PICTURES OF OUR COMPANION BALLOON
Two balloons took off from the site at Cross Lanes Farm on the evening
of 12th July 2000. This page shows some of the pictures I took of the
other balloon - my camera has no zoom facility and I was using the
lowest image quality to get lots of concise pictures - also it was
getting towards dusk, before I'd thought to adjust the exposure time
manually to compensate for the lower light level - so it might not
be easy to spot the other balloon on some of these, but the pictures
are still quite interesting.
Looking down as the white balloon get airborne - we shot up with all
three burners running flat out, pumping 54 million BTU into the twelve
tonnes of air mass inside our own balloon, to get well clear as the other
ballon lifted slowly from the field. Ours has a dozen passengers on
board, plus the pilot - the other, larger one had room for 17 people,
though it must be said that the space in the basket is cosy, if not
positively cramped. At least that means there's very little chance of
falling out, especially when wedged into the crash (sorry, landing!)
position.
It's a long way down - we've reached about 1000 feet, less than two
minutes after takeoff, and this view from the corner of our basket
shows the other balloon following us up.
Well aloft now, the other ballon has got round to the east of us
and is in full flight towards Warwick.
The companion balloon is descending now, getting further away as we
dawdle above a group of buildings between Stratford and Warwick.
Close to the skyline, the other balloon is coming in to touch
down on the common land at Warwick racecourse. We flew on for
some time, unable to land safely till we reached the other side
of the town.
More aerial views