Pictures of my balloon trip

Not the best of mornings for photography. The light levels were low,
the sky was very overcast and there was a strong blue haze. I had
hoped for a brilliantly sunny morning but that wasn't to be. Although
the conditions were poor for photographs the pilot reckoned it was
perfect for ballooning. If it is sunny it can become unbearably hot
with no shade and the huge burners inches above your head. During the
recent hot spell he recorded temperatures of over 40°C in the basket.

All that said it was a fantastic trip... I wanna do it again :-)

Pictures here...

Bill P...

Thanks for the pics graham. Excellent.

Graham...

My pleasure, Bill.

Bill P.

Aries...

Must have been an amazing trip Graham. In the shot where the burners are
firing up, you would think the flames would catch the balloon skin alight
looking at that ! And field where you landed - again, you would think the
stiff stubble would pierce the skin ? But of course neither happened
thank God LOL

Now our Barb has a similar flight to look forward too :D

Graham...

Luckily they had the foresight to make the skin fireproof. As to it
puncturing, the fabric is extremely tough, we just grabbed it and
dragged it across the field. You couldn't tear it if you tried.

Rabbit...

Yep, think I'd like a trip like that. Nice ones Graham, glad you enjoyed it,
I imagine it would be too late to change your mind when you were up there
:-)

Graham...

I'm sure you would love it and that once you were up there you
wouldn't want the flight to end :-)

Tickettyboo...

Sounds ( and looks) like you had a memorable trip. Great photos :-)

Graham...

I did. Thanks, Boo :-)

Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...

Thanks for sharing those Graham. Some great views.

Graham...

Thanks, FN :-)

Grey_Wolf...

Neat pics, Graham

Graham...

Thank you, Anders.

cheers
Anders

Jackie...

Really beautiful pictures Graham, so clear. I felt I was there.
You were lucky to get off it has been very windy here down south.

Graham...

Thanks, Jackie. I really didn't think the flight would go ahead as
the weather has been quite poor here. It was raining hard when I had
to ring at 23:00 to check if it was on, I was very surprised when
they said it was happening.

biffo...

Brilliant photos Graham, but glad it was you and not me up there ;-)))

Troy's Human...

Agreed 100% with both of those statements :-)

Graham...

The way I'm thinking is that everyone should have one compulsory
balloon trip on reaching 60... on the National Health, of course ;-)

Graham...

You'd love it ;-))

Foxy at w*rk...

Lovely pictures Thanks Graham

MCC...

Brilliant photos, Graham, but I don't think I'd fancy flying in an oversize
laundry basket

Graham...

Thanks Mike. There was no real sensation of height, one lad who was
around 18 - 20 years old was very apprehensive and a first remained
seated so that he couldn't see over the edge of the basket. Curiosity
soon got the better of him and he really enjoyed the rest of the
flight.

This is a post I made elsewhere...

It was amazing... I'll be booking another as soon as I can ;-)

shaz...

Brilliant photos. So where exactly did you balloon from, and where did you
fly over?

Graham...

Thanks, Shaz.

We took off from Wymondham near Norwich and flew due north to the
west of Norwich. We didn't cover a great distance in the hour long
flight as the wind was very light, about seven miles, I think.

Ascending and flying in a balloon is a very weird sensation inasmuch
as there is very little sensation. When you leave the ground you rise
very rapidly but there is no leaving your stomach behind as there is
in an express lift. As you fly along the basket feels motionless...
the ground drifts by as you just hang there. The silence, apart from
the occasional burst from the burners, is total, no wind noise,
nothing. The views were stupendous despite the heavy blue haze left
by the overnight rain and the somewhat overcast sky. This did make
photography a tad problematic but I do have a selection that I will
upload soon (we have Daniel here for a couple of days so I'm a bit
busy ;-)

The pilot was superb. He landed the balloon with the basket upright,
and with no discernible bump, in a stubble field. The ground crew
soon found the landowners and they despatched their gamekeeper to
unlock field gates etc to allow the balloon recovery vehicles to
reach the landing site. The pilot presented the gamekeeper with a
bottle of whisky by way of thanks for his help (a ballooning
tradition). After we had packed away the balloon and loaded the
basket onto the trailer a folding table was erected and the champagne
poured... most civilised :-)

Splodge...

No piccies of the Bucks Fizz then?!

Graham...

I do have one, might upload it soon ;-)

Lovely pics Graham. Glad you enjoyed it
Splodge

Graham...

I'm glad you liked the pictures :-)

Anita...

Thank you for those, Graham - what a wonderful experience for you :)

Graham...

It was an amazing trip :-)