Ballooning in Post Mills Vermont with Brian Boland

What a great way to start the day!

Let's go flying with one of the greatest figures in ballooning: the wonderful Brian Boland!

In what was probably -10 degrees Brian dragged me and Phil out of bed to hop into his ultra-light weight home-built balloon.

By 7.40 Brian and I were airborne from his private airport Post Mills and we cruised with a gentle 4kt wind down the main road flying directly over Tina's house where John and Anne were still catching up on desperately needed sleep.

After 20mins and an intermediate landing, it was Phil's turn to fly with Brian. 

The area where Brian has done thousands of flights, doesn't really feel suitable for ballooning at all: it's all trees and more trees and hills and mountains. There is hardly a clear field to land. But Brian knows his patch and managed to bring Phil safely back to mother earth by putting the tiny balloon into the backyard of a country house.

I didn't do too badly on my retrieve either and being a small balloon, everything was packed in no time and by 9am we all enjoyed a hearty breakfast with eggs and bacon at the house.

We won't go anywhere today with the aeroplane as the weather further down the route isn't suitable with more snow storms on the forecast. So the team is taking time to catch up on emails, John is busily studying the next complicated routing via the Hudson river down to New York and poor Anne is still recovering from her illness.