Effectively, 1st and 2nd change places so congratulations to Ian Warrington and Andy Austin for a well-earned victory.
Their report tells their story......
BRUMMIE BUMMERHere we go again – 3rd time lucky? Err I think probably not…..
I was most surprised that Mr Warrington was keen to put up with me again after a years worth of ribbing about getting stuck in a basket with me for seven hours last year!
First challenge, the envelope we normally use had been sold. I should have purchased it with hindsight but our friends from EASA are not making multiple envelope ownership very easy are they! Problem soon resolved and we are fully kitted out with a borrowed120 envelope and a Mode S transponder. Have to find out how to use it some time. We must be in with a good chance then?
After the usual constant exchange of text messages and emails we had decided on our date – Saturday 17th October, a north easterly wind with a planned route from somewhere around Whitby and landing on the One Man Meet launch field, worth a try
Crew? Ian had managed to fool John Friend that it was a good idea to drive all day long across the length of the country – for a third time! My wife Jane however has got wise to this energy sapping experience and so I asked a chap at work, who only met me two weeks earlier, LOL. Russ Marron turned out to be a great asset with a photographic mind for the UK road network. A complete ballooning virgin and luckily, very gullible. We were all set.
Up at just after 3 a.m. we booted off up the A1. Launch field? I normally go for the OS map and look for a caravan site, North Yorks is obviously not popular with caravanners as there are not that many. I like places that are windswept and interesting. We had to be satisfied with a 50% success rate. I did find a picnic area that looked good. Google Earth further confirmed this as a fair choice, only a few hundred yards from the North Sea coast bbrrrrr. Just before dawn and shortly before we arrived in what felt like the back end of beyond, we tested the wind conditions in the traditional manner by stopping in a lay-by for a pee. I can confirm it was cold with a light northerly breeze! Ian kept mithering on, that the further East past Middlesborough we went, the windier the forecast. Fancy that on a nor’easterly!
Having set the Auto Doris to take us straight to the field, we drove straight in to find a local “gentleman” with a greyhound. He was able to confirm it was common land and that he felt we would be OK. He was so disinterested, we could have told him we were about to detonate a nuclear bomb and he’d just have said, “over there by the big trees would be the best place”.
With 8 cylinders, including the inflation tank, it was a tight squeeze and Ian was more concerned that he couldn’t wedge his mega bag of supplies into a suitable gap. With the wind gusting around 12 knots, he was panicking that we might not have time to throw in the provisions. Just as we were about to go hot, Russ on the mouth, pointed inside the balloon. What could this total novice, possibly know that 2 pilots with well over 1000hours of experience hadn’t seen! The red line not attached Russ? Yeah, we always do it that way. Blush!
Stand it up, ditch cylinder, chuck in supplies. Twenty five minutes and we were gone, in a mass of adrenaline, given our proximity to the coast and the great unknown.
We soon settled into the exact same track that had been forecast at speeds varying between 35 & 40kts. It was looking pretty good with enough gas to go for 8 hours and approximately enough land to last just over 300 miles. The only excess weight we were carrying was Ian’s picnic for 12, which had been omitted from the load calculation. I reckon we had enough food to last for a long weekend in South Wales which is where we may have ended up
We quickly climbed to nearly 10,000ft over the North Yorkshire Moors. Within no time, we passed Castle Howard to the East and then over York. We were quickly heading towards the dreaded controlled airspace at a rate of knots, our track had remained consistent and we had easily avoided the Manchester zone. East Midlands and Birmingham remained between us and the relative freedom of Shropshire. The fuel consumption was as expected but the food rations were disappearing at a frightening rate, would we have enough to complete the flight? Thankfully Ian’s wife, Denise, had helpfully labelled the “beaker for pee” which was an improvement on the barely adequate diameter of the bottles we had last year. All was well…
As we came towards the first controlled airspace we called East Midlands, well beforehand. They were very helpful and friendly, we listened carefully and complied with the instructions given and descended to the recommended height. At this point we took a small but significant turn to the right, no problem I remember thinking it just means we will be heading well to the north of Birmingham.
We crossed over the beautiful Peak District well to the North of Derby and took another step change in altitude, in order to comply with airspace. This time we kicked left and lost a significant amount of speed, down to a very sedate 8kts. It now looked like we would be heading into the northern part of Birmingham’s zone and take longer than ideal, to clear there airspace.
We said goodbye and thank you to East Midlands as we transferred to Birmingham ATC. These guys were strictly business and had us on our toes, changing squawk codes etc etc. It quickly became apparent that the height parameters that we had to stay within, were steering us straight towards Birmingham City centre and the airport just beyond. To make matters worse the cloud was building above and the thickest we’d seen all flight.
A conversation followed with ATC, who made it very clear that we must abort the flight and land. We did this very quickly, as were fortunate to have picked a day with friendly wind conditions on the ground, allowing a very civilised landing by long jump standards. We had landed with about 40% flying time and available gas left. What was worse, we hadn’t even started on the pork pies, let alone the traditional chocolate bars. What a Brummer!
We had completed a very enjoyable and safe flight and to be fair had landed relatively close to home. The lesson learned for me was, that with all the steerage options we had available to us we could easily have guided the balloon either side of Birmingham however the prescriptive altitudes we were operating within, had made the job impossible. How far would we have got? We will never know.
The question remains, will we be mad enough to try again and will our trusty crew once again be mad enough to join us?
Some numbers and stuff;
Pilots; Andy Austin and Ian Warrington
Crew; John Friend and Russ Marron (who had never seen a balloon up close before)
The Windbag; G-BZBL LBL120. Many thanks to Martin Collinson for the loan of the kit
Flight; Loftus - Pipehill nr Lichfield
Distance claimed; 137 statute miles.
Duration; 5 hours 7 minutes
Propane used (excluding inflation); Approx 250 litres
Casualties; Pilots pride X 2
Enjoyment; Immeasurable
