Mad Monday

Easter Monday morning....0700 start...off to Kemble airfield for a morning launch and the fog is in being foggy mood!! Met passengers at 0800 and sent them to the wonderful 'AV8' cafe for breakfast whilst waiting for the fog to lift. The staff at AV8 were ace, opening early just for us!! . At 0945, visibility was poor but being the optomists that we are, we started to lay out the balloon...just in case the fog cleared.....good move....1000 the sun started coming through and we went for it!......launched at 1030(late in balloon terms) and went off North towards Cheltenham. By 1100 there was hardly a cloud in the sky and the pilot had 16kts pushing him along. Finding a suitable landing site proved a bit tricky

so on they went.....and on....and on.....eventually landing NW of Winchcombe at 1215......marathon flight!!!!!.... and the pilot was really pleased that he still had a whole tank of gas left!!...fairly easy recovery on dry field....very happy passengers on the return to Kemble. It was 1400 before the passengers were dropped off and we were due to launch from Cheltenham. The pilot had a cunning plan.....Him and Ben would stay in Cheltenham, refuel, fix the trailer wheel and fill their bellies......whilst I drove back to Bath, collected more champagne, the new passenger manifesto and a 'mars bar' and 'cola' and return to the launch site at Cheltenham racecourse, just in time to meet the evening passengers at 1745!.

The wind was blowing steady at 9-10kts, just outside our safe launch limit which is 8kts. We laid out and waited for a lull ........if we launched , we had to be on the ground by 2005(sunset). At 1850, pilot decides to go for it, after discussing with the passengers that it may be a shorter flight than normal because we may have a bit of a struggle launching at 8kts. They were happy!.......Needless to say it was an 'exciting' launch, at 1915, the pilots' skills being used to their full potential!!

A flight North of about 10 miles was completed by sunset, with a gentle landing in a nursey about 200mtrs from the owners house, who was happy to receive a landing fee of £25.00 for her troubles!......A very long, but brilliant day.......