Balloonist flies off with record (From Gazette Series)

Balloonist flies off with record

A BALLOONIST from Breadstone has flown himself into the record books smashing a long-standing endurance record.

Andrew Holly, 31, of Go-Balloning.co.uk, has broken the British record for the longest flight in a hopper balloon.

The balloon, around a quarter of the size of a normal hot-air balloon, has no basket and fuel tanks and burner are strapped to the back of the pilot.

Mr Holly's team had carefully designed a system allowing him to take a second fuel tank to help smash the record.

He took off from Ashton Court, Bristol, shortly after 7am on Monday and managed to stay afloat for four hours 21 minutes, almost doubling the existing record of two hours 16 minutes.

The intrepid pilot said perfect still wind and sub-zero temperatures were ideal conditions for the attempt.

"The first part of the flight was the unknown," said Mr Holly. "We did not know if the structure of the balloon would hold up to the additional weight of the second tank. We then had to drop the empty tank, which we managed to do in textbook fashion and without any problems.

"To have beaten the record feels amazing. But to have demolished it in such a way feels great."

Mr Holly is chief pilot and managing director of Go-Ballooning.co.uk. The company's balloons can often be seen flying passengers from Cheltenham Racecourse and the surrounding areas.

This successful attempt follows two failed attempts earlier this year, one from Berkeley, and the other from Kinross in Scotland, which had to be aborted due to technical problems and bad weather

The latest record attempt has given Mr Holly a taste for victory and he plans to go up, up and away with future attempts.

"With what we learnt on Monday and with a small bit of additional sponsorship, we think we can have a reasonable attempt at the world record," he added, "although this will probably mean a trip to the Arctic circle."

Don Cameron, of Bristol-based Cameron Balloons, officially observed the record attempt for the International Ballooning Commission the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.