On Saturday the 12th we went through to Edinburgh to meet up with the Balloon crew from the Edinburgh University Hot Air Ballooning Club and got the opportunity to follow them to a field in Carnwath to watch three hot air balloons take off. This was all in preparation for a couple of balloon flights we were to do the following day for Colin’s new piece of work for the Cupar Arts Festival. I got the opportunity to try out my newly acquired skills of recording sound.
Colin had given me a bit of training the night before on how to use the equipment and the kind of sounds he wanted me to capture and I saw this as a kind of audition for the real thing. If I did this well, I’d get to go up in a balloon on the Sunday. It was amazing having supersonic hearing…
When we got to Edinburgh, I couldn’t believe the size and weight of the basket – it was huge and so so heavy! We had to heft it into the back of a van along with all the gas canisters and the actual balloon which was also incredibly heavy!
We drove to Carnwath and watched the crew set everything up. First off the basket is laid on it’s side and attached with rope to the back of the van, the balloon ‘envelope’ is then unravelled and attached to the basket. They then use an enormous fan to inflate and open up the balloon before switching on the burners to add hot air. It’s at this point when the basket and balloon get upright and need to be held down. The crew and passengers then get in and fly away into the distance! So romantic as they drift away and disappear over the trees.
We then leapt into the car and followed the ground crew in their van. We had to follow the balloons and stopped off occasionally so that Colin could do some filming. Eventually the balloons came down to land in a farmer’s field just as the sun was setting.
It was an amazing afternoon/evening and we didn’t get back home until after midnight – we then had to get everything ready for our Sunday flights and try and get some sleep as we’d be up at 5ish the following morning…
…to be continued. Air
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