Hot Air Balloon Flight 5/06/06.

(From Bottom left:- Paul (my brother-in-law), Christine (my mum), David (me!) and pilot Matthew.)

On the 5th of June 2006 my mum, brother-in-law and I took to the sky in a hot air balloon, this was actually my mums 50th birthday present but of course some one had to go with her! This was the first time for all of us in a hot air balloon and I can tell you it was a great experience, it was quiet, graceful and it felt totally safe! (Different from looking off a high building or bridge.)

The balloon took 12 people plus Matthew the pilot, an unlucky number but it all went well apart from landing quite close to some 32Kv power lines.

We all had to help unpack the balloon and inflate it at the start and also deflate it and pack it away at the end, you may think this sounds like a chore but it was actually quite fun and interesting!

We took off from a large school field in Handcross at about 7.30pm and blew 10 miles to Billingshurst, this took about an hour. At some points of the flight we were quite high and at others we were just clearing the tree tops, we went right over Horsham and Southwater - if you see an aerial picture of your house please feel free to print it out!

We had a fairly smooth landing, just left a 20 foot skid mark in the grass where the basket skidded across the ground, after we had packed the balloon away and loaded it on the back of the trailer we went off to have our complimentary champagne.

We booked this flight with "The British School of Ballooning" it was well worth the money and I'd love to go again!

I took a video of the flight and my sister took a video from the ground, I also took a lot of pictures!

Enjoy the pictures below.