One of the things I love the most about flying hot air balloons for companies is the wide variety of jobs that I get sent to do. Scotland, showed this better than any other job I’ve done this year. The plan was simple, spend 4 days in Scotland split 50/50 between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
On paper that doesn’t sound that interesting. Just a good effiecent use of the time the balloons are in Scotland to attend two heavily populated areas. That’s where things get interesting.
Days 1 & 2 – Glasgow
So after a very long drive arrive at a school on the edge of Glasgow to be part of their Science week. The school had written to Lindstrand Balloons asking if it was possible to have some information about hot air balloons for their science fayre. They sent 2 hot air balloons instead!
The idea wa simple, we would spend two days at the school. In the morning and evenings when the school was closed we would fly from their field with local Palletways on board. During the day, we would tether a balloon on a field while having another basket and burner instead as part of the hot air balloon in their science fayre.
We were only able to make the single flight from the school while we where there simply because the wind was stronger than you would like but the only flight I did get to make was stunning.
Day 3 & 4 – Edinburgh
So with the school week over it was time to head east and spend two days flying clients and staff for Palletways. Due to Edinburgh airport, it isn’t possible to fly directly from the city, and so, depending on wind direction we would travel either north or south and fly back towards the city.
The wind all weekend was coming from the north, meaning that a site near Perth was chosen. The site was a small airfield on the edge of a loch in Kinross. The airfield is infact the site of T in the Park music festival, and just as with the Bath & West Show, the music festival was only a few weeks away so work on the site was already starting to happen!
Photographs © Martin Capenhurst 2011
