This Norfolk balloon ride was quite interesting from a pilots point of view. The weather forecast was ‘Down the line’ So we assembled our passengers at Mattishall golf club and launched in a very gentle 3mph breeze coming from the south west. Interestingly when we obtained our departure weather information from Norwich airport they were reporting the wind at 11mph coming from the south east, they are only nine miles away from Mattishall. So an onshore breeze had developed coming in from the coast. (A very common effect near to most coastlines.)
We climbed out to 3,000 feet and we were soon over head Mattishall and heading steadily towards Lenwade. There were two bonfires beneath us and we could see now that the surface wind direction had changed. So we descended and gradually changed direction and were now heading towards the village of Lyng and over the flood plain of the river Wensum. In this area we always remain high as there are outdoor livestock units so we make every effort not to disturb them. Once into open country we made our descent south of the village of Bintree. We continued on south of Guist with the magnificent Sennoew Hall in view. Over the village of Gately we made our approach and landed just before we crossed the B1146 Fakenham road. A big thank you to local farmer Mr Colin Palmer, who assisted us in packing up the balloon and was so helpful and friendly.
One of our passengers Mr Andrew Clarke who is a commercial fixed wing pilot and instructor commented ‘ I really enjoyed it, Brilliant I would do this again!!