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By Kirsty, September 7, 2010 12:35 pm

So the pilot and passengers have floated up into the sky and the job of the crew has only just begun. Former Virgin Balloon Flights crew and guest blogger Jess Baughan tells us what happens next.

Once the balloon has taken off, the crew will load everything that doesn’t fly back onto the trailer (this includes the inflation fans and various other bits of equipment) and keep an eye on the balloon to get a fix on the general direction and speed that the balloon is going at.

Once a rough speed and direction have been calculated, friends and family of the passengers are told what area to head for if they want to be close when the balloon lands. They are also told two other important bits of information…

1. Please don’t follow the crew vehicles, if we make a wrong turn its already tricky to reverse an 18 foot trailer up a country lane to turn it around, an extra 10 or so cars behind the trailer make it even more of a challenge.

2. If they get to the exact spot where the balloon lands, please do not enter the field that we have landed in unless the crew invite you to enter.

What happens next depends on the wind. If it’s calm, the crew may talk with the friends and family of the passengers answering ballooning questions and sharing experiences before leaving to chase the balloon. If it’s breezy (and the balloon is heading off fairly quickly) then the crew will not hang around and will start to chase the balloon as soon as possible.

The chase – while the balloon is in the air the crew’s job is to stay as close as possible to the balloon on the ground, in most cases playing a game of leapfrog where the crew get ahead of the balloon, let it pass over them and then get ahead of the balloon again. This continues for around an hour before the pilot lands the balloon, always looking to avoid fields with livestock or uncut crop.

Once the balloon is on the ground again the fun of getting to the balloon starts for the crew, where possible the pilot will keep the balloon standing upright so that it can take off again if the need arises.

In most cases the crew will need to find the landowner in order to gain permission to enter the land and retrieve the balloon (strictly speaking permission is not normally required because of legal complexities surrounding commercial passenger aircraft, so this is done more out of courtesy and as it follows the Code of Conduct agreed between the BBAC and NFU). Landowners are generally very friendly and will come up to the balloon, often with a camera and a smile.

Once the crew are in the field with the balloon the envelope will be deflated and packing the balloon away begins, this is pretty much the reverse of setting it all up, the basket is loaded back onto the trailer, the envelope is rolled up and put in its bag and put back on the trailer and everything is strapped down.

Depending on the landing site, Champagne (and soft drinks) may be bought out at this point for the traditional toast before everyone is transported back to the original launch site to bid a final farewell.

Once the flight is over the crew will take the balloon back to their base and the whole thing starts again. All being well the time is now around 10am. The next flight will probably be around 7pm.

Just enough time for the crew to catch a bit more sleep, Zzzz …

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By Kirsty, September 6, 2010 5:07 pm

While it is easy to focus on the pilots and the passengers in hot air balloons it is worth remembering the other important people who play a vital role in getting the balloon into the air. Guest blogger and former Virgin Balloon Flights ground crew Jess Baughan explains in part one of ‘A Crews View’.

The balloon crew’s job starts as soon as the previous flight has finished with simple things like refuelling the balloon (with most balloons carrying 400 litres of LPG this can take a while), refuelling the inflation fans with petrol, replenishing champagne supplies (or soft drinks) and making sure that the balloon and everything associated with it (trailer & tow vehicle etc) are ready for the next flight.

What happens next is the same for crew and passengers alike, we phone the flight line to find out whether the flight is going ahead and liaise with the pilot to decide what time to set the alarm clock for. In general the crew will start around three hours before the flight so for a 6am flight this means a 3am start.

The first job is to get to the launch site which in itself can represent anything up to two hours of travelling, once on the launch site the crew join up with the pilot, most of the time the pilot will arrive separately to the crew due to very strict restrictions on working hours for the pilots.

Between the pilot and crew a decision will be made on where to set the balloon up and which direction it should face, A lot of the time this decision is based on the way a small helium balloon flies when released from the launch site (weather & wind forecasts are good but not as good as releasing a small balloon and watching what the wind does to it.)

While all this is going on the crew are also meeting and greeting passengers and checking passenger names & vouchers against the flight manifest.

Once the decision has been made about where the balloon is to launch from, the basket is taken off the trailer and laid on its side while the envelope (that’s the balloon part) is laid out in a straight line. It is then attached to the basket itself, while the basket is attached via a quick release system to the tow vehicle.

The envelope is then pulled out to its full width ready for inflation and the inflation fans are used to start filling the envelope with cold air. While the envelope is filling this is one of the busiest times for the pilot and crew as they carry out final checks on the balloon along with preparations for flight.

The envelope is now almost fully inflated with cold air and at this point the inflation fans are stopped and removed. The burners are then lit and fired into the mouth of the envelope to heat up the cold air that is inside. Gradually the temperature inside climbs and the envelope starts to lift. Once there is enough heat inside, the envelope stands straight up and brings the basket the right way up.

Now the basket is standing up the passengers are allowed to climb aboard and are re briefed by the pilot regarding safety (this briefing can also take place before the balloon is inflated depending on conditions on the day). Once the briefing is over the pilot starts using the burners again to create enough lift to carry the basket and all of the passengers. Once there is enough lift the quick release is activated (to separate the basket from the tow vehicle and the magical part of the adventure begins for the passengers as the balloon slowly climbs away from the launch site. The job of the crew is only just beginning…