Hot Air Balloon Flight - Airborn Adventure

Flying in a hot air balloon is an amazing experience, which you’ll remember forever. Ballooning is both serene and thrilling, offering breathtaking views and a feeling of freedom which is totally unique.

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Time: 3pm meeting time for 4pm start. the sunset is at 5:46pm according to this website: http://www.sunrise-and-sunset.com/en/united-kingdom/london/2014.

Price: £150 + paypal fees.

You can look forward to:

• greeting, registration and pilot briefing

• invitation to help with the inflation & deflation of the balloon

• around an hours flight in a Virgin balloon (10-16 people)

• traditional champagne toast after landing

• certificate signed by your pilot and endorsed by Sir Richard

• retrieval service back to your original launch site

• luxury voucher and gift wallet

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The address:

Shalford Park Sports Pavilion
Shalford Road
Guildford
GU4 8BL

We will organise car pulls to get there or book taxis from the train station in Guildford.

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Surrey is one of the England’s smallest and most beautiful counties, so you can rest assured you will witness picturesque landscapes.

Lying immediately below London, Surrey is surprisingly rural with the rolling chalk slopes of the North Downs, breathtaking country villages and large areas of woodland.

Our hot air balloon Guilford launch site is based by the town’s impressive cathedral high on Stag Hill.

Onboard a hot air balloon Guilford ride, you will see beautiful attractions, including the Tunsgate Arch, the site of the corn market, the majestic Guildhall with its projecting clock, and the ruins of William the Conqueror’s castle.

Within minutes of take-off, you may find yourself looking down upon ‘The Chestnuts, where Lewis Carroll often stayed, whilst his permanent resting place is in the nearby Mount Cemetery.

If one imagines that on a clear day, from the tower atop Leith Hill, you can see parts of Wiltshire some 250-miles distant, then wonder what vistas await you from the basket as you meander slowly above the stunning landscape.

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Who can fly?

• we are unable to fly anyone who is pregnant or has recently undergone major surgery

• anyone who is over 20 stone will be required to pay a supplement, this may also apply to anyone over 18 stone and under 6ft tall.

Important information:

Be prepared and don't miss your flight
It is very important that you are at your launch site for the check-in time so that you can be registered and have the necessary safety briefing before flying. Please plan your route in advance and allow plenty of time to get there as you will not receive a refund if you do not attend a booked flight or miss it because you are late.

What should I wear?
We recommend clothes suitable for a walk in the country depending on the time of year and on the specific day you are flying. Generally warm, comfortable layers are a good idea, plus a cap or other hat for the warmth from the burners. Depending on conditions, you may be walking in wet, muddy fields so sensible shoes or trainers are essential. Usually passengers are asked to help with the inflation and deflation of the balloon which most people really enjoy. This is much appreciated because it helps to make the process much quicker for everyone. So we also recommend you wear clothes which you don't mind getting a little dirty. No designer wear, flip-flops or high heels please as we are unable to accept responsibility for any damage to clothing.

Why would my flight be cancelled?
Sometimes flights have to be cancelled because of the weather and other factors outside of our control. Some of these conditions may be high winds speeds, poor visibility, unusually wet ground conditions, low cloud, rain or snow. Our pilots base their decisions on the latest forecasts from the MET office and local airports and they will always call flights on if it is safe and possible to do so. We do not recommend that people book hotels or make other plans reliant on the balloon flight taking place for this reason. Sometimes a flight will be moved to a back-up site because the forecast conditions are not flyable at the original launch site, because the wind direction from there is not suitable (i.e. going towards a large town, an airport or out to sea) or because the site is otherwise unavailable or unsafe to fly from. The use of back-up sites give flights improved chances of going ahead and your pilot will advise you of this on your flight line. If this happens you will need to attend the flight at the back-up launch site at your own cost

Make sure you're "fit to fly"
Flying in a balloon is a very serene experience while in the air, but it is an adventure activity in the great outdoors and sometimes on landing the basket can tip and/or drag along before coming to rest. This is perfectly normal: the balloon and basket are designed for your comfort and safety throughout the flight. In order to ensure the safety and enjoyment of everyone who flies, it is important that passengers are satisfied they are physically able to take part, that they can climb into the basket, stand unassisted for an hour and adopt the seated landing position, which will be explained by the pilot. They should also be sure they don't have any pre-existing medical conditions which could be affected by the ballooning experience and seek medical advice if unsure. We are unable to fly passengers who are pregnant.

On the day

Please make sure you check the site at 2:15. I will have to call the flight line at 2pm to confirm that there are no changes (virgin procedure). As we are highly weather dependant the flight may be rescheduled or moved to another location and I will post this information for you in the comments section.

FAQs

how long is the hot air balloon flight?
A hot air balloon ride with us lasts for around an hour, depending on prevailing weather conditions and suitability of landing sites, but you should allow at least four hours for the whole experience.

how high will we go?
Sometimes up as high as 5,000 feet - although this depends on airspace and it does vary from area to area and time of the year flown. Even at a few hundred feet the views are incredible and over 1,000 you can start to see for miles!

how far will we fly?

Hot air balloons can’t be steered in the normal sense so they travel on the wind with skilled pilot’s controlling the altitude by heating the air inside the balloon. How far you’ll fly depends on the wind speed. It also depends on how long it takes the pilot to find a suitable landing spot. You could fly a relatively short distance or as far as 20 miles.

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where will we land?
Hot air balloons can’t be steered so they travel on the wind and you never know where exactly you’re going to land. The pilot will start looking for a suitable landing site after around 45 minutes. The retrieval crew will track the balloon on the ground and aim to arrive shortly after landing.

what’s the landing like?
Flying in a balloon is a very serene experience while in the air, but it is an adventure activity in the great outdoors and sometimes on landing the basket can tip and/or drag along before coming to rest. This is how balloons have been landing for over 200 years and is perfectly normal. The balloon and basket are designed for your comfort and safety throughout the flight. During landing you will be in the safe, seated landing position within the basket as instructed by your pilot. The landing is an exciting part of the experience and in many cases people say it is their favourite part of the flight.

what should I wear?
We recommend clothes suitable for a walk in the country depending on the time of year and on the specific day you are flying. Generally warm, comfortable layers are a good idea, plus a cap or other hat for the warmth from the burners. Depending on conditions, you may be walking in wet, muddy fields so sensible shoes or trainers are essential.
Usually passengers are asked to help with the inflation and deflation of the balloon which most people really enjoy. This is much appreciated because it helps to make the process much quicker for everyone. So we also recommend you wear clothes which you don't mind getting a little dirty. No designer wear, flip-flops or high heels please as we are unable to accept responsibility for any damage to clothing and anyone who is dressed inappropriately may not be allowed to fly.

http://www.virginballoonflights.co.uk/gallery/full/010.jpg

can I bring a camera?

Yes, you can bring a camera, binoculars or camcorder as the balloon makes an excellent platform for photography. They must not be in metal cases and they are carried at your own risk. Most of our balloons have special pouches to stow cameras on landing. Some of our pilots in certain areas offer an in-flight photo service and if this is available they will explain this to you on the day.

how big is the hot air balloon?

Our hot air balloons are very large and, once inflated, tower at over 100ft tall or four storeys high. They take between 250,000 and 400,000 Cubic Feet of air to fill.

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Cancellations:

Please note that unless the trip is cancelled the payments are non-refundable as the costs need to be paid in advance. However you may be able to sell your place to your friends or other group members if you follow this procedure; https://www.meetup.com/Curious-Kat-Adventure-Club/pages/What_to_do_if_you_can_no_longer_attend_an_event/ .

Contact:

Please note that in order to keep the costs low, the trips are set up in such a way that they can be fully managed online. The descriptions are very detailed and try to answer all your questions and you will find additional information in pages section of the website. Please only email us if your query is not answered in the event's description andplease only call us in case of emergency. I'm afraid we will not be able to get back to you if your query is answered above as with over 60 events coming almost 4,000 members and current volume of emails, this would require hiring admin support and setting up a call centre, which as you can imagine would increase the costs of the events considerably. Please help us provide excellent trips at fantastic value for you and keep your emails to the minimum. Please make sure you read the event's description before contacting us.

Getting there and back:

If you are taking a taxi to our event, you try 'bounce' app. They are 40% cheaper than black cabs and if you use a referral code CURIOUS KAT you will be getting £10 credit straight away. Note that the code needs to be inserted at the moment of signing up, just after registering the bank card.

PLEASE DO NOT POST COMMENTS BELOW, unless you are selling your place. Comments generate emails that spam inboxes of everyone signed up for the trip. If you have any queries, please email me directly on: kat@adventureclub.biz