Hot air ballooning from Peterborough is an excellent choice of venue. The city is located in the county of Cambridgeshire, with an excellent road network; Werrington Centre is very easy to find the county boundaries of Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland are very close by. So if you’re looking for varied scenery this is the launch site that has it all. Perfect for a top quality balloon ride.
On board this evening we had a gentleman called Tony Hill he is a TRE ( Type Rated Examiner) Every 13 months a commercial pilot has to undertake a flight test to ensure that the high standards of passenger flying are maintained in a safe and competent manner. This is always undertaken on a normal commercial flight with members of the public.
Mr Hill joined our safety brief and watched the crew prepare the balloon. No problems there. We launched soon after with a gentle breeze taking us towards Ufford and Stamford. We ascended to 3,000 feet and Stamford and Rutland Water were in clear view. At altitude the wind was taking us back down the west side of Peterborough so we descended to pick up the flow of wind from the south east. Mr Hill asked the pilot to make two low approaches to land and fly high again. After an hour our test was complete with the ‘thumbs up’ from our examiner. We eventually landed south of the picturesque village of Ufford.