Silver Lining

Well, you must be wondering what's been happening as there has been a prolonged silence on this site. Indeed Phil and I had a seriously depressing week coming to a point where we nearly wanted to give up! 

Flying out of Staverton airport with a balloon

This project is not only about flying an old aeroplane carrying a hot air balloon across very demanding territory it's probably even more so about the challenge to wedge several individuals and personalities into one team to make this all work. 

 

As we have now sadly missed two deadlines for setting off on the Trans-Atlantic trip due to various unforeseen happenings, our pilots are running up against their available time. We still have no idea when we can start the expedition and the emotional strain is huge but we don’t want to give up.

Flying past Gloucester cathedral

over the docks

This weekend at least Bill and Ed have taken Betty up to Llanbedr in northern Wales where they are conducting intensive flight training and getting familiar with our ‘old lady’.  

The team then flew her to Newquay and they will be taken her around the Scilly Isles today before returning to Gloucester for the week.

Betty is in good shape we hear and the pilots are enjoying their flights.

But every dark cloud has a silver lining - and so it happened that Phil and I finally had an unexpected reunion with Phil’s previous wife Jane and his two (of three) long-lost daughters! This would not have been possible had we been already departed on this trip!

Phil and two of his daughters, Fiona (left) and Philippa (right) 

We also did some ballooning and made progress on sorting various other things to do with the planned adventure.

Kevin MacDonald in the meantime chased Betty and documented some of her circuits and we are looking forward to seeing more of his footage appearing on this blog shortly.