A top Yorkshire hot air balloon pilot who is the reigning champion of a national long-distance flying competition is aiming to land the title for a second time.

Dave Sutcliffe, from Harrogate, and co pilot Ian Swift beat some of the country’s best pilots to win the Great British Long Jump 2005 by travelling the furthest in a single flight during the month of October.

The pair flew an amazing 168 miles from north to south England all the way from Barnard Castle, in County Durham, to Pertenhall, in Bedfordshire. They cruised on the wind at over 6,000ft, at an average speed of 27mph and were airbourne for a total of 6 hours and 20 minutes.

But father of two Dave, who has just joined Virgin Balloon Flights to fly passengers in Yorkshire after 17 years as a commercial pilot, is hoping to beat that effort later this year.
He said: “The flight last year was amazing. We just caught a great wind, flew over the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and then basically followed the A1 all the way down.

“The competition record is around 300 miles, so we’ll have another go this year and hopefully we can fly further and take home the trophy again.”

Dave, 39, is now flying people from Virgin Balloon Flights’ launch sites at York, Bishop Auckland and Harrogate. He’s using a huge red Virgin balloon called a Lindstrand 310, which takes 310,000 cubic ft of air to fill and is three times bigger than the 105 he used for the Long Jump.

With this one he can take up to 16 people in a basket and whisk them up into the blue yonder for around an hour at a time, travelling up to 20 miles depending on the wind.
It’s a walk in the park for Dave, who in 2004 flew hundreds of miles across Poland in a gas balloon, which can fly further as it is filled with hydrogen instead of hot air, in the World Gas Balloon Championships.

“We flew from south of Berlin all way up to Kaliningrad and I think it took us around 16 hours. It was a hell of an experience,” he said.

For more information or to book a flight with Dave, visit the website at www.virginballoonflights.co.uk or call 0870 444 2768.