COPYRIGHT FIREFLY HOT AIR BALLOON TEAM 2008
12 April 2009
LAUNCH SITE: Stroud Leisure Centre. LANDED AT: West End
FLIGHT DETAILS: Distance 4 nautical miles, Flight time 1 hour 20 mins, Maximum altitude 4500ft, Maximum climb 600ft, Maximum rate of descent 800ft
CREW: Mark (driver), Paul (navigator)
FLYING: Jon Francis (pilot), Pam Francis and Ian
Took off with other balloons from the Western Region who were also using the field which made it more interesting.
To our delight we drifted over towards Randwick where Pam and Mark live. We dropped down to about 200’-300’ over the village playing field then climbed over the village and Standish Woods to the North before drifting West out on to the flood plain of the Severn. We looked down on the old isolation hospital which hasn’t been used for many a year. Ian remembered visiting his father there.
We found ourselves in company with another balloon and as there were too many animals around for low flying decided to go for height.
We climbed to 4500’ and had a good view of the Severn estuary and bridges. On the way up I dropped a scrap of paper and it shot down and on the way down, Ian dropped a scrap and it shot up – we were diving at about 800’ per min.
Pam flew for 30 mins and Ian for about 20 mins with no problems. We flew low over Ian’s place of work at Stonehouse and landed at West End. Mark and Paul were with us as we landed – a very nice farmer unlocked the gate for us and we had an easy retrieve.
We had wandered all over the shop and were only 4 km from take off.
Back to the village pub in Randwick to wind down where a quiz was being held. The landlady had seen us flying over the village and asked if she could come with us the next time we did it.
