Balloons Over Waikato Festival

A Kongming lantern , the oldest type of hot air balloon This 1818 technical illustration shows early balloon designs. A model of the Montgolfier brothers balloon at the London Science Museum The hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology. On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air balloon created by the Montgolfier brothers. A hot air balloon consists of a bag called the envelope that is capable of containing heated air. Suspended beneath is the gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or ... Read Full Story

My parents recently returned from a touring holiday in Turkey and the highlight of their trip was a hot air balloon flight over the rocky landcape of Cappadocia. This area of Turkey is known for the volcanic rocks which have been eroded over the centuries into strangely shaped pillars known as fairy chimneys and carved out by the local people for their homes and churches. The early Christians hid here from Roman persecution, creating underground complexes and refuges in the hidden valleys and gorges. You can visit underground cave cities at Kaymakli and Derinkuyu and some of the old cave houses have even been ... Read Full Story

As an on-going commitment to hot air ballooning, especially in the westcountry, Aerosaurus invited Dave Seagar-Thomas to come down to its Exeter base on Saturday to help increase safety on privately owned balloons by renewing their C of A’s (Certificate of Airworthiness). A C of A has to be carried out on a balloon every year or 100 hours it is in the sky. This check is very important and helps to ensure that hot air ballooning is kept as one of the safest air sports out there! Dave inspected both Hugh Stewart’s and Mandy Dickinson’s balloons throughout the afternoon for any problems/weaknesses that ... Read Full Story

With just a few weeks left of school, most of us aren't going to be redecorating the classroom. If you took everything down for testing, though, you might want a quick end of the year theme for a bulletin board just so you don't have to put it all back up again. How about hot air balloons? This is one of the happiest themes, but it can also be one of the most frustrating, because there are very few ready-made resources for it. Here's one: Eureka's "The Sky is Your Limit" banner . CTP has done cutouts  with this theme. Since they use the popular Stick Kids, they give ... Read Full Story

Hot Air Balloon rise over Zell am See-Kaprun: I wanted to make sure that this blog was not going to be just hot air, but it did not take long break that promise! The hot air balloon regatta is becoming a regular feature of the season in Kaprun - Zell am See. The colour and the designs of the balloons add to the stunning attraction of the area. For a further article and more information on hot air ballooning at Zell am See please follow the attached link , to see some more photographs please also click hear, photographs like these make the spirit ... Read Full Story