The saturday afternoon mass accent

Fortum & Mason inflates

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Mad rush to find a space to rig and inflate your balloon

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Fitting the burners

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Adjusting the gas hose

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Routing the gas hose to the burners

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Unpacking a balloon

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The visiting Dutch crew start to build their balloon

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The dutch crew rigging their balloon

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Adjusting the burners

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The Dutch Greetzz team hard at work

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A high powered fan is used initially to inflate a balloon with ambient air before the burners are lit

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The balloon is folded up in the black bag on the trailer and when the crew is ready one member of the crew will hold the balloon as the trailer is driven forward laying it out on the field

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The trailer is driven forward and the balloon is fed out of its bag

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Test burn

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A large basket laid down ready to be attached to the balloon

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The basket is attached and the burners are secure, a high powerd fan blows ambient air into the balloon to initially inflate it , the next step is to light the burner to get hot air into the interior

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burner on all to do now is let nature take its course

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Inflating the balloon

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now the balloon is upright the pilot has to keep the balloon stable by juggling how much hot air he puts into the balloon. This was a critical step as the RICOH balloon was not going to fly but be ground tethered, but when you have a huge balloon and gusting winds the pilot could lose control, our pilot here had his work cut out.

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Inflating the balloon

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In the end all that hard word is rewarded when the balloon can be seen in all its glory.

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The RICOH pilot juggling the amount of hot air inside the balloon to keep its safe tether

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Safely tethered

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RICOH pilot

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The Fortnum & Mason balloon all laid out awaiting inflation

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The balloon is held open to let the fan initially inflate it

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The arena is getting congested and busy

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The colours start to mesmerise me

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5 balloons being prepared for flight

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They are as big on the ground as they seem in the sky

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3 balloons laid out on the ground

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Passengers are briefed by a leading ground crewman

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passengers and invited guests look on as the balloons are inflated

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The cold air fan has done its job

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everywhere you look there is a riot of colour

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And balloons in various stages of inflation

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G-OCTS, a Cameron Z-90, built in 2011 and owned by Andrew Collett of Gloucs.

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A Landstrand LBL 77A owned by Landstrand Media Ltd of cheshire. the balloon was built in 2014

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This Cameron z-105, built in 2007, is owned and operated by Ballooning Networking Ltd of Bristol

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Filling up with hot air

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Mass balloons over Bristol

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From ground level looking up

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Locals! The balloon on the right is one of the Bristol based Ballooning Networking Ltd, Cameron Z-350 built in 2007

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Balloons everywhere

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Virgin balloon flights

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