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Extracts from SCOOP			December 2004
Chairman’s Message Ho Ho Ho have you been a good boy/girl? Well have this bumper edition of Scoop as a present from us to you! The landowners Draw 2004 has been drawn at the Humber Bridge meet, the winners are: First Prize, a balloon flight for one: Basil Aconley of Manor House, Moortown, Branisburton, landed on by Malc Skilbeck, Second Prize, £50 cash, Benninghulme Hall, South Skirlaugh, landed on by Austin Heginbottom, Third Prize, £25 case, Alan Simpson, Adams Hall, Oulston, landed on by Martin Axtell. Your committee will be arranging to make the awards in due course. Thanks to everyone who participated in the scheme. In fact, we’ve only just finished sorting out last year’s awards, flying one of the gliding instructors from Sutton Bank during the Humber Bridge meet. Certainly can’t do any harm keeping the local flying clubs happy, especially when you never know when you might need a handy landing place (plus they do a good pint of Hambleton’s). Did I mention that before? Can I also use the opportunity to remind the members that we would welcome assistance with running the club, especially we are looking for a replacement Landowner Relations Officer. Hope to see you all in Harrogate in the new year, for the meet and/or the AGM, which is at the Kimberley Hotel at 6pm on Sunday 2nd Jan 2005. Have a nice Christmas, Phil. Bits and Pieces Our membership secretary would like to remind you that it is getting near to the time of year when you will have to part with the small sum of £10 once again.		Editorial There goes an eventful year with almost all aspects of ballooning being on view within the PRBA, or very close to the region. From miniature balloons to hoppers, special shapes and nearly a 210 at Pocklington. This all running along with a couple of new standard balloons and the old favourites. The weather has been the same, with all aspects being seen at meets but with a major part being played by wet and windy weather this year. Let’s hope for better next year. As for next year would anyone like to attend a meet in Masham North Yorkshire, the town famous for Black Sheep and Theakstons breweries, possibly the first weekend in June based on the steam fair site. We have also been asked to come back to Fishburn airfield in county Durham by the airfield owners. They would love to see balloons there again. As for SCOOP in general I can see no reason why I should not continue to enjoy being the editor of your magazine and would like to say thanks to the production team and all those that have helped make SCOOP interesting with their contributions, long may they continue. Well that’s it for ballooning for a bit so it looks like the household D.I.Y list will have to be brought back out until spring. Richard	Earlier SCOOPS Feb 2004 April 2004 June 2004 August 2004 October 2004
		Chris Chappell’s Adventures in the Pennine Region and further afield. The sales of the book "Ballooning the Pennine way" have filtered out amongst the ballooning community and through Crispin Williams a Pennine founder member SCOOP has received the following interesting write ups from Chris Chappell, Crispin’s pilot instructor. These are from his exploits in the Pennine region and further afield. Chris enjoyed reading the booklet and a lot of names were brought back to mind along with places. He said Ripon seemed to crop up a lot, a place he has only visited twice, firstly to do a Balloon flight, and secondly to admire the town and its beautiful Cathedral with all it’s magnificent carved woodwork. Chris was given a Barnes firefly VII Lunardi reg number N2174H and on the 16th August 1978. At 1105 hours he was asked to do a delivery of soft drinks to the "Blackamoor Inn" at Bridge Hewick. With 4 crates of 48 bottles on board he managed to land about 100 yards into the field opposite the pub. A gentle landing was performed so as not to break the 192 bottles, but as the basket touched down it tipped over and the bottles went everywhere, (still in the same field) they were recovered and delivered safely to the pub. After lunch he was treated to a front seat in an Augusta Bell chopper whilst it performed aerobatics for the pub customers. Other flights around the same time in our area were: - Huddersfield to Cudworth Speedway Stadium, Sheffield to Aston Common Elvington to Heslington Bradford to Lightcliffe Bradford to Shelf Copmanthorpe to Hessay (Two flights landed on the same spot) Another flight in the area was from Pateley Bridge on September 25th 1978. A new school was opened shortly afterwards and a time capsule was buried. There are supposedly details of the flight with press cuttings in it. Chris doesn’t know when it is to be or has been unsealed. The balloon was chopped up for dust covers and the basket and burners were sold off, with the parachute going to the Parachute Regiment as a decoration for their regimental bar. Chris wrote that the most cans he has ever carried in a balloon were 300, to refresh his parts after landing. They were stowed under the seating down stairsHis other American balloon he flew was a 105 Raven S for the Saudi Arabian family Bin Ladin. He finishes by saying the balloon looked superb but give him Bristol or a British one any time. (Thanks must go to Chris for the information and Tony Smith for the balloon photograph).	In Search of "Monsters" .com After a successful trip to see "Churchill" the expected appearance of the monster balloon was to be another challenge, but without any success. As usual the weather forecast was a lottery and again wrong. Are weather satellites as controversial as man’s landing on the moon!!!! Did the Americans just launch dustbins into orbit so that they could send back rubbish? Well it was calm and dry in Stockton, wet by Thirsk and worst of all windy at Harrogate. The great Yorkshire show ground was holding a drainage exhibition and there amongst the digging equipment was the monster lurking in his trailer, there he was to stay. Even with the smallest chance of seeing a balloon and all that digging equipment there was no sign of Roger rabbit. Richard
In Nigeria Four days in a first-class hotel with all expenses paid- plus being guest of honour to a king. All this, just a dream for most of us, happened to local balloon pilot Chris Chappell, of Padbury, and all he had to do was risk death twice! The story began in late November when Charles Lousada, of Husbourne Crawley, owner of the hot-air balloon "Winslow Boy," and Chris received an invitation from Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, the Esama of Benin, and directors of Canada Dry International, to take the balloon to Benin City, Nigeria, to give a flying display to mark the opening of the new Canada Dry bottling plant in the city. Chris and Charles arrived at Lagos on December 15 and then flew to Benin City in a Fokker F27 of Nigerian Airways. The balloon was sent on from Lagos to Benin City by road. It was there that the balloonists met their first real trouble when they tried to obtain propane for the flight cylinders. BRUTE STRENGTH This was not easy as all cylinders are filled in Lagos, about 200 miles away. Eventually two 104-pound cylinders were located but no adaptors were available. Using an adjustable spanner, five foot of steel pipe, brute strength and a prayer or two, the balloonists managed to screw the left hand thread re-fuelling hose into the right-hand thread socket of the cylinder. The first gas was extracted less than one hour before their first flight scheduled for December 17. But if there were problems there were pleasures to be had too. The arrival of Chris and Charles had caused a good deal of local interest and the balloonists were invited to make their first take off from the gardens of the palace of the king. His Highness the Oba of Benin City. Before the take off the two English men were introduced to the King. "WINSLOW BOY" CHRIS AND CHARLES ATTRACTED THE CROWDS This meeting clearly impressed both Chris and Charles who recall that the King was dressed in magnificent costumes. When inflated just after 10 o’clock in the morning "Winslow Boy" with Chris and Charles aboard took off for what was certainly the first hot air balloon flight over Benin and perhaps the first such flight in Nigeria. Chris reports: "Although the city is mostly mud bungalow style buildings with corrugated iron roofs, the power lines below us were like a sheet of wire netting on wooden poles. The flight was carried out at a height of 250ft in a temperature of 33 degrees centigrade. BIG CROWD "The landing was at a school and the crowd surged in from all sides. We got crushed and I had to relight the burner and blast away in short bursts over their heads for about 15 minutes. Eventually our police and military escort arrived with sticks and started lashing away to make room for us to breathe and get the balloon and equipment packed up". The second flight by the balloonists took place the following day. The flight started at the Canada Dry bottling plant and Chris reports "the thermals were terrific". He explained the dangers of ballooning in such conditions by telling of the antics of the advertising leaflets he was dropping during the flight. "The thermals were such that the leaflets we threw out were trailing in the sky for half a mile behind us and going upwards into the clouds. It really is almost suicidal to try balloon flying out there until late in the afternoon". On this second flight the balloon was put down in a four foot gap between the mud huts in a jungle settlement the basket only just slotting in between the huts. No damage was done to property but the huts were "gift wrapped" by the balloon fabric. TELEVISED That evening the balloonists were invited to a banquet with a whole roast goat as one dish. This banquet was held in a white marbled round house in the grounds of the Esama’s palatial home. The event was floodlit and filmed by Nigerian TV. Chris had a final word: "Nigeria was the 28th country I had visited, and I found the people the most friendly and happiest I have ever met".
AM BALLOONS - The story so far For some years now The Pennine Region and North West Region have been playing host to a few uniquely shaped and unusually small balloons. For those of you who regularly attended these events they have hopefully become a regular sight at many of the northern meets. I first got involved with making models when crewing (with my parents) for Nigel Ponsford back in the 1980’s, He had moved up to flying real balloons on the back of many years of operating the RANGO kite and balloon company. He had written a book on the subject with Charles Saffery on how to design and manufacture your own models and with some encouragement and a few bits of old kit, we began the process of designing AM1. AM1 (4 gore) and AM2 (8gore) were built with high levels of assistance from my parents while I was living at home (probably age 10 to age 12), AM3 the first attempt I made to go it alone. I was at the time studying at college and living away from home about 1999. The idea was born through a combination of my college course in which we had been discussing building a radio-controlled airship (I think it was over coffee not one of the lessons). That project never got to the design stage but out of the ashes rose AM3. A basic concept of building a taller balloon with a few experiments in panel design was the main idea That and to fill a few weeks holiday I had left at the end of the year, the aim to try and improve on the previous AM balloons. This lead to what I can only describe as a multicoloured tube standing about 3 m tall and with the most complicated panel arrangement in the world. 80 panels in 10 gores (sown by my mum). It is capable of lifting it’s own weight and not much more. First flight from the town square in Masham one January night at the Brass Monkey meet (1999-2000) AM4 followed some years latter born from discussions on a long journey to a ballooning event in Luxembourg (2002). 6 months of design eventually lead to a 4 gore `concept’ style balloon standing at a little over 3m tall and developed using a principle of `use as many panels of the same size and shape as possible to speed the production process’. AM4 had it first test flight in 2003 at the North West regions Kirby Lonsdale meet in a 15min break in the rain. Capable of lifting a 1 Kg load, this allowed a rudimentary foam basket to be slung underneath using bath plug chain! This gives the balloon the stability it requires to stay upright and not alarmingly role over while in flight. Photos Right above – AM3 seen here at Thirsk 2000 Right – AM4 shown at Lowther Park during 2003. To give scale the basket is 1ft square. (As is the mouth). AM5 is a direct descendent of the AM4 design, good experience throughout the 2003 season with the AM4 balloon lead to the design of AM5 and the manufacturing processes began in late September of 2003. AM5 with its 8 gores is twice as large as AM4 standing at 6m tall (see right) and capable of lifting an estimated 7 KG (yet to be tested). First outing occurred at the Brass Monkey meet just before New Year 2004. Since New Year I have switched my focus to that of building a basket light enough to be lifted into the air but substantial enough to carry it’s own fuel and burner unit. Development of both the balloon and basket will be continuing for some time to come I feel. With the ballooning season in full swing developments in the workshop / kitchen are going to be slow. To the right – AM5 drifts off at Driffield. "I’ll fly the thing you can carry the gas" 30th of May 2004. Making models in my eyes is a relatively slow process, you can take as long as you like to develop, a balloon playing with design ideas, production methods, shapes, sizes, etc and at the end you get a great sense of achievement as you see your own hard work floating around on the launch site. It would be nice to see some more models around you can’t have a balloon meet with only one balloon, so if you fancy having a go at building a model why not give it a try. There is plenty of information on the web covering both commercially manufactured balloons to paper kits to pattern calculators to tips on manufacture. Or you can always give me a call and I’ll help in any way I can. I must at this point add a quick note of thanks must go to all those involved in getting all the AM prototypes into the air, Carrington’s, Cameron’s and Dave Allum for the material, my mum for the loan of the sewing machine / skills, my retrieve crew (who get roped in whether they like it or not aged 3 to 73), and of course my ever patient wife. Hope to see some of your creations in the sky soon Andy Marshall
Terry and Malcs soft landing.                             The Read’s balloon after a full English breakfast.		POCKLINGTON BALLOON AND GLIDER SWAP MEET – IT’S A GAS by Malc Skilbeck Not much involved in organising a balloon meet is there? Just find a launch site with accommodation for briefings and arrange for some gas, simple I thought. So when my next door neighbour Terry, who’s a glider pilot, suggested a Balloon swap meet at the Wolds Gliding Club I volunteered immediately! I contacted Les, the club steward, he was all for it, reminiscing about the good old days when a balloon swap meet was a regular event with lots of balloons glowing on the Saturday nights. He would provide a barbecue and the club house bar would be available for briefings, but he made it clear that the bar would only be open when the gliders were not flying! After a long debate about how much gas we required, I decided on 12 x 47kg cylinders, not enough if we fly every slot but enough to give you back ache if we have to lug them about. I though security may be a problem at the agreed refuelling site, it was clear of gliding activities and safe for venting but could be seen from the road – padlock and chain required. Tony Greensides placed the gas order for me with Energas, it would be delivered on Friday 24th A.M. The promised balloon team entries reached nine but as the weather forecasts deteriorated the week before the event only five entries materialised, but The BT Balloon team, Dave and Phil, were definitely coming all the way from Thatcham! Friday 24th 11A.M. I arrive at Pocklington Airfield to find 10 x 19kg, very small cylinders of propane neatly positioned at the refuelling point! Les came over and informs me he had taken delivery and signed for the gas. I immediately got on the mobile to Energas and told them that we ordered 12 x 47’s and that 10 x 19’s would be no use at all! The Energas rep apologised profusely and would ring me back when he found out what had gone wrong. Within 10 minutes he rang back and said he could not understand it but he assured me that 12 x 47’s would be on site by 2 P.M. I went home for lunch. At 2 P.M. I drive back onto the airfield to see an Energas delivery lorry, with Dave Allum in attendance, offloading 12 x 47’s, I start to erect the safety fence and lend a hand. We discuss the 10 x 19’s standing there and it’s pointed out to me that they are Flowgas cylinders not Energas and they are therefore nothing to do with them! At that moment a second Energas delivery lorry enters the airfield, the driver had instructions to deliver 12 x 47’s due to the mix up this morning??? The two Energas drivers seem quite amused at all this and head home to Hull, complete with the second 12 x 47’s. At 4.45 P.M. Les returns from shopping and brings me the delivery note for the 10 x 19’s complete with his signature, there, in clear bold lettering is the delivery address of a firm on Airfield Industrial Estate Pocklington The balloon meet from that point started to run smoothly apart from a slight hiccup with the allocation of bunk rooms, I was under the assumption that these domestic arrangements would be sorted by the gliding club but no, it was down to me! At 17.00 My first attempt at a weather briefing (down loaded from Get Met) it was a bit feeble, however it must have been OK because several balloons flew, taking one or two glider pilots with them, all enjoying a gentle flight due south and landing without incident around Everingham. Every one seemed enthusiastic to fly at the Saturday 06.30 briefing, despite my vague met report, so, after watching a met balloon disappear, off we flew again, only this time it was to the east, over Pocklington and into the Wolds. Now experienced East Yorkshire balloonists know that things tend to speed up a bit when you venture over the Wolds and this morning’s flight was to be no exception! Pilots reported putting GPS’s away due to slightly alarming indicated speed readings? Hard drag landings were reported as the norm, with Terry and I, plus Andy the glider pilot, hitting the ground earlier than anticipated due to some strange ground effect? We bounced across a narrow road and finished up in a manure heap, all three unharmed, much to the amazement of Andy, who thought it was great? The crust on the manure heap was just about strong enough for a 10stone PUT to walk on, so we dragged GLIMP sideways away from the brown, stinking treacle lagoons and with minimal staining packed her back in the bag. Terry eventually found his cap, lost during the first hit, back over the road. As the reports of the other balloon landings became known it was apparent that although all the balloons had survived unscathed it was not what could be said about their crews. The BT balloon had a hard drag with Dave sustaining a badly bruised shoulder and his wife hurting her knees. Martin Read went in hard and hurt his shoulder, he not only had skid marks in his underclothes, they were also down his back! Tony Greensides and Graham Hill made a real job of ending their flight with Graham compounding his previously injured back and Tony hurting his back, wrist, ankle and pride. Despite all this everyone had enjoyed great flights, especially the glider pilots! Les’s Saturday night barbecue was enjoyed by all, once the confusion of whom ordered what had been sorted out. I had spent some considerable time getting the food order information prior to the ‘do’ as requested, but Les required it in a different format to that provided, still my chicken was alright. After the antics at the end of the morning flight, the enthusiasm for an evening flight, with similar met predictions, was definitely lacking and was therefore cancelled. There was also a definite reluctance to drag balloons out to do a nightglow, which the Gliding Club had been looking forward to. The BT boys saved the day and gave several gliding club members a lift while glowing their bright yellow Lindstrand 77a ‘Bright Future’ The majority of teams completed the Saturday Road run and the Aviation types Quiz and with the Sunday flight slots cancelled the Gliding Club Bar, with special permission, was opened for a real survivors lunch! Awards were presented as follows :- Aviation Types Quiz – Janice and John Road Run - Team RIX Non Survivors Cup and Certificate of Achievement – Tony Greensides – for achieving the highest points score for sustaining the maximum injuries to himself and his Co-pilot Many Thanks to :- Tony Greensides - for ordering the gas Dave Allum – for assisting with gas and providing a cup of tea during a stressful moment Maureen – for assisting with the shifting of 10 x 19 cylinders to a secure location Energas - for being so understanding Les – for creating total confusion Dave and Phil The BT Balloon Team – for providing the night glow
One Man and His Balloon (sorry Hopper) "Rogers Report" Usually after meetings, Roger gives us all a detailed report, unfortunately Roger was unable to attend, so I have written this instead. Saturday 16th October and Sunday 17th October 2004 After a two-hour drive in the dark and wet, I ended up sitting in a very posh hotel early on a Saturday morning, 7.15am to be exact, in Bowness, with a bunch of strangers. As people started wandering through to briefing, I noticed a few people I’d seen before (oh yes said Churchill), it was a few people from the North West Balloon Group, connected to the Churchill Balloon Group (oh yes said Churchill). After briefing it was off to the launch site, which was a couple of miles away. The site was quite sheltered, one problem, plenty of cow dung to stand in, or worse, drag your envelope through. Nine balloons were launched, not a bad launching, considering it was a touch windy. Participating Balloons: - G-BYNM, G-CCSI, G-IAMP, G-BMWU, G-BWOY, G-BOLN, G-CBZJ, G-BMKI and G-EECO (ones that flew Saturday morning). Could have been better, at least ten or eleven envelopes stayed in there bags, never mind there’s still the afternoon and Sunday morning flights. For those that didn’t fly or retrieve, a chance to go back to bed, get some breakfast or even go site seeing (if that’s what you prefer), it’s a very nice place around Lake Windermere. Dinner (optional) and afternoon briefing was to be held in the "Drunken Duck" pub on the other side of the lake. Once there even more familiar faces, this was turning out to be a cross between Pennine, North West and who ever else. As the afternoon drew on, the sky closed in, the wind picked up a little bit and the rain started to come down. As you have guessed briefing and flying were both cancelled. Great! The evening free, so what can you do in cold, wet, windy conditions in the lakes? Only one thing I here you say. Your right, lets go to the pub. Us, the Pennine members, we went to Keswick. We all had some tea and a few drinks, oh yes, and then we went for a walk. By now it was about 8.00pm and it had been raining for quite some time, it was pitch black. We ended up at the lake; we took some photographs (on lookers must of thought we are mad), and then turned back. When we decided to go to bed, we all went our separate ways. Now, out of all of the group some had b+b’s, some had hotels, some stopped at friends, some drove home, and one, yes one, stopped in the car. Next morning it was back to Bowness, and it didn’t look too bad. At briefing we were given a bad weather report, high winds. Flying was cancelled unless you were brave, mad or stupid and you wanted to go. With rain nigh on imminent, not a lot to do as, all the sight seeing was done yesterday, we chose to come home. For those that stayed dinner and trophy giving was at the "Masons Arms" pub (which, I am lead to believe is a little difficult to find). The only trophys worth mentioning are "The Cock Up Trophy" and the "Wouldn’t it Be Nice Trophy", well the "Cock Up" trophy wasn’t handed out (it should have been, as somebody on retrieve followed the first vehicle from the launch site, which took them back to the hotel that we’d just had briefing at). The "Wouldn’t It Be Nice" trophy, shortened to "Wooden Tit" (eponymously shaped of course) was handed to Ian Chadwick, he and his new fiancée for getting engaged that weekend. Stuart Reid
		The Great British Long Jump of Lindstrand 105 – G BXDZ By Malc Skilbeck PUT Mid September, receive a telephone call from Superdave Sutcliffe – do I fancy entering the Great British Long Jump with him in G BXDZ. He explains that we won’t stand much chance of winning anything because a 105 is not the ideal balloon for the long jump, its too large to be a Flea and too small to be a Frog but the flight, if we achieve it, would be a good crack. Can I work out how much gas we can carry, do a load and duration assessment and sort things out – as a PUT it would all be good training! Ring Terry Chamberlain; could we borrow some flight cylinders and Barbara for a day, sometime in October, unfortunately Terry won’t be available to assist, as somebody has to work for a living. Sunday 3rd October Superdave rings to say next Friday looks like a go’er with 10-15 knots from the north on the ground and 20-25 knots at 2000ft. Wednesday 6th October, confirmation that we are on for Friday, we discuss take off locations and Wombleton Airfield, Kirby Moorside, due north of York, in the lee of the North Yorkshire Moors, would seem like a good choice. Thursday 7th October Collect nine 47kg, big red cylinders of gas. Collect G BXDZ from Dave’s front garden in Harrogate and start gassing up. Scrounge four Worthington’s and extra tank straps from Terry Chamberlain and with Terry’s assistance fit them all securely in the basket. Friday 8th 06.00 Meet at Malc and Mos place in Stamford Bridge, Superdave sporting a new altimeter and an extra new radio. 06.15 On the road to Wombleton, Superdave rings Tony (extra take off crew) to confirm launch field location, He’s a long time answering the phone, when he does answer it’s the wrong Tony! Various text messages followed regarding early morning wake up calls and do we want our bacon well done. The ‘right’ Tony is contacted and we all arrive at the airfield at the same time. As dawn breaks the balloon is dragged out of the trailer, this proves difficult with all that extra gas packed into the basket. From the off we realise that the wind direction is not quite as expected. If we go high we will, at worst end up in Leeds Bradford airspace or even worse the urban wasteland around Rotherham / Sheffield, so the plan is to fly low to keep as far east as possible until we get passed Selby. Unfortunately this means it will be painfully slow with a speed of 10 to 15 mph. We decided that we would take it in turns on the burner and as we emptied each cylinder we would swap over, this worked well until the PUT forgets which side he was burning on! Fly past the York University Chemistry workshop just to upset Terry who is hard at work there. Fly past Barlby School just to upset Mike Smith, who teaches there and is just coming out of the classroom at break time, he calls Superdave to find out why he’s flying at this time of day. Fly past my daughter Rachel’s workplace at Selby – she apparently runs out of the office to wave but we didn’t see her and no one in the office would believe it was her dad going by. 10.30 first coffee break and corn beef with mustard sandwiches, thank you Maureen. Fly right over the Sprotborough home of Tom Donnelly – try to ring him but no ones home. Call from Tom Donnelly, who happens to be in the Balloon rides office, he’s trying to find out who could be flying a yellow balloon with a picture of a motorbike on it near Selby? – He’s not seen Dave’s balloon before. Text message from Barbara - "I could get fat down here" I don’t know how? She hasn’t got corn beef and mustard sandwiches! Some radio interference on 122 .475 from some ‘top gun type’, who is fixed wing training, doing half cloverleaves? What’s he doing on our frequency? The toilet facilities on board G BXDZ have been obstructed by the installation of all the extra cylinders, so Superdave fashions a urinal out of an empty Red Bull can – apparently its something experienced gas balloon pilots do to cope with weak prostrate glands! Dave drinks a lot of Red Bull, says it gives him wings? I suddenly realise that although I am not burning the balloon is gaining altitude at an alarming rate – thermals!!! Superdave says don’t let it cool down too much – we round out at 3800 feet, they say adrenaline is good for the concentration. Radio message from Barbara she has to go to the Motorway services for some reason, I can’t understand it because I filled the Subaru up before we started and she hasn’t been drinking Red Bull. 12.30 lunchtime, coffee and corn beef with mustard sandwiches, thank you Maureen. For some reason I have a circle on the map around a place called Ambergate, as we fly over it I recognise Ray Hunt’s local pub and launch field. Text message from Barbara who is now back on the chase "what a relief" Controversy in the basket as to whether we might enter East Midlands Air Space – the PUT needs more practice with aeronautical charts. 13.50 Start shaking cylinders to generate more gas? Dave’s already drunk the last tin of Red Bull and his wings are failing. Decision made to land in the next suitable field, while we still have some reserve gas, PUT instructed to pack all equipment safely away and hang on. 14.10 Radio Barbara of our intentions to land near Brailsford on the A52. Over the next green wooded area the roof tops in the village come into sight, a golf course to our right and a large stubble field interspersed with oak trees lies dead ahead, an access road and gate become apparent, Superdave announces "this is it", we are going in! 14.15 We descend over the trees, Dave rips out, but a thermal decides that we go back up again! We clear some more trees then Dave rips out again and this time we hit the ground hard and drag. The balloon refuses to give up so we bounce and have another hit and drag until things stop and all is quite, the PUT is finally allowed to leave the basket. Superdave paced off back from whence we came, we had achieved a 26 yard drag, a 26 yard bounce and a final 31 yard drag, he also found the GPS laid in the stubble that the PUT had safely stowed away? Within a couple of minutes Barbara came into sight and with PUT went to find the friendly landowner who gave permission to drive in and complete an excellent retrieve. When we arrived back at the balloon it was back in it’s bag and ready for loading – they don’t call him Superdave for nothing! I would like to thank the following people without whom this flight would not have been possible – Superdave Sutcliffe for suggesting we go for it and providing the balloon. Anthea Sutcliffe for letting Dave come out to play. Terry Chamberlain for the loan of cylinders, tank straps and Barbara. Barbara Chamberlain for an excellent single-handed retrieve and observing that we don’t tell fibs. Maureen Skilbeck for letting me come out to play and the delicious in flight catering. The wrong Tony for waking up at 06.15 to answer his phone and provide us with a laugh The right Tony for waking up at 05.30 and turning out to provide launch field assistance Red Bull for extra duration and toilet facilities. Malc Skilbeck 10/10/04 Malc and Dave managed 2nd place at 92 miles, beaten by a 160 that flew for 164 miles.
Dates for your Diary
Brass Monkey Meet. 2nd 3rd January 2005 This year’s Brass Monkey has a hotel in a more traditional location Harrogate and the "Kimberley Hotel" which is located at: 11-19 Kings Road, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG1 5JY Contact 0800 7837642 E-mail info@thekimberley.co.uk Rooms available at £60 for a double / twin room please quote PRBA to get this rate. The hotel can be viewed at www.thekimberley.co.uk The hotel can be found with the following link: http://uk.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=europe&lon=-1.5400001&lat=53.99879837&cat=hot&icon=X The Launch site will be at Rudding Park. The Briefings should be in the hotel bar area at 8.00am Sunday and Monday mornings and 1.00pm Sunday afternoon. The AGM will be at this meet at 6.00pm on the Sunday followed by a dinner at 8.00pm and the after-dinner speaker - Mr Don Cameron, no less - is at 10.00pm. Please send the menu form and the balloon entry form to Terry Marsden. (Download forms here)
		Please contact Rita for your Pennine, Stickers, patches, metal badges. AND THE 25TH Anniversary Booklet BALLOONING THE PENNINE WAY (above). After discussions it was decided to issue the 25th Anniversary Booklet free of charge to all 2003 PRBA members and to issue a complimentary copy to all those past members who sent in contributions. Free copies are being sent out separately from the Scoop and will be with you in the next few days. Price £3.00 (inc.p&p) for extra copies and non-members. Send orders and cheques, made payable to PRBA, to: Mrs R Marshall, 7 Wynford Rise, Leeds, LS16 6HX.