This morning our hot air balloon flight launches again from Earlham Park Norwich our forecasters had given us a good weather window for an early morning balloon ride the key is always to start early when the surface winds are light we often experience what the met office call nocturnal jets that form overnight when there has been no cloud cover and rapid cooling they are very common in Norfolk and Suffolk and can be used to steer the balloon during flight What happens is that a slightly denser band of air forms between 200 and 500 feet then another above that at around 800 to 1200 feet these are wind sheer layers known it the trade as inversions between these layers the wind becomes compressed so it is quicker and normally flows to the right of the surface layer so how it works We lift off with a very gentle 3mph wind coming from the west and we slowly drift over the UEA car park Burners on and we start climbing at 400 feet per minute at 1000 feet we are travelling at 22 mph with a fifty degrees turn to the right perfect for our transit across Norfolk We pass just to the west of the masts at Stoke Holy Cross which means we will be clear of the Halvergate marshes never the best place for the recovery team to get to you As we approach Brooke we start our descent and start to slow down and turn to the left As we pass through 300 feet we have a good breeze in our faces this means we are descending under the inversion layer into much slower air Perfect We spot a fallow area on the headland of a field next to Seething airfield and touch down gently at 6 mph Our ground crew are right behind us a truly excellent job from these guys would be lost without them