So our wonderful new blog is up and running, and following the success of our Facebook and Twitter pages, we figured the best way to give you an insight into the life of a pilot is to get them to guide you through their daily duties with snippets of factual, interesting or just for fun information directly from themselves.

For many millions of people, Twitter is the preferred way to socially interact with others and tell them in as many words as a text message what they’re doing, thinking, or believing in. So you've guessed it … there’s a new tweeter in town, and he is none other than our very own VBF Pilot Mark Simmons, better known to friends and colleagues as "Nobby!"

A commercial Hot Air Balloon Pilot since 1991, Mark has flown more than 80 different balloons in over 30 countries and is a double world record holder, to this day holding the record for being the youngest pilot to captain a balloon across the English Channel in 1991 at the age of just 21; impressive hey!

Receive more impressive info and tweets about preparations to fly from Ashton Court, Bristol; Ballooning Flights from Royal Victoria Park, Bath; Glastonbury; Cheltenham; Cirencester; Monmouth and Pandy near Cardiff in South Wales.

No time like the present; follow Mark now!

First Tweet from @markthevbfpilot

“All eyes on the long-range weather forecast for the start of the 2010 Flying Season next weekend! Fingers crossed for another good year.”