COPYRIGHT FIREFLY HOT AIR BALLOON TEAM 2008
11th August 2000
LAUNCH SITE: Ashton Court, Bristol
FLIGHT DETAILS: Flight time 1 hour 30 minutes, Maximum altitude 2309ft, Distance: 2 nautical miles
CREW: Paul Crocker (driver), Tim Crocker, Jason Southgate, Steve Nethercott and Jayne Greenwood
FLYING: Jon Francis (pilot), Terry Ridler and Emma Stewart
This was quite a memorable flight, we found ourselves becalmed most of the time. On top of that the sun was very hot and when attempting to land we kept drifting towards buildings or trees and even worse the main Bristol to Bridgewater Road (A38).
When we were down to the last tank of fuel we were stationary over a very small field with wires and buildings surrounding it. We crept down and by sheer luck just missed the hedge bordering the main road, and just managed to land in the field. What a relief.
The farmer was great and very helpful, he moved his cows to enable our retrieve vehicle to enter the field. About 3 or 4 other balloons landed in his fields that day.
The following day a commercial balloon used his main burners when very low over his cattle and the farmer immediately banned any more landings.
Whatever I did I was unable to get over a suitable field, we either drifted one way or the other - our landing was almost our last chance
