Flight Report 18/10/2025 AM – Obelisk to Yelvertoft.

This blog has come a little later than hoped but work and other commitments have meant I haven’t had the time to write it until now.

This blog is focused around Liam Menzies training, pilot training in general and his last training flight which was on the 18^th of October 2025.

It is really important when training new pilots that they fly in a variety of weather conditions. Safety must always come first but applying challenge in a controlled environment is important. Well as controlled as flying in a big laundry basket filled with pressurised explosive gas and being at the mercy of the wind can be anyway.

There was a quote somewhere that stuck with me throughout the nearly twenty years I have been flying. When you start out you begin with a full bag of luck and an empty bag of experience. The key is to fill up your bag of experience before your luck runs out. To do that its important to push your boundaries and comfort zone whilst staying safe.

Only training students in perfect conditions will turn them into “fair weather” pilots. Or worse, their evolution “keyboard warriors”. Therefore its really important not to let that happen.

Liam has had a varied mix of training to date. He has flown in perfect conditions, challenging conditions and marginal conditions. The forecast for Saturday the 18^th was marginal. The surface wind whilst starting out light was forecast to pick up quickly and the upper winds were fairly fast throughout. The direction was set to take us over some of the higher points in Northamptonshire. This meant our landing speeds would naturally be higher. A perfect challenge and progress check.

Liam made the sensible choice to get up and away early. We arrived on site half an hour before sunrise and the challenge was set to be away dead on sunrise. Liams confidence with managing crew and his methodical approach to setup meant the safety checks, briefings and layout was done really quickly and efficiently.

Before long the balloon was being inflated and checked internally. Liams balloon G-OAWS has a unique deflation system called a Tri-Vent. Due to this its even more important than normal to check the internal rigging for snags, knots and damage.

Next was hot inflation, just as the first few gusts began to kick in. Liam managed just fine and soon with team member Craig on board we were away.

We began the flight by focusing on level flying for short periods of time at different altitudes. Liams level flying is at a good standard and we soon had a good gauge of our speeds and options. We soon came to a series of fields ideal to practice high level approaches. Liam is at the stage where he attempts these without prompting on when to burn.

After an initial overburn we soon had a good rate of descent and a perfect angle of approach into a lovely cut field. Everything was going perfectly until I reminded Liam to have the rip line in hand and be ready to turn everything off if needed. This threw him every so slightly, likely due to the quicker conditions and a couple of key burns were missed.

As mentioned above, challenge in a controlled environment is good. It allows you to make errors safely and learn from them. We were going to make contact with the ground, not hard and with no lines, trees or obstacles I didn’t intervene and let it happen. We all adopted landing positions, hands off the burner, bump and a bounce back into the air, hands back on the burner and we were happily swinging away.

Liam was a little disappointed in hitting the ground. However the situation was perfect for learning and he was soon back on his A game. Noting his first tank was nearly out he began prepping for a fuel change. When this was completed the next challenge was introduced. I turned the pilot light off on the side he had changed and informed him the other side had totally failed (it hadn’t of course). I then told him he had until the balloon stopped climbing to re light it using one of his relighters. To Liam’s credit he was totally unphased, grabbed his relighter instantly and lit the burner all within maybe five seconds. Good job.

At this point the ground speeds were averaging twelve knots and occasionally a little more with gusts so it was time to look for somewhere to land. Liam made a really good approach into a small but doable field with a dead tree in the middle. Sods law meant our track shifted and we were drawn to it like a magnet. Liam sensibly aborted.

We were soon approaching Yelvertoft and the wind farms, with the conditions deteriorating it was important we landed safely soon. There were a series of small fields leading up the farm itself and I made the decision to complete the landing whilst talking Liam step by step through the decision making.

We enjoyed a soft landing followed by a nice drag as the balloon deflated. We were soon joined by the lovely landowners who were really excited to have the balloon in the field and who couldn’t have been more helpful.

With the team joining us soon after we were all packed away and heading out. Craig and I enjoyed a ride in the back of the farms ATV too which was a nice bonus.