Last weekend, on Saturday the 7th of March, Aerosaurus Balloons in partnership with the WRBBAC held a Crew Training Day and Refresher Course.

The day long course was for both pilots, crew and new trainees and covered everything you needed to know to be an advanced member of the crew.

The day was split up into sections, going through the method of a real life flight. We started of going through the preparation pre-flight, then proceeded to the rigging of a balloon (on the launch field) and then finished of with a lesson on propane and refueling. We also  covered throughout the day: map reading, disaster management and land owner relations.

The day was a great success and Aerosaurus Balloons would like to thank the guest speakers, whom came down from Bristol, Rick Hatton and Paul Spellward.

If you’d be interested in working for Aerosaurus Balloons, check our Vacancies page.

For many years Aerosaurus Balloons have provided visitors to their web site the facility to view forthcoming flights and reserve dates online. Previously, owing to the main flying season for hot air balloons in the UK being from April to October, this facility has not operated during the winter months.

The last 3 winters has shown that with the confused weather patterns we are experiencing more settled weather in winter than previously, and more unsettled, often very wet, weather in the so called “best weather” months of May – August. As a consequence this winter Aerosaurus Balloons intend to operate a Winter Flight Schedule to service both existing balloon flight voucher holders, and private/exclusive groups, these flights being able to be viewed and booked either by phone or Flight Availability online.

Additionally, for those passengers who have a degree of flexibility regarding their availability, Aerosaurus Balloons operate a standby facility whereby balloon flight voucher holders can be alerted by text or email of forecast good weather and thus have the opportunity to book a flight taking advantage of the forecast.

On the 12th of September Aerosaurus gave away two Hot Air Balloon Vouchers to Devon Air Ambulance for their annual charity ball. The aim of the event was to raise money and awareness for the local charity, who had just invested in a second air ambulance for the Devon area.

On the night the vouchers raised an impressive £160 for the local charity, money much needed. Aerosaurus would like to congratulate Devon Air Ambulance for the successful evening and thank Fran Carnell, who wrote a very nice thank you letter for us. If you fancy reading the letter they wrote to us then click here.

Aerosaurus is glad to help any charity, if you think we could help you then visit the Charity and Fundraising section of our website.

Although Aerosaurus primarily offers champagne hot air balloon flights over the West Country, we diversified on Saturday however, tethering our new private/exclusive balloon at a open day at the University College of St Mark and St John.

The event started at 10am and potential students, with their parents/friends, entered the university being greeted by ourselves. We then proceeded to keep the balloon inflated for a further 4 hours, whilst keeping it bound to the ground.

The day was a great success, with exceptional weather for this time of the year! Aerosaurus has now also been asked to fly out from the University, this time instead, with our other new balloon. We plan to do this on either the 17th, 21st or 23rd of October, depending on the weather conditions.

Visit the University website

Aerosaurus Balloons recently flew popular radio personality’s Karen Bosley and Stuart McGinley from Spire FM. The two presenters had an hour long champagne balloon ride on Friday morning and took to the skies above Wiltshire. The flight went from Salisbury, then landed in Castle Cary (30 miles away!).

Spire FM placed information and photo’s from the flight on their website. View their article by clicking here.

Having had a successful September we are pleased to say we’ve received countless thank you letters and positive comments regarding customer feedback. In return Aerosaurus would like to say thank you to all it’s customers and we’re glad you’ve all had a lovely experience with ourselves.

A special mention however goes to Lee Greatorex who placed an in depth report of his flight on Flickr, a online photo gallery. Lee flew from Sherbourne on Saturday the 20th of September and for customers wanting to have a look at his pictures, click here.