Kevin Tanner went along to the Black Horse Ballooning Club's Solo Meet in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, UK at the start of April 2007.

This event is now into its third year. It’s run by the Black Horse Balloon Club, based at Great Missenden in Bucks, and is an opportunity to fly for fun in a hopper or small basket balloon. Unlike the well established ‘One Man Meet’ there is no upper envelope restriction so if you want to fly your 56 or whatever solo, you will be made very welcome.

Even though the meet is aimed at solo flyers, fiesta flyers are welcome, as are duo chariots. Last year saw two duos flying together, which is quite a rarity.

This year’s meet was blessed with perfect hopping weather. The first slot was on the Friday evening when 15 or 16 balloons flew from Stone, near Aylesbury to the Bledlow area. Highlight of the flight for me was a very close encounter with a De Havilland Chipmunk at 1500 feet. This was being flown by local balloon pilot, and former Concorde pilot, Tim Orchard.

Saturday morning saw a dozen or so balloons fly out of the Black Horse on a light easterly. I flew for 40 minutes, which is about par for the course for me. My hopper is a Lindstrand 25 and the bottom end is a modified ‘Worthy’ so duration is a bit of an issue. I usually start looking for somewhere to land after about 30 or 40 minutes as I have a maximum duration of around an hour and a quarter.

The Saturday evening flight followed the same path as the morning but most of us managed to fly further and for longer. It was another good turnout with between 15 and 20 balloons taking to the air. Of particular interest was Tim Orchard’s duo chariot, purpose built by Chris Dunkley using seats from Concorde. First Class hopping!

The Sunday morning flight was another cracker. This time it was a westerly. The surface wind was very light but the gradient sent us over the Chilterns towards Chesham. The four hoppers that flew all landed in the same field on a hillside overlooking Chesham.

That was the end of my involvement in the meet but I understand that the Sunday evening flight was a bit quick for hoppers and the Monday morning slot was fogged out.

I can’t remember all of the balloons that took part but the one manners comprised:-

Me in G-HOPR, LBL 25
Tim Ward in G-CBZJ, another LBL 25
Steve Roake in G-BSDV, a Colt 31
Steve Clarke in G-NEIL, an old crispy fabric T&C 31
Ted Moore in G-TOHS, a V-31
Lenny Vaughan in G-BZIH, LBL 31
Helen Vaughan in G-BXUH, another LBL 31
Steve Humphries in G-BSIG, a Colt 21

Click on an image to see enlarged version

A few other hoppers came out over the weekend, for tethers and test inflations, and there were a number of standard or passenger carrying balloons that fiesta flew alongside the tiddlers.

Whilst this meet doesn’t have the history or prestige of the One Man Meet, it’s a friendly, well run event and it’s another good excuse to go hopper flying. It’s slowly gaining popularity so it would be good if we could get the hoppers into double figures next year.



If anyone wants more information on hoppers then have a look at www.cloudhoppers.org.