The Sky Orchestra, was set up by the artist Luke Jerram, with seven hot air balloons playing a different part of a piece of music as they float across the sky. The Sky Orchestra has already played over many places including Bristol, London, Canada and Australia. This…
The first people to fly over the English Channel in a balloon were Jean-Pierre Blanchard and Dr John Jeffries on 7th January 1785. The Frenchman, Blanchard was the true pilot and a ballooning pioneer, but Jeffries, an American, was the sponsor and wanted to fly with him. On approaching the…
Clive Bailey and Paul Spellward have been selected to represent Great Britain in the 57th Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race, which is launching from Nancy, France on 24th August. Clive trained as a Gas Balloon pilot only last year and competed in his first Gas Balloon Race, the America’s Challenge,…
Today is the start of the 3rd Bristol’s Big Green Week. The Festival runs from 15th-23rd June and is a big celebration of eco ideas, art and entertainment. It’s a really popular event with over 40,000 visitors who will to enjoy art, music, films, entertainment, inspiring talks, workshops, poetry, comedy…
In Bristol we are lucky to have a few fabulous bridges close by we regularly flying past in our hot air balloons! Of course there is Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge. We also have The…
Earlier in the week we had an exclusive hot air balloon flight for two people which took off from Bath. The cows came running over to say hello whilst Phil, one of our crew, was pulled over waiting for the balloon to come past! The photo…
Two fantastic flights last night. In South Wales we took off from Raglan and flew due north over the massive cider apple orchards, where the blossom is now dropping off and apples forming. We the flew over Graig Syfyrrrin which is 423 metres high and…
After a week of beautiful Summer weather, we balloonists were getting frustrated as along with the sunshine came the wind meaning it was too windy for ballooning. We flew last Monday and then had to wait until Sunday…
With Bristol’s Big Green Week starting on 15th June, we thought it would be good to talk about how we recycle our balloon envelopes. The ‘envelope’ is the is the ‘balloon’ bit, and is made of a coated ripstop nylon. Our balloon envelopes generally last 5-8 years, depending on how…
On Monday night we flew from Royal Victoria Park, Bath and landed at Theale on the Somerset Levels, near Wookey Hole. We travelled 21 miles, which is the longest distance we have been in a hot air balloon with our passengers so far this year, cruising at 22 knots…
