Balloon Life,April 2000

62

Experience of others can help prepare you for the unexpected!

HangarFlying

editedbyGeorgeDenniston

Hot AirinAfrica

by Tracy Robb

The art of hot air ballooning in Africa can
be a little nerve-rack-ing at times. For the
mostpart,the weather isgoodwith pre-
dictable seasonal winds. Generallythere
islotsof space to land.
Takeoff for us was at a private game
reservecalledMabulaLodge,situated
abo utt hreeh o ursd riv en ort hof
Johannesburg,SouthAfrica.Thispar-
ticular terrainis not too balloon-friendly.
Landing sites are few and far between. If
you miscalculate and miss an open area, it
ishighly likelythatthe balloonwillend
up gift-wrappinga large thorntree. This
makesthe repair station veryhappy,but
theowneroftheballoontendstoget
upset.Welaunchedfromanopenarea
near the airstrip and drifted in a southerly
direction. I plannedon landing at a place
called“thatchgrassplain.” This was the
last open area before crossing the bound-
aryfence of the reserve.
During the flight we saw a 3-day-old
rhino calf withitsmother, and were able
toreportitsexact locationto the rangers
usingaGPS.Whenweflyingame re-
serves, it is important to work closely with
the park management. The balloon is use-
ful for observing herd movement andlo-
cating scarce or injured animals. The pas-
sengerswere alsopleasedtoseealarge
herdof buffaloanda herdof the largest
antelope—theeland.Allthiswhilesip-
pingchampagne!
The animalsare acclimatizedto the
sound of the balloon and generally do not
paymuchattentiontousdriftingover-
head. However landing nearbuffalo could
be hazardoustoone’shealth.A cantan-
kerousoldbullis nottobe taken lightly

and is totally unpredictable. Before land-
ingwe usually getthe groundcrew togo
up andcheck outthe landingsite for any
obstacles, or other concerns. Towards the
end of the flight mycrew calledandsaid
that it all looked clear at thatch grass plain.
Wepreparedforlanding.Thatchgrass
impliesthatthegrassisverythickand
long,suitableforthatchgrassroofing.
The grass was as tall as the burner. Natu-
rally all source of flame was extinguished
beforewelanded.Ireleasedthecrown
line, andone ofthecrew setoff into the
long grass to pull theballoon down.Within
2 seconds he was back, looking pale and
frightened. He had walked into a sleeping
white rhino. The rhino had woken up and
stomped off in the opposite direction. We
did not know how far the beast hadgone.
Fortunately it was a non-aggressive white
rhino. We figured that if we made enough
noise it would keep on moving away. This
provedtobethecase,andwegotthe
balloon packed away without further ado.
Thepoorcrewmemberwasreallyquite
shaken. Last we heard he was looking for
a jobsomewhere in the opendesert!
Ballooningis at its best inAfrica in
theSerengetiNationalParkinTanzania
(EastAfrica). There are milesandmiles
ofwide open plains, no powerlines, phone
linesordifficultlandowners.Theonly
thingwe had todo was landon a road or
existingtrack.Whenyouareflyinga
Cameron A315 and coming in for a land-
ingat25knots,itisreallynicetohave
space to dragup tothe road.
Thepassengersareloadedintothe
basketpriortoinflation,lyingontheir
backs.Asthebasketcomesuptheyare

theninaseatedpositionfacingback-
wards. The baskets have a hard foam seat
cushion in eachcompartment. With high
speedlandingsitmakessensetoface
backwards. The landing position is to turn
around and sit down. If you face forwards
thereisagoodchanceof beingthrown
forwardandoutoninitiallanding.The
pilotisrequiredtoweararestrainthar-
ness. We would generally take off in a dry
river course witheach balloontied off to
a 2-ton truck. Withten crew per balloon,
thetaskoflayingoutandcoldinflating
was reallyquick. The pilot is free to col-
lectguests,arrive atthelaunchsite toa
cold-inflatedballoon,briefthepassen-
gers, inflate and fly.
Onemorning wearrived at the launch
site to findall the crew inside the trucks.
The balloonswerecoldinflatedalready
withthefansrunningat aslower speed.
Whenaskedwhytheywereallinthe
vehicles, there was a show of hands point-
ing to the crown—and there was a lioness
playing withthe crownline.Itwould be
reallystupidtowalkupandaskthebig
kitty to let go, and go away. We drove the
Lan droveraro und,flashedth elights,
hooted, andmade a lot of noise. Nothing
doing—this catwasplaying and nothing
was going to disturb her. All we could do
wasplaythewaitinggame.Eventually
shetiredof the game,andlopedoff into
the plainsgrass.
Duringoneflightwewereflying
around 30 feet toward a herd of some 250
buffalo.Theysawusapproachingand
startedtomoveawayfromus. The bal-
loonwas moving at a speed of around20
knots,soweovertookthemfairlysoon.

61

Balloon Life,April 2000

At that stage I had climbed to 60 feet. As
we passed over theherd, it seemed as
though they had all eaten baked beans.
Thesmellthatgreetedus inthebasketwas
quitesomething.Quicklyweclimbed
higher,but the odor hung around for a
while. One passenger asked if it was the
smell that made us rise so fast!
Another time after we hadlanded, we
were surrounded by a troop of very in-
quisitivebaboons. They were in fact a bit
ofa menace and were gettinginthewayof
the crew trying to pack up. Atone stage a
largemalegrabbedthealreadycoiled
crownrope and started to walk off withit.
I went to try and shoo him away and was
met with a really threatening glare—not
tobe messed with. He tooeventuallytired
of the game andallowed usto retrieve the
now unwound crown line.
Breakfast could be amusing, and at
timesanadrenaline-filledexperience. We
were sittingat table next to the Seronera
River. One of the crew came to warn me
that there was a herd of elephants down-
stream.Wekept ourears openfor the
sound of branches breaking and for the
lowgrumblingsoundthatelephantsmake,
as well as theoddtrumpet call.They
sounded quite far away. Suddenly a cow
elephant appeared through the bush, di-
rectlyinfront ofus. She had made a circle
aroundus andsneaked up,as only an
elephant can.Well,weall gotup and
moved slowlybackwards to the vehicles.
Once we were all safely in the vehicles,
she moved inanddevoured the freshfruit
onthe table. Thenshe ambled off torejoin
the rest of the herd. All was well and the
passengershadtheir fairshare of elephant
photos.
The most important thing about fly-
inginAfrica is thatpilotswho have flown
therehavea great respect forthe wild
animals and the bush in which they live.

Top:Author withtheCameronA-315 basket. Note seatsfor passengers.
Inset:Baboonhelpingwithcrownline.
Lower left:Animalsrunningwith the balloon.
Lower right:Breakfaston the Serengeti plain.

HANGAR FLYING with George Denniston is presented to enhance safe flying by
providing balloonists the opportunity to gain experience from others without actually
flying. The column is edited by George Denniston who is a do ctor an d ballo onist livin g
in Seattle, Washington. Articles may be signed or anonymous to protect the privacy of
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