Head in the Clouds Ballooning

03/08/2026

Yesterday was the first time I've actually watched this since the race. Was incredible to be participating rather than watching for the first time. Finally decided to look back and try not to choke up whilst watching myself choke up! 😅

Getting in the spirit with this year's addition less than 4 weeks away. Crazy that in 28 days we might already know who the winner is, or will someone get that illusive 4th night this year? In any case, hopefully a few less tears and a few more kilometres on my end! 🤞🏻

Recapping this years race and talking to the winners about their ex...

29/07/2026

We made it through 56 hours in the air last year until our batteries decided they'd had enough of the cold at altitude. Next month we're going back for more, this time as GBR1.

With our batteries better insulated and me a fair bit lighter than last year (weight is duration, as ballast is fuel, less ballast around my waist means more in the sand bags!), we can't wait to see if we can push on a little further this time.

Hope you'll all follow along as we race from Gladbeck, the modern day spiritual home of gas ballooning and a 'home race' for myself and many of the other teams competing.

14/07/2026

Canadian Sunsets 🌅🇨🇦🍁🤎

Have been spending a few months in Canada flying with the awesome folk at Skyward Balloons. The weather has not been as favourable for flying this year as in previous years, though I understand this is true in Europe and the UK too. That said, when the weather has favoured us, these Candian Sunsets eat.

What a wonderful country though, full of wonderful, incredibly friendly people.

Got just over a month left here, then back to Germany to prep for this years Coupe Aéro Gordon Bennett!

26/06/2026

Gordon Bennett, not another history post!

On this day in 1983, the Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett was resurrected in Paris, France.

Attached is Jonathan Harris' write up of his experience competing alongside the report from the Godfather of British ballooning, Anthony Smith, as first appeared in the autumn edition of that year's Aerostat.

Alongside the Coupe Aéro Gordon Bennett was the Charles et Robert race named after the first to fly a gas balloon, in 1783. The race was never to take place again.

Sadly, Maxie Anderson and Don Ida, would make their final flight in this competition. Maxie was part of the teams to make the first successful crossings of the Atlantic and Pacific in the Double Eagle II and V respectively. On this fateful flight, their balloon system was designed to cut away the envelope from the gondola upon landing. Approaching East Germany, it was imperative they landed before the border. Approaching a forest, the device activated prematurely, at a hight from which they would not survive.

In the Gordon Bennett, Nini Boesman became the first woman to compete in this prestigious competition during the 27th event, representing Belgium.

Why Gordon Bennett and the phrase?

James Gordon Bennett, born into the newspaper trade in 1841, was always looking for spectacular things to write about and draw attention to his newspaper, The New York Herald. As a prolific sportsman, he organised the first tennis match in the USA and won the first Trans-Oceanic Yacht Race. He sent a team down through Africa to find the missionary, anti-slavery crusader and explorer, Dr David Livingstone and mounted various expeditions to the North Pole.

Having established Gordon Bennett Cups in yachting and motor racing, in 1906 he he funded the Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning. The Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett ran from 1906 to 1913 and again from 1920 to 1938 before it stopped due to World War II, not returning until the FAI resurrected it in 1983, almost 200 years after man's first flight.

This year we will be once again competing for Great Britain, this time as team GBR1. This will be Deborah's 4th race and Tom's 2nd.

19/06/2026

Film Friday: The story of Double Eagle II making the first successful Transatlantic manned balloon crossing in 1978.

In the aftermath of the first successful Hydrogen balloon crossing a couple of weeks ago by Atlantic Explorer 2026, I thought it interesting to look back on the very first manned balloon crossing, in the Ed Yost built Helium gas balloon Double Eagle II. Ed Yost also being the godfather of modern hot air balloons.

Also flying from Presque Isle, Maine, USA, Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman took off on 11th August 1978 and landing 6 days later, 60 miles northwest of Paris. In doing so they set FAI Ballooning absolute distance and duration records for not just gas, but all types of balloon.

Their distance record of 4,998km was broken just 3 years later, when Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman, this time joined by Ron Clarke and Rocky Aoki, made the first successful crossing of the Pacific by balloon in the Double Eagle V.

Their 137 hours 5 minutes and 50 seconds duration record for all types of balloon however stood unbroken until 1992 when Ben's son, Richard Abruzzo, joined by Troy Bradley, made the first Transatlantic balloon flight to Africa, flying from Maine to Morocco. The gas balloon duration record stood for more than 36 years, until, once again, in 2015, Troy Bradley flew 160 hours and 37 minutes in his Two Eagles helium gas balloon with Leonid Tiukhtyaev as they attempted to cross the Pacific, landing just short of the Mexican coast. The Two Eagles balloon was also built by Bert Padelt, the pilot and builder of the Atlantic Explorer.

15/06/2026

After the excitement of the recent Transatlantic gas flight of the Atlantic Explorer that we were so avidly following, we are sure we are not alone in craving some more gas balloon action. This time though we won't be watching actively from the sidelines.

After their 8th place finish last year, Deborah and Tom will be racing together for the second year running in the Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett. Once again, they will be flying in the Refire Gas Balloon. This year's race will launch from Gladbeck, Germany, the centre of the Gas Ballooning universe and where Deborah and Tom both had their first gas balloon experiences and trained for their gas ratings. Despite both previously flying hot air balloons for many years, a separate rating is required to operate gas balloons with them having different limitations, operational characteristics, theories of flight and nuances one must learn to feel.

This will be Deborah's 4th Gordon Bennett race and Tom's second. Building on their experience from working together last year, we are very excited to see just how far they can go. This is sort of a 'home' race for Tom too, as he lives less than half an hour from the launch field.

If all the teams in the provisional list make it to the launch field, this year's race will be record breaking, 26 competing teams beating the record of 24, also set in Gladbeck back in 2016 and equalled last year in Metz, France, in a competition that first took place all the way back in 1906, 120 years ago!

Bring on the end of August! Come on team GBR1! 🇬🇧

14/06/2026

Well deserved welcome, after an adventure of a lifetime.

Peter & Barbara have finally completed their long journey back to New Mexico from Europe. Here they are welcomed back by friends and members of the local ballooning community.

07/06/2026

First Transatlantic Crossing by crewed Hydrogen Gas Balloon. A flight for the record books:

4th crossing by gas balloon.

20th crossing of the Atlantic by balloon of any type including round the world flights and attempts.

13th North Atlantic crossing when excluding round the world attempts.

First North Atlantic Crossing since 2007.

First Atlantic Crossing since 2016 (South Atlantic as part of round the world flight).

26th, 27th and 28th person to cross the Atlantic by balloon.

Alicia Hempleman-Adams becomes only the 2nd Woman to ever cross Atlantic by balloon, nearly 40 years since the first, Evelien Brink.

Alica is only the 5th woman to be part of the flight crew of an Atlantic attempt. A fitting bookend to the first woman, Rosemarie Mudie, who was on the first serious attempt at the Atlantic back in 1958; the only other team to use Hydrogen prior to the Atlantic Explorer project.

Alicia and David Hempleman-Adams become only the second parent / child pair to have two generations of Transatlantic balloonists, the first being Ben and Richard Abruzzo.

Bert Padelt is only the 3rd person to cross the Atlantic in a balloon of his own design and construction, following in the footsteps of Don Cameron and Per Lindstand.

On confirmation of the exact size of the balloon and ratification by FAI Ballooning, their distance of 5282km will set a new AA9 distance record breaking the previous record set by David Hempleman-Adams during his 2007 Transatlantic flight in an AA6 Helium balloon.

A truly impressive feat by several metrics. Let us hope it is not another 10 or 20 years before someone else conquers this impressive stretch of water. Well done to everyone in the team. The pilots, ground team, social media team, the meteorologists of course, family members of the pilots, everyone should be so proud. Those of us following from afar have only been able to look on with amazement and admiration at such a splendid achievement and the professional nature with which it was undertaken.

06/06/2026

How crazy is this? The Atlantic Explorer 2026 Flight Control is cruising happily at around 24,000ft as it works its way up the English Channel, its gateway into Europe. Having passed over the Isles of Scilly, Bert Padelt, Peter Cuneo and Alicia Hempleman Adams have out flown David, Alicia's father's AA6 to AA9 world record distance of 4,227.1km, also set in a Padelt gas balloon, albeit helium and a little over a third of the size, as he crossed the Atlantic solo from Newfoundland in 2007.

An AA9 gas balloon when filled with Hydrogen has a maximum permissable volume of just over 2579m³. The Atlantic Explorer, is 90,000ft3, a little under 2550m³. Unless the balloon is a little larger than advertised, the FAI Ballooning world record for AA9 balloons should be their's.

The question now is, how deep into Europe can they go? The AA10 to AA12 distance record of 5703.03km is currently held by Joseph Kittinger set during his 1984 world first solo transatlantic flight. If they can continue into central Europe, this record should be there's too. They likely have enough ballast after having had such a fast crossing, the question only is, will the weather allows a safe continuation of the flight and how well rested are the crew? After all, a safe landing in France or Belgium will still be a fitting end to a spectacular record breaking flight and the first transatlantic crossing by Hydrogen gas balloon.

The ground teams job now, and particularly their fantastic met team, is to find a weather window to bring them down from their flight ceiling to a safe landing, as the flight crew has already battled snow, rain and icing on the balloon flying in the freezing cold at altitude last night.