16 year old Jake Prowse worked for Aerosaurus on a work experience week. During his time with Aerosaurus Balloons he went on a training flight with Private Pilot, Charlie Street, who was helping Tom Hoare build up his hours for his PPL (B) license.

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Last Friday I had the experience of sitting in on an Aerosaurus pilot training flight. We went from the base in Exeter to a launch site in Tiverton. We took the 120 balloon, which stands for the envelope size which is 120 000 cubic feet. The flight lasted just over an hour, but as this was not a commercial flight we did not have champagne on board! We landed down near Honiton and hour later after doing some practice touch downs!

When we got back to the yard the much bigger 16 passenger 317 thousand cubic feet balloon was there. It had just come up from down in Devon. The 210 thousand cubic feet balloon had just been taken up to Salisbury where the flights had just started as we can not fly up there before the 1st of August. (See all of our balloons)

After seeing the training flight I have made my mind up that I am going to start learning and go for my license. Then I can fly anywhere; from Launceston through Plymouth up to Somerset, I could be your pilot on your very own Champagne Balloon flight, some in the South West!

Due to an increase in demand for private/exclusive flights, Aerosaurus has decided to upgrade its smallest balloon.

The balloon will be used to provide champagne hot air balloon flights in the Devon and Cornwall area at our standard flight meeting locations as well as Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire. Before it was scheduled for exclusive flights we wanted to thoroughly test it however and make modifications. Now with a new camera line attached to take In-Flight Photos with, it is ready.

The balloon was tested and inflated by Charlie Street, a trainee pilot sponsored and trained by Aerosaurus Balloons. Charlie will be flying the balloon alongside commercial pilots Arthur, Mandy and Colin.

On a seperate note sponsorship of the balloon is available with space on the large 120,000 cubic foot for advertising. For more information and details regarding advertising please contact Becky or alternatively feel free to visit our Balloon Sponsorship page in the Corporate Section.

After having spent time in Spain and Austria flying and studying. I’ve now taken all my exams for my PPL (private pilots license). There were 5 exams in total, Navigation, Meteorology, Human Factors, Ballooning Systems and Air Law all of which have 20 questions (except for Human Factors, which has 10).

In the end the exams were a success, I passed Air Law with 100% in Spain (with the famous Kevein Meehan and Tim Revel as my instructors/tutors) and then at Cameron’s Factory in Bristol I passed the other exams with Colin Wolstenholme as the examiner. On the whole I was happy with my results, granted I had to re-do Navigation (obviously, the hardest exam), but in the retake I got over 80%.

 If you are interested in becoming a PPL or want to find out more generally about ballooning feel free to email me at charlie@ballooning.co.uk. On a seperate note I’d like to say many thanks to Cameron Balloons who as part of their continued commitment to ballooning allow PUT’s (Pilot’s Under Training) to do exams for free! Many Thanks Colin.

After settling into my new home for the next 2+ weeks, the previous night, I prepared for the task ahead of me: Passing 5 CAA exams (Navagation, Meteorology, Human Performance, Ballooning Systems and Air Law) as well as a tether and one solo flight. A daunting aspect for any mere mortal!

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Once again this young PUT (Pilot Under Training) is lucky enough to be abroad ballooning. I’m currently in Spain at the Ultramagic Academy in Igualada attending a course on Hot Air Ballooning. The end aim being that I pass all my exams and successfully fly one solo flight. This then will mean I’ll officially be a PPL (B) license holder (English Definition: I’ll be a private Hot Air Balloon Pilot). 

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