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By Jade, July 16, 2012 10:45 am

If you’re the curious type like ourselves, you’ve probably wondered how and why balloons fly? Well look no further, here are your answers.

A hot air balloon is a wonderful and unique way to travel. So, how does it work? The principle is simple; hot air rises. By heating the air inside the balloon with the burner, it becomes lighter than the cooler air on the outside, causing the balloon to float upwards. To land, the air inside is allowed to cool meaning the balloon slowly begins to descend.

There are three main types of balloons, the first is the Montgolfier type which uses fire to heat the air inside the balloon to gain lift. The second is the hybrid balloon which uses hot air in the same way, but also has a compartment of helium or hydrogen gas in the top. The final kind is a pure gas balloon which doesn’t use hot air and the altitude can only be controlled by dropping ballast or venting the gas. Hybrid and gas balloons are best used for longer distances as they require less fuel to stay airborne for extended periods of time. All of our balloons here at Virgin are the Montgolfier type.

Hot air balloons have three main components; the first is the balloon itself, also known as the ‘envelope’. The ‘envelope’ is a fabric bag made of a strong, light nylon with an opening at one end called the mouth. The biggest passenger balloon we hold is our Virgin ‘400’ balloon which towers over 120ft tall when inflated. Balloons are most commonly shaped like an ‘inverted tear drop’ but some brands do have ‘special shapes’ for advertising purposes. The second component is the basket which is connected to the balloon by strong metal cables. Our baskets have reinforced steel frames and are traditionally clad in woven wicker which is light, strong and durable. Our baskets hold between 10 and 16 passengers and are split into comfortable compartments for 3-4 people ensuring everyone has a fantastic view.

The final and perhaps most important part of the balloon is the ‘engine’ which is the burner that sits under the mouth of the balloon. The burner mixes liquid propane from pressurised gas tanks with oxygen and ignites it. The pilot pulls a small valve which fires the flame of the burner into the mouth of the balloon to heat the air inside. Our balloons have two burners; the ‘whisper burner’ is designed specially to be quieter and is used when flying over residential areas or livestock.

One of the most exciting bits about ballooning is that you’ll never take the same journey twice. As balloons cannot be steered in the normal sense, the wind your main guidance. The direction of the wind varies at different altitudes so pilots skilfully use this as a way of changing direction by burning to go up or cooling to go down so to catch different airstreams at different heights. This also means the landing point is always unknown until the pilot sees a safe open space to land, often in the countryside. The basket touches back on ground, sometimes with a bump, a skid and occasionally the basket can tip onto its side. This is all perfectly safe and normal and after a serene hour of floating in the skies, many people thoroughly enjoy the excitement of the landing!

Now you know how and why, but the only way to truly learn about hot air balloons is to experience it for yourself! So don’t hesitate, you can book your flight now for as little as £89pp.

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By Jade, July 13, 2012 12:08 pm

Here at Virgin Balloon flights we teamed up with Daffodil Waves Photography to offer one loved-up couple the chance to win a photo shoot in skies on board one of our balloons.

The competition asked couples for their proposal story and a picture from their engagement. The lucky winners were Zoe Westerman and Richard Griffiths from Sully in Cardiff. Their fantastic photo showed Richard’s proposal to unsuspecting Zoe on top of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

“It happened on Christmas day. It was all a complete surprise to me, my amazing fiancé had arranged it all in secret, and he even asked my dad’s permission without me knowing. I have always dreamt of going up in a hot air balloon, however, it is something I have never got around to organizing. This is the perfect surprise prize for my other half, after all the great surprises he has organised for me over the last 12 months!”

On the peaceful evening of 25^th June,  Zoe and Richard took to the skies from Berrington Hall in Herefordshire. Their shoot began on the ground in the beautiful surrounding gardens; photographer Nicola (Daffodil Waves Photography) captured the their excitement with some action shots of the pair together pre-flight. Richard got stuck in straight away, helping to unpack the balloon before taking a step back to enjoy the magnificent inflation.

Zoe and Richard told us their favourite part of the flight was the take-off and landing. “It wasn’t what we expected as it didn’t really feel like we were off the ground until we peered over the basket to realise we were mid-air!” Floating in the skies, they were relaxed as ever, looking out the basket to the superb sites below. The soon-to-wed couple said their pilot Des Bimson was very knowledgeable and they were impressed with the seamless landing just south of Leysters.

Pilot Des Bimson shared his views on the flight.

It was a beautiful evening, the visibility was excellent which meant that the view at 3000ft was stunning. The light winds meant that we exited the grounds of Berrington Hall at a very slow pace, giving the passengers a good chance to take in the views of its beautiful grounds. Initially, we travelled towards the south west however due to the variable direction of the wind, we ended up flying East over the scenic village of Kimbolton. The Zoe and Richard were great and all in all it was a perfect flight.

The couple who are set to wed next year said they would definitely do another balloon flight and next time would love to try a different location. We wish you all the best for the future and we will hopefully see you up in the air again soon!

Climb on board with us from as little as £89pp, visit our website or call us in the office on 0844 844 8080 to book now.

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By Jade, June 26, 2012 5:13 pm

Our lovely passengers have created some great videos to share their balloon flight experience. So pop-pickers, here’s the 10 we enjoyed the most…

 

3. ‘RVP Bath – 01-04-12 PM Balloon Flights’ April 2012.

 
4. ‘Morag and Darryl’s Balloon Flight – July 16th 2009’ July 2009

If you have any videos from your ballooning experience, share them with us on our facebook or twitter page. If you haven’t yet taken to the skies with us, buy a voucher on our website and you can fly for as low as £89pp.