Hot Air Balloon Ride - Bristol, Bath - 25/8/19

When we talk about people traveling through the sky, we usually think of planes. However long before the time of commercial jets, people read the winds and moved through the skies with hot air balloon. Remember the film 'Around the world in 80 days'? It heavily popularised ballooning back then in 2004, and its been 15 years since for me to eventually give it a try.

I booked my initial flight to happen during the 2019 Bristol Balloon Fiesta event, but it was cancelled on due to unfavourable weather conditions. Had to then re-schedule to do it 2 weeks later. The provider I used was Bristol Balloons.

I had to get to the meeting point in Bristol at 6am on a Sunday, which sucked. Thankfully it was not cancelled this time round, but the group had to re-located to take-off from Bath instead, due to the wind conditions. 

There were several other ballooning providers in the area, which gave off a nice mini mass ascent feel that I obviously missed at the fiesta event.

Other ballooning providers in the area

 

Other ballooning providers

We all helped to prep our balloon by laying out the 'envelope' for the pilot. It was quite a big canvas and took some effort!

After the safety briefings on how to get on and off the balloon and things to not touch, the pilot brought us up into the air by maneuvering four different burners under the balloon.

 Hot air!

In case your wondering how it all works, the air (nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygetn,etc) in the balloon is heated up and starts expanding. This reduces the pressure allowing the hot air balloon to fly up. I could feel the heat from the basket and the flame roaring loudly whilst all this was going on.

Ascending happens very quickly, but the pilots are usually skilled and I didn't feel a thing at all! In fact, we were all rewarded with an amazing view of bath and the green lands surrounding it.

View of Bath

 Very interesting lay-out

 Group photo

Balloon selfie

In the air, it was very quiet and serene. Looking down, you could definitely feel like you were at a height that could kill you if anything happened. Otherwise, I barely even felt the balloon moving at all.

I'm not too sure how the balloon is piloted, but I believe that its more wind dependent and the pilot has to read that a lot better and make adjustments to the ground pick-up crew accordingly. As for keeping the balloon in the air, what I believe happens is that the balloon eventually descends a little as hot air escapes, and the pilot heats it up again to bring it back up to a suitable height.

We even had some champagne mid way, which was quite nice!

Descending was also not too bad, with it just being a slight bump on the ground a few times, into an open grass field.

Helped packed the balloon after into the attached vehicle and headed back soon after. Overall, it was a positive experience - highly recommended for families and couples! (Unlike me)