Balloon training day in Vinales, a swim and bike ride, Wednesday the 28th of March 2018

Ballooning instructions for our Cuban friends

Phil demonstrates the rigging of the burner

As first light came up I looked out of the window and the trees were flapping. At least we didn’t miss a flyable slot! By mid morning, nearly all of our ten Cuban aviation friends had arrived to the house and we decided to rig the balloon to show the equipment. Everybody was ever so keen to see it!

Over the next three hours we rigged the burner, showed the fan, explained about our pre-flight checks and attached the mouth of the envelope. It was a good opportunity to brief everybody on all safety aspects and to take some lovely photos.

Allie with Iseult, our wonderful landlady and friend

In the meantime we received the positive news that we were now allowed to fly but first the technical inspector of the Cuban Civil Aviation department (who had actually already seen our balloon documents on arrival) had to come down and see the balloon. Hm....

Daniel at the controls. He has been dreaming of flying in a balloon for many years!

After lunch in a local restaurant, we moved into a little private casa further down the hill and close to town. Simple but perfectly clean and quiet this will now be our base until we manage to get airborne. (sadly no internet there).

getting the envelope out

 Time to have a break and the ‘boys’ retreated to their rooms whilst I jumped on a mountain bike kindly being lend to me by the local paraglider guy Raul and I biked to explore the scenery. I discovered a beautiful lake and enjoyed a refreshing and soothing swim.

 Later Phil met with the local farmer whose field we are planning to use in the morning and further discussions about plans for the morning balloon launch followed over the best Mojitos and Pina Colada’s!!

Let’s hope we finally get airborne tomorrow!