Virgin balloon flights - Do they ever fly?

M

Mr Spoon

Member
Messages
407
Well it's a question I know the answer to, but tomorrow I have another balloon cancellation.... it's almost 3 years now! All have been weather reports which is a shame, but I guess when it does happen, it will be the best conditions.

Anyone any experience with this?
 
Wack61

Wack61

Member
Messages
8,793
I did a balloon flight in luxor 25 years ago , expensive but better than flying over fields in Britain

Our British pilot took us to 3 locations letting off weather balloons before picking a spot , we were up for about an hour

In the distance we saw the virgin balloon going up , the pilot said he's picked the wrong spot, they won't be up for more than 15 minutes and they weren't

As we were coming in to land I thought I'd better put my camera away in case it was a hard landing so stooped down in the basket , stood up and we were on the ground , didn't even feel it touch down

Not a great business model if you can never fly in the UK as the weather is so ****
 
Tallman

Tallman

Member
Messages
1,833
its also down here, weather related, mostly too windy. I’ve been waiting 2 years, bought the tickets for my wife’s birthday. They fly at sunrise here to avoid the wind - fly over the Winelands. I’ve been up a couple of times, it’s majestic and well worth the wait.
 
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mjheathcote

mjheathcote

Centenary Club
Messages
9,038
Took over a year to fly in a Tiger Moth.
Worth the wait.
Not long after they stopped flying as one of their planes crashed :oops:
 
Scaf

Scaf

Member
Messages
6,573
Scaf said:
Took me a about 3 months to get in the air
Click to expand...
It was fantastic, I did it nearly 30 years ago when I had a health scare and and could not be sure what life would be like afterwards, a bucket list to k in the box.
I was lucky that the flight was local and the wind flight direction took me over my childhood home and school etc.

The false starts and wasted time as they called off flights, put me off going up again.
 
davy83

davy83

Member
Messages
2,823
I am sceptical of the voucher stuff as i have had 2 or 3 of these vouchers and never got any of the activities i was supposed to. I think they make money out of making sure as few people as possible actually get what they paid for. I went ballooning near Mont Blanc and it took a few attempts before they actually flew so ballooning is extremely sensitive to weather and especially the wind, as that determines where you will end up.
However I should add that I loved the flight and it was one of the high points of my whole life, can't recommend it enough. 9195491954
 
Wack61

Wack61

Member
Messages
8,793
If it's a
Mr Spoon said:
Well it's a question I know the answer to, but tomorrow I have another balloon cancellation.... it's almost 3 years now! All have been weather reports which is a shame, but I guess when it does happen, it will be the best conditions.

Anyone any experience with this?
Click to expand...
If it's through red letter days they let you exchange for a different experience if you're fed up waiting
 
doodlebug

doodlebug

Member
Messages
917
I saw one in Henley last week and I saw another right above my house in Cambs this morning. Thinking about doing a flight myself.
 
Thatch

Thatch

Member
Messages
233
As you have all said, it is down to the weather. Wind and power cables are the enemy of the pilot, and so only days of stable high pressure are suitable. That tends to be summer months but not only. Some of my most memorable flights are over frost/snow covered countryside. Perfectly still and quiet (apart from the burners of course!)

I personally would recommend small independent ballooning companies, as Virgin will have a bigger backlog than the smaller companies, and you will get a little more notice if a flight is likely to be called off with an independent company. (Virgin will cancel at the last minute to ensure all slots that can be are flown - often getting you out to the take-off point even if only a limited chance of flying)

Happy landings!
 
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