Balloons Preparing For Take Off

It all started on the Friday Morning, having stayed in the Premier Inn Billing Aquadrome the night before, I looked out the window to see some low lying mist, clear to the east and fog to the west, thankfully the wind was due to take us out to the east. Arrived at the briefing and met up with James Adkins, due to his work commitments he wasnt able to fly his balloon and as mine wasnt arriving until Friday afternoon, we had pre-arranged I would fly his ‘ICP Cleaning Services’ Balloon G-OTEL.

Weather recieved at the briefing, the mist was due to lift and winds remained a light westerly,  I took off with two of James’ friends onboard and drifted towards an area of Northamptonshire that is Bristol esuqe with SA’s, within minutes of taking off my GPS died (last time I buy batteries from the £1 shop!) thankfully being a local Northamptoner and having flown that direction on several occasions in the past, I knew where I was, oh and I suppose the Map helped too. We flew for about 40 minutes before I spotted a nice stubble field next to the road with an open gate one end and a dirt tracking running along the top to another open entrance at the other end, passengers re-briefed for landing and we touched down in the field with the retrieve arriving shortly afterwards.

Balloons Tethering

The only downside of course was a slight oversight on my behalf that we had a Vauxhall Astra Van on retrieve, not a 4×4 and with the rain from the previous day the field was a tad soggy, so with the help of Jamie Edwards and Howard Cusden on their way back from their flight, we managed to get out of the field after consulting the landowner.

Friday afternoon arrived and it was a windy one, only 5 balloons flew with Andy Austin going off as the Met balloon, 15 knots at 500ft was what he radioed back, John Tyrrell the flight director opened the launch field to a pilots discresion launch, unfortunatley the balloon I was due to be flying was held up coming in from Stamford which meant I stayed on the ground Friday evening.

Saturday morning arrived and thankfully as had the balloon (G-BRSD) Mark Granger had agreed to retrieve as punishment for turning up late with the balloon Friday evening and I flew Matt Rate and Alistair Curtis. The forecast we had recieved in the briefing was 15knots at 2000ft with the wind taking us out towards Wellingborough on a south westerly, after a pretty windy inflation and take off, I climbed through 500ft towards 1000ft with the wind increasing as we went, I seem to remember my GPS showing over 20knots as we passed up through to 1000ft, Im not going to write what the average speed was on my GPS after the flight. We flew on for 45 minutes (as I was almost at the edge of my Centred map) and found a nice big stubble field to park in as the wind was now 10knots + on the deck, we came down at the top edge of the field and floated to almost the hedge skimming over the top of the stubble as we went, got into the field as far as I dare with the hedge line approaching fast and ripped out.

There was plenty to see and do around Billing Aquadrome when not flying, this year was the first year since the Festival had moved to Billing that we had use of the Leisure complex, this included a Free Breakfast and use of the Pool Facilities.

 On the Saturday afternoon, I had previously agreed with Matt Rowley who flies the Aero Balloon that I would P1 for him as he didnt have enough hours to fly out of the event on his own. Matt arrived just before the briefing after being  stuck in the Billing traffic to get into the event, it was another marginal windy one, I left it to Matts discresion if he wanted to fly or not as it wasnt going to be a flight for the feinthearted, he was happy to fly, so off we went with Matt, Al Curtis and Mark Granger (who couldnt find crew to allow him to fly G-BRSD). We set the Balloon up and drifted towards Kettering this time, it was quite nice to fly out of Northampton Balloon Festival not at the controls and to enjoy everything that was going on, we flew over Sywell Reservoir and passed Sywell Airport that was out to the West (Closed thankfully) although in reality due to the wind speed, we wernt in their ATZ for long any way! Knowing the area well, I said to Matt it would be best if we landed before Kettering as the area after is a bit of a pain in the arse, epecially when you are going like the clappers and we all wanted to get back to watch the glow. We picked a nice big field next to the road and had a nice drag as we went in, im sure Matt wont mind me saying, but the landing was made even more interesting with  the balloon being landed on the basket’s shortside, Matt now assures me he is getting used to turning vents.

We packed the balloon away and headed back to Billing Aquadrome to watch a spectacular night glow consisting of 7 balloons with music by Dave Rate and coreographed by John Tyrrell, quite a sight, especially as it was the first envelope glow that had been carried out at the new site.

Flying Over Northampton

The alarm went off on Sunday morning at just after 5:30.. after having spent a week of doing early starts and late finishes in Metz and

having done Bristol the weekend before and now yet another early morning after a late finish, I was starting to think that perhaps I need my head examining?! But off we all plodded to the briefing, we were told that we were good to go  and the winds were certainly alot calmer than in previous launches. The launch site at Billing Aquadrome isnt that big, so balloons were having to go off in two ‘waves’. As I couldnt find anywhere to set up in the first wave, I waited for some to take off first to give me some space to set up, as I had picked my space, I could feel a few spots of rain coming down.

Getting Ready To Launch

By this point there must have been 5 or 6 balloons already in the air, as more balloons took off the heavier the rain got, I made the decision that regardless of the fact several balloons were taking off and still continuing to inflate despite the heavy rain, that I would leave the balloon in the trailer and go to breakfast! After breakfast of course, once we got back to the launch field, it was full of returning balloons that were drying out from the morning.

I headed home to my Mum and Dads house for a well earnt shower and shave, came back to the launch field in the evening where the evening flight was cancelled due to high winds.

All in all, the most sucessful Northampton Balloon Festival that I remember for a long time, 5 out of 6 flights flyable and 7 Balloons taking part in the Saturday evening night glow.

Roll on 2012 Friday 17th to Sunday 19th August

Photos © Al Curtis, Report © Chris Freeman, YouTube video © Matt Rowley