Finally the 29th Annual Filzmoos Balloon Fiesta kicked of on the 12th Of January, with 40 Hot Air Balloons taking part in the small village of Filzmoos (South Salzburg, Austria). I joined Alba Ballooning for this event comprising of a team of 1 pilot and 4 crew, 1 land rover and 1 balloon.

Day One

After arriving at Salzburg airport we drove south up into the Alps to the village of Filzmoos and ’signed in’,  collected our hot air balloon banner, gassed up  and went to the weeks briefing in the local centre. Once the administration was complete we had a quick drink and pizza before retreating to our apartment.

Day Two After the snow fall of the first night and a low lying cloud sadly Sunday’s flights were cancelled. So a day of skiing occurred for this young PUT (Pilot under Training). So as the snow fell and the clouds rolled over the mountains and attacked the valleys of the Alps we took to the slopes with a new fresh top layer of snow it made perfect skiing conditions for us.

Come Sunday evening the clouds had cleared, allowing the night glow to take part. This night comprised of all 40 balloons burning their burners to the sound of classical music for 45 mins in total, in the dark! During the night glow the pilots and crew would get seduced by the Austrian hospitality being given free Schnapps and hot wine. for their hard work.

We woke the following morning (Mon 14th January) to a clear and beautiful blue sky, so after the “all clear” at the briefing we marched to the launch field with eager attitudes and inflated our Alba Balloon. A flight of 1hr 30mins took part that morning for ourselves, due to a heavy load and indecisive winds. Meanwhile however our Dutch friends flew for 3hrs!

Upon returning to Filzmoos we gassed up and went and got a hot chocolate and rum each and helped it to go down with a cake, had a sleep and then went out for the evening to the local bar ‘Kennedys’, where we enjoyed the local hospitality and met up with our Dutch and Swedish friends.

Now with one flight under our belts and a clear sky above our heads we went out on Tuesday (15th January) with optimistic hopes. We had got, once again, got the “all clear” and rumours had started spreading about a low band of pressure coming in for the next couple days, making today a very important day to get a nice flight in.
 
So we inflated the balloon and sent up David and Sue from Alba Ballooning along with Pete Forster the pilot. Armed with 6 gas tanks they flew for a total of 2hrs 52minutes getting in a total of 52kms in that time. After Tam and myself found the balloon, we packed it up and travelled back to Filzmoos to gas up and debrief.
 

That evening we went out for drinks with our British friends. They had just purchased a new Lindstrand Balloon (British Flag) and had just gave it it’s first flight the on the Monday, so their moral was high. However our energy levels were low, so after a quick drink and something to eat we went back to the apartment to catch up on some sleep.

The briefing today was a disappointment, no weather information was given a simple “no flying today” was all that was said. Sadly the weather had started to break and was coming in from the North West (low cloud and snow fall).
 

Fortunately a member of our team needed to go home today (Tam), so we drove the 50min/1hr drive to Salzburg and ventured round the city. It was a surreal experience, with a river separating both the old town and the new town. The photo’s below are of the famous castle and Mozart’s birth place.