. We only flew for 30 minutes but it was a great flight, we landed in Victoria Park in Bedminster – with a big bump! I do have this on video too and it will be uploaded to the website soon.

Sunday morning was to be our last flight and I decided to fly one of the events team. They work very hard over the weekend so I think a balloon flight for one of them is a great way to say thank you! We flew right across Bristol and landed in Mangotsfield on a sports pitch some 45 minutes later.

That was the end of flying for us at the Balloon Fiesta and we look forward to attending again next year!

Bristol International Balloon Fiesta 2011

Sorry for the tacky headline…always wanted to use it!! haha

We all met on College Green in Bristol at 5am sharp this morning, there was a very small window of good weather for us to be able to do the press launch for the Balloon Fiesta.

I was due to fly in the Bristol University balloon but this changed on site due to lack of passengers in another balloon. This meant I was now to fly in the Jaguar balloon with Rich Allen and one of the official Fiesta photographers, Jake.

Jake was a little nervous as he had never flown before and mentioned that he didn’t like heights! This could be interesting!
We inflated and got the balloon upright and then the usual waiting around for all balloons to be in a position ready to launch and making sure all press were ready for filming and photos.
The all clear was given and we launched at arounf 6am. A nice flight out over the city with most balloons landing in Eastville Park, however we didn’t come down low enough, early enough to be able to catch the right wind to take us towards it so we flew on.

We saw ahead the field that most balloons landed in last year, alongside the M32! And that’s where we landed.

It was a great flight and my thanks to Rich for letting me on board! Jake actually enjoyed his flight and was very calm throughout. Hopefully he got some better photos than I did!

Bristol International Balloon Fiesta Press Launch 2011

Well the past week has brought us some excellent weather, some of it even too good! I have managed to fly 4 times in the past 4 days. Thursday evening, Friday evening and both Saturday and Sunday morning.

Thursday evening saw me jumping on board with Craig Thompson and Alli Dunnington in the Sky Demo balloon. We took off from Ashton Court and landed in Chelwood after 45 minutes. Keeping low to try and avoid going towards the airport we flew right over Pensford and landed the otherside of the road to a Scout camp.

Friday evening was better in the sense that I hadn’t even planned to fly, I just went to Ashton Court just get some photos of some friends that were flying. I was chatting along and got asked if I wanted to have a flight, so of course I said yes! We flew right over Bristol and landed in Keynsham Rugby Club after 45 minutes.

Saturday morning was probably the most enjoyable out of the lot though. We took off from the Maize field just outside of bath and landed at the now old Cadbury’s chocolate factory in Keynsham after 1 hour and 10 minutes. I even flew someone for their birthday!

Sunday morning saw another early start but this time at Ashton Court. Along with a few others we drifted slowly over Bristol, flying close enough to Bailey Balloons that I could talk with the pilot! Got some lovely photos!

We saw that a friend of ours had landed in The Netham in St George so I decided that we would go and land there as well. The winds died right down as we came in to land and I ended up tracking just along the trees! Typical! I had to get the drop line connected on and had one of the crew from the other balloon team to pull us into the field! 1 other balloon also followed us in to The Netham.

I decided not to fly on Sunday evening as I was extremely tired, however I still went over to the Maize field and helped a number of balloons launch. But it meant I could get back home at a decent hour and still catch up on my sleep!!

One of the many photos taken

The plan this morning was to go to Ashton Court and have a nice slow flight across Bristol. However, the wind decided to change its mind and started going towards Bristol International Airport.

Unfortunately it meant that realistically there was not enough time to get to another launch site. But all was not lost, we were not on our own with not flying. Tim Dudman brought his hopper along so we all decided to go to the big field in Ashton Court where the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta is held and have a play around in the hopper!

I’ve never flown a hopper before so it was something very different than flying in a basket! For those that don’t know, a hopper is a one person balloon without a basket, you just have a little seat and your legs dangle beneath you! Sounds scary but it is good fun!

Go and take a look in the gallery at the photos that were kindly taken by crew Matt Cleaves

Pilot Phil Hooper (me!) getting strapped into the hopper seat!

Phil’s Balloons Hot Air Balloon Team were in attendance at this years Tiverton Balloon Festival. We managed to have a short 20 minute flight on the friday evening which was great, but unfortunately we felt it to be too foggy on the Saturday morning to fly.

We look forward to attending again if the event is held next year. A full set of photos can been seen via the Gallery page.

Tiverton Balloon Festival

On the 20th April 2011 Phil’s Balloons was asked to come along and help out with a tether. This was a tether for American TV Channel “Entertainment Tonight” for a programme that was about the up-coming Royal wedding.
The host of the show was Jane Seymour, and they were to film a whole bunch of links from inside the basket on a high tether.

All the the film crew, make up, lighting, sound guys and techies turned up around 8:30am and started to get all their equipment set up whilst we inflated the balloon. Adjustments were made to the length of the ropes we were tethered to and filming started.

It all took around an hour and a half to get all the shots that they needed to get in front of the big country house. All in all it was a really good morning and we met some great people from the production crew that came all the way from California!

On Set With Jane Seymour

This morning we received the email that all balloonists want to receive! That’s the email from the organisers of the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta to say that our application to attend this year’s Fiesta has been confirmed!

So you will see us in the skies over the busy August weekend! Yay!

Bristol International Balloon Fiesta 2011

Phil’s Balloons was kindly asked by the lovely folk over at Spirit Balloons to go along to the London Marathon 2011 and help with the start line balloon tether of their King Sturge Balloon. We were on site for 5:30am and started to tether from around 8:30am right until the last runner crossed the start line!

Conditions were perfect to make an easy life and to get some great video and photos. Video will be processed as soon as possible and the photos can now be seen online.

London Marathon 2011

On the 7th April 2011 Phil’s Balloons took to the skies amongst 49 other balloons in Kent. The aim was to get to France…and we did! Hurrah!

This was by far one of the best experiences I have had during all the years I have been ballooning and I will upload a full report on this sometime during the next week.

The feeling of flying out to sea is very strange!! A whole bunch of photos can now been seen on the gallery and there will certainly be some video to follow as well!

Cross Channel 2011