We were aloft at 7.00 p.m. from wensum valley golf club in Taverham and climbed out to 3,000 feet. It was a beautiful evening with clear views across the city of Norwich and the broads beyond. It was fascinating watching the aircraft and helicopters coming and going from the airport. We had our air band radio tuned into Norwich approach frequency and were able to listen to the various pilots entering and leaving the airport. Under the skillful guidance of Norwich airports air traffic controllers
Our balloon flight over Norfolk took us over Horsford and onto Coltishall. From here the Norfolk broads were laid out before us. Wroxham and Ranworth to our south and Hicking, Horsey and Barton broads shimmered in the evening sunshine to our front. The balloon started its descent as we passed Coltishall and at 900 feet we encountered a sea breeze flowing in from the coast this changed our heading some 100 degrees to the left. We were now heading towards Buxton. This area is not idea to land around due to the density of livestock, so we climbed back up to 3,000 feet and resumed our original heading towards Tunstead. We now knew that on desending again we would turn left at lower altitude. Now here comes the clever bit!! The balloon was now flying parallel to RAF Coltishall which was a perfect place to land. We radioed our ground to ask base security for permission to land. Two minutes later the balloon radio sparked into life ‘You have permission to land on base’
The hot air balloon descended picked up the new wind direction turning gently but surely to the left now we had RAF Coltishall to our front. From the basket we could see base security escorting our ground retrieve team towards us. The pilot instructed all passengers to stow cameras and prepare for landing. The balloon gently touched down on the northern sector of the runway after1 hour30 minutes in the air.