Images from
Solo Meet 2007
© All images Flycam BMSS Ltd
The Black Horse Balloon Club
SOLO MEET April 6th, 7th, 8th & 9th 2007
Watching the weather forecasts on TV with a couple of weeks to go it was difficult to say if the weather over the Easter weekend 2007 would turn out balloon favourable or be traditionally wet and windy. However the forecast for Good Friday was “Early mist and fog patches clearing quickly to leave a dry day with little cloud and lengthy spells of warm sunshine. Winds light, mainly northwest Maximum temperature 19°C”.
Outlook for Saturday to Monday: “Staying dry with only patchy cloud allowing long sunny clear periods. Winds mostly light and temperatures continuing rather warm by day”.
Driving to the Black Horse armed with a copy of OS map 165 which would be good enough for retrieve purposes, if needed I was wondering if this years event would feel like the traditional Black Horse All Fools Meets of past years. I was not disappointed. Between Friday afternoon and Monday lunchtime a total of 31 balloons gathered on the field (including nine Cloudhoppers) to make a total 64 flights emptying the Black Horse bulk tank in the course of the weekend.
The highlight, surely, was to witness the first flight by Tim Orchard in his newly delivered Duo Chariot bottom end which was put together with Chris Dunkley and his Team and included a pair of genuine British Airways Concorde leather seats for the pilot and his passenger. What Luxury!
I understand that this bottom end had been a year in the making with the prototype being assembled from electrical conduit and cord from which the final version was built. The welding done by an aircraft welder at nearby Booker before the finished article was taken to the Lindstrand factory in Oswestry for approval to be used as a bottom end under the Lindstrand 77A envelope G-BWBO.
All in all it was a good weekend full of promise to continue in its traditional way of being a meet for balloonists organised by balloonists but where anyone enthusiastic about being involved was encouraged and where members of the public could see balloons up close.
For a full list of the images from the Event contact BMSS Ltd.