Hot Air Balloon Rides in Bristol, Bath and Wales

Meet Our Commercial Hot Air Balloon Flight Pilots

All of our pilots are extremely experienced. They are all fully qualified commercial pilots who operate under the similar strict codes of conduct and regulations of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that commercial airline pilots are governed by. To become a commercial pilot they have to first fly and take written and practical exams to obtain a private pilot’s licence (PPL) then after lots of flying experience and studying take much harder written and practical exams to obtain there commercial licence. Every year they have to pass a practical flying examination under a CAA approved examiner and also have a regular class 2 medical. All of our pilots as you can see from their very brief (and modest) CVs have a great passion for ballooning that has coloured their lives.

Clive Bailey

Clive was born into an aviation family; his father was a flight test engineer with British Aerospace and later Sales Engineering Director for Concorde.

Building model aircrafts from the age of 6, Clive obtained his gliders licence at 18.

After full-time education he decided to go down instead of up and trained as a commercial diver. At nineteen worked in the Middle East for several years on oil rigs and then spent a further 3 years in the North Sea, specialising in life support systems.

At 26 he joined the motor trade as a General Manager for a Ford Dealership, obtaining his hot air balloon licence at 29 and operating the Ford Dealership Balloon.

Clive set up Bailey Balloons in 1994 with his wife Jo, also a Commercial balloon pilot, one of four women in the U.K. to fly the larger balloons, and both are qualified instructors. Clive proposed to Jo at 8,000 feet over Bath and they left their wedding by balloon.

Clive has flown balloons all over Europe, the Middle East, the United States and Africa. He is the first European to fly balloons in Iran where he also trained their first balloon pilots. Clive holds the altitude record from the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta when he flew his balloon up to 22,5000 in 1994. Jo accompanied Clive as his co-pilot.

Clive also loves planning and executing ballooning stunts, including Flying stuntman and balloon pilot Ian Ashpole on top of the Discovery Channel balloon, flying two balloons attached together by a tight rope and having fellow pilot Mike Howard walk between the balloons blindfolded at 3,500 feet.

First flight in a balloon in 1987
Commercial Licence obtained in 1992 and instructor rating in 1997
Weather advisor for Western Region Balloon Club
Experience of filming and working with T.V. crews
Appointed chairman of the Bristol Balloon Fiesta for 2000
Flight Director for the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta
Clive was logistics and flight director for David Hempleman-Adams’s balloon flight to the North Pole in 2000 and assisted with the landing on his Atlantic flight in 2003
Qualified sky diver
Life support systems expert
Experience of long distance balloon flights and flying at altitude

Jo Bailey

There are only a few female commercial balloon pilots and Jo is one of them. Clive taught her to fly before they were married. Jo has flown in different countries around the world including Bulgaria, Poland, Qatar, Switzerland, France, and Italy. Her expertise is with special projects, clients and the media. With her attention to detail and innovative ideas she will always ensure that the project is successful.

Jo has built an impressive portfolio of media contacts since her and Clive began Bailey Balloons and Jo is always heavily involved with media and press relations for all of the stunts.

Jo’s most memorable flights are being proposed to in a balloon at 8,000 feet over Bath and flying from Thornbury Castle on her and Clive’s wedding day. One of Jo’s most memorable landings was in a huge field of tomato plants in Bulgaria with Phil Dunnington with all the local villagers coming out and helping us pack the balloon away!

Simon Askey

Simon Askey (33) successfully gained his commercial pilots licence in 1996. Simon is now one of the most experienced hot-air balloon pilots in the UK. Specialising in flying passengers for Bailey Balloons in the South West.

He has been the pilot for some amazing stunts such as flying a 2.5t working Range Rover car underneath one of the largest balloons in the country for Channel 4’s Monster Garage.

Simon was even one of the test pilots for BBC2’s ‘Build the Impossible’, where a replica 200-year-old Chinese airship design was made and flown.

Simon has also flown balloons for clients all around the world from Costa Rica, Saudi Arabia to USA and Europe.

You think you have seen him before? You probably have!

His other appearances have included Blue Peter, Record Breakers, BBC & ITV News and advertising sequences for various companies including mobile phone giants in South America – Telcel. He also flew a balloon for a 1996 film in Mexico, starring Lauren Bacall.

But one place you have most likely seen Simon’s work is the Bond film ‘The World Is Not Enough’ – Simon was responsible for the multi-coloured balloon involved in the opening action sequence by the millennium Dome with Pierce Brosnon and his stunt team.

Simon lives in Gloucestershire with his wife and son and is a property developer.

Phil Dunnington, BA

Phil Dunnington, one of the World’s most widely experienced commercial balloon pilots who in the course of extending ballooning projects has flown in 89 countries to date with over 2000 hours as pilot in command.

Evolving from a career in airline and aircraft manufacturing management, Phil, who has been flying balloons commercially since 1971, has helped establish tourist and promotional balloon operations in Europe, Africa, South and Central America and South-East Asia. He also set up his own balloon rides business in the English Lake District and Ireland, operating successfully for 12 years.

A Geography graduate specialising in air transport economics, Phil has been the UK’s chief examiner for balloon licences for over 15 years, deeply involved in formulating the technical and legislative framework of ballooning in the UK and overseas in conjunction with the Civil Aviation Authority and other administrative bodies. He is a director of Europe’s largest annual public balloon spectacle, the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, and has run similar events in Ireland, South America, India and the Middle East.

In conjunction with British adventurer David Hempleman-Adams, Phil sets up select tailor-made group expeditions to the Earth’s remotest corners, ranging from Arctic Canada to Mongolia. David and Phil made a historic ‘first’ by crossing the North West Passage in Nunavut, Canada, in 1999.

Nick Duppa-Miller

Nick was born with ballooning in his blood as all his immediate family are qualified pilots. He passed his pilot's exams a few days after his 17th birthday and he could fly a balloon before he could drive a car. He has been commercially qualified for over ten years and during this time he's flown numerous special-shape balloons including cans, vans and a chicken.

As one of only two pilots of the BBC1 balloon he's had more TV airtime than many presenters. Some of his most memorable flights include those over the Chāteaux of the Loire Valley and the Taj Mahal in Agra.

Having 'retired' from globe-trotting Nick lives in Portishead and has been flying for Bailey Balloons since 2002. Now aged 32, he's spent over a month of his life flying balloons!

Lee Hooper, B.S.c Hons Microbiology

Lee has been involved in hot air ballooning from an early age and is credited as being the youngest person ever to have earned a commercial balloon pilot's licence in the UK. Lee now has over 1000 flying hours in balloons.

Lee's profession and hobby has seen him flying commercially around the world in such places as Canada, USA, Europe, and Myanmar (Burma). Lee has also been President of the Bristol University Hot Air Balloon Society (BUHABS), and served on the flying committee for the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta. He now spends the winter months in Myanmar where he is chief pilot for Balloons over Bagan, one of the largest and most successful overseas balloon operations and the summer working with Bailey Balloons.

Lee is also credited with being the first person to drop a hang-glider over the city of Bath in July 2000; he taught a BBC news reporter to fly over a period of just 8 weeks in 1999, all whilst being filmed by the local news. He was also the first person to fly an aircraft inside a shopping mall, a feat that was done by flying a tiny one-man hopper balloon in the main lobby of a large UK shopping mall.