by William Spreadbury
From January 1989 through early March 1992, I was a staff pilot for Virgin Airship & Balloon Company Ltd (VABC). For eight plus months each year, I served as Chief Pilot for VABC's Egyptian ballooning operation: Balloons Over Egypt (BOE). In between tours with BOE, VABC would have me flying large ride balloons in England, or promotional balloons about Europe.
During the 1990 summer break from BOE, VABC sent British pilot Trish Watkins and me on a tour of eighteen European countries with a matched pair of inlaid artwork 69 Thunder & Colt's. The objective: promote `The Year of Tourism' for the European Union. Project Manager Susan Carden, crew John and Charily, Trish and I started the tour with a sunset flight over a small town in West Germany. Then came Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Denmark, England, Portugal, Spain, France ...
It was while competing at a rally south of Stockholm, Sweden that we received instructions for one balloon to go back to Berlin, to tether at a Pink Floyd concert, the other to Iceland for free flights. A flip of a coin, and the following morning I and my crew went to catch that once-a-week ferry from Bergen, Norway to Iceland.
A week after Trish and I flipped that coin in Sweden, the crew and I were laying out our balloon on the southern edge of the Arctic Circle in Iceland. So remote a location that the power to the area's only hotel came from a portable Honda generator; a little gasoline, little throttle, pull a rope and on came the lights!
Our inflation fan roared to life at 23:30 hours. By 23:45, all was ready. A moment later, with media on-board, off into the light of the midnight sun we drifted.
Midnight - yet you can see clearly for miles. To the north lay the Atlantic Ocean - smooth as the surface of a mirror. Climb 500 feet, again a look at the Ocean, and seven fishing boats appeared on the horizon - black silhouettes against an ocean of never-to-be-forgotten saffron orange. The beauty of it all was so profound no one uttered a word. The newspaper reporter brought me back to reality with - his finger pointing in the direction of flight: "Volcano!"
Having spent that day traveling about the area, I thought I would not feel uncomfortable working amongst those dormant volcanoes. Yet, when I was actually moving along in a hot air balloon, with the light as it was, through the middle of (what seemed to be) countless inverted cones, most emitting a steady stream of yellow-white sulphur...
For the next hour, sail one volcano after another we did. The silence on-board was broken only by the occasional `hiss' of a venting volcano close by. What made this experience that much more bizarre was, lying just ten miles away, that beautiful orange mirror-surfaced ocean. So calm were both these `giants of nature,' it drove a chill right up my backbone! It was nearing time to land.
Winds at one thousand feet were out of the west, about seven knots. At 500 feet, out of the north at about the same speed. On the surface, ten plus knots out of the south. Navigating to where I wanted to land would not be difficult. Landing safely in the small area available was another matter altogether!
My first attempt failed: Having misjudged the surface wind speed, I dropped out of the 500 foot north-south winds far too early. Adjusting to the sudden impact of a strong wind shear (ten knots plus one way - seven knots plus the other), along with the actual surface wind speed itself, eliminated any possibility of making a safe high approach-short field landing.
Setting up my second attempt, I flew those north-south winds well beyond where I planned for final landing. Doing so allowed me the time needed, once through that shear and into those quick (and getting quicker) surface winds, to focus properly on the job at hand.
My crew was in-place. Balloon was at `volcano top' level. Other than having but five gallons of fuel left - land this time or a long retrieve was assured - everything was fine.
An especially large volcano lay between us and where I wanted to land on Highway One. As with many of the others about, this volcano's downwind side angled right up to the edge of the Highway. Moving along at well over ten knots, putting even a small balloon where it had to go gave cause for concern. If only I could scrub off some of this surface speed ...
Wait a minute - Why not drop into the volcano, stabilize, then on exiting, open the parachute valve just enough to be able to follow the lee slope right down to the Highway? With no other options available, `give it a go' I did. It worked - beautifully!
That particular volcano was very big: an especially large opening, and it was completely dormant: no sulphur activity. Without these critical factors in place, I would never have considered such an action. The fact it was the only volcano for miles about with both mandatory features added even more `spice' to this already very bizarre flight.
Pack up, head back to that `only and lonely' hotel, wake it's staff, crank up that Honda generator, and party till the clock on the wall (battery operated) said 06:00 hours. That gave the crew and me just enough time to make the weekly ferry to Holland ...
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