Loughborough Students Union Balloon Team

We didn't quite make it above the bridge, nevertheless a great weekend - huge thanks to Spirit Operations, Telford Balloon Fiesta 2021, Telford Hornets RFC and Telford & Wrekin Council for their organisation and hospitality.

Loughborough University balloon having a great weekend at Telford Balloon Fiesta 2021 under the watchful eyes of the animal shapes

Night glow at Telford Balloon Fiesta 2021, with the Loughborough University balloon, crowd of 20,000 enthusiastic on-lookers. Come and say hello if you see us later.

Lovely morning at Telford Balloon Fiesta 2021

Great weekend at the Oswestry Balloon Carnival 2021 - FREE ENTRY - we loved it. Thanks to Lorna, Lee, Oswestry Town Council and Nightingale House Hospice for the event organisation and the people of Oswestry that sent us photos.

At least the rain stayed away. Thank you to everyone who made Northampton Town Festival happen.

Bristol University Hot Air Ballooning Society at Cheltenham

A busy few weeks - Cheltenham Balloon Fiesta with our friends Bristol University Hot Air Ballooning Society and a couple of flights

Which air display are you most looking forward to seeing this June at our ? Get familiar with our line up of dynamic aircraft and hot air balloons on our site. https://bit.ly/2QKbvzU

(📸: Scott Lee)

And the most picturesque place to land😊

Glorious morning for a flight over the Leicestershire countryside

Looking forward to the time after social distancing - stay safe all and hope to see you soon.

Sadly but safely...

Based on the announcement from HM Government this evening (23rd March), the earlier BBAC Statement is no longer relevant.

The instructions from HM Government are clear. No further comment from BBAC is necessary.

Paul Spellward, Chairman, on behalf of the BBAC Main Committee.


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We note the decision by major commercial ballooning operators to postpone the start of their flying season. We send our support and sympathy at this difficult time for the ballooning industry and commercial pilots.

Events during April to June are taking their own decisions to postpone until later in 2020 or to cancel for this year. We hope that the loss of the 2020 running will not damage the long term health of these events.

FINAL REMINDER FOR STUDENT PILOTS TRAINING NOW: continuation of training in the national system is available to those who register by 31st March with the BBAC DTO. This is a specific process, separate from and additional to being a member of the BBAC. Please register and submit your training records as per the information at https://www.bbac.org/shop/Item/p_dto_membership. If you don't do this then you will start again in the new training system after 1st April.

Of interest?

Applications are now open for the British Women Pilot's Association scholarships. There are a range of scholarships for both new and experienced female pilots.
You can find more details on the different scholarships here: https://bwpa.co.uk/scholarships/2020-scholarships/?utm_source=comms&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=iwd_2020

We thought this photo of the ducks that have taken up residence on Paddock Pitch sums up why we haven't flown recently - it's been too wet - we'd love to be flying but we do need lighter winds and somewhere dry-ish to land.

Very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year. Many thanks to everyone who has made 2019 such a fabulously busy year for LSUBT - hoping for dry fields, light winds and rain free days in 2020

Loughborough Students Union Balloon Team's cover photo

Glorious sunrise this morning.

First successful flight of the academic year. Many thanks to Dan our pilot from Nottingham university and Will for helping with the retrieve and of course our fabulous crew.

Loughborough Students' Union

FAO Loughborough Students (unfortunately there is a bit of a glitch with the LSU email system so here goes ...)
Good afternoon budding Balloonist,
I hope you’ve had a good day of lectures.
Many thanks for calling at the Hot Air Balloon Team stall at the Freshers Bazaar on Sunday, there were lots of questions asked, so I thought it might be an idea to address the answers to everyone.
Do I need to know anything about hot air balloons? No, we fly with a qualified pilot and will have an experienced retrieve driver who both are familiar with our balloon. The pilot has ultimate responsibility and will direct you to what needs done.
Does the balloon belong to Loughborough? Yes, the Students Union own it. It is the third Loughborough owned balloon.
Can students fly in it? Absolutely – it’s a club by students, for students – with a bit of help from others. There is only one other UK university that has a balloon for students, so we are very lucky. The basket carries four people.
Where do you take off from? We have local launch sites, but also travel further afield.
Like where? We run trips to various events and locations in the UK and Europe and are open to suggestions from our members for where we might go. Recently we have at flown at Chatsworth, Longleat, Metz in France (this was our long summer trip), Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Cheltenham, Cotswolds. At some events we are supplied with gas and some meals so it can be an economical trip, the UK events usually involve a weekend away, but we do our best to accommodate the needs of those attending.
And what time do you fly? In the summer flights are dawn or early evening when the chance of thermals is reduced, in cooler weather the time of day is less important.
How often do you fly? We flew about 30 times last year – each flight is approximately 1 hour
And what else do you do? We plan to run a ‘Meet the Balloon’ session soon and we will run some other sessions about ballooning as well as purely social events.
How involved do I have to be? That’s up to you, some people join as a cheap way to experience a single flight, others get more involved by joining the committee (that looks special on your CV and will give you something unusual to talk about at the interview) or by helping with things like trailer maintenance, and some have qualified as pilots by learning through the society.
How much does a balloon cost? It was £30,000, ten years ago, paid for by the University Development Trust. The balloon is inspected every year to check it is in tip-top condition.
How does a balloon work? The balloon envelope is first inflated from flat on the ground with a large fan, we then use the burners to heat the air from one of the four large gas tanks that we carry. The warmed air in the envelope will cause us to rise.
Can you control where it goes? We will know the wind direction before we set off and often it is at a slightly different direction at different heights, so we have some control over where we go by altering our height.
How do you arrange flights? We will keep an eye on the general weather forecast and if a flight looks possible, we will ensure we have pilot and retrieve driver available, we’ll then warn you, the crew, that we might be flying and see who is available. When the detailed weather forecast is published, the day before, we will confirm details including meeting point and time, we normally meet at the SU. Ultimately the decision to fly rests with the pilot.
What weather do you need? Dry, with wind below 10 mph and gusts below 20 mph.
How much does it cost and how do I join? Membership is £29 for the year and each flight is £35. To join and pay your membership fee please go to https://loughborough.sums.su/societies/Hot-Air-Ballooning-Club Remember we will hold a draw for a free flight for those who join before midnight on Wednesday
Any questions – please send us a message
Please follow us on Facebook and see some of the things we’ve been up to https://www.facebook.com/lsubt
Best wishes, we look forward to seeing you soon,

loughborough.sums.su

If Bob can do it, so can you. Loughborough Students' Union Loughborough University Register your interest at http://www.lsu.co.uk/signup

Good morning students, looking forward to seeing you at the Freshers Fair in Sir David Wallace sports hall today. Loughborough Students' Union

Thanks to Karl for these pictures of us at SkySafari as we followed Jamie Campbell in his balloon - Great flight, interesting retrieve!!

Last weekend ... in the sunshine

Thank to Gary Morris for these photos. Another weekend of fabulous flying for our first club trip to Longleat. Looking forward to meeting our potential new members at Loughborough Students' Union freshers fair

at Lovely Longleat.
Many thanks to the organisers for a fabulous weekend.

Thanks to Debbie for this photo as we took off into the brilliant blue skies above Longleat

Good to see you at Sky Safari this weekend

And found this image from our previous trip in 2017

Last Friday evening, 420 balloons took off 👏 More than two days to release our colors on the sky of Chambley ⚡ -