THE Warrnambool husband and wife who were burnt in a freak hot air balloon accident yesterday are well-known community volunteers. Stuart Prince, 65, and his wife, Heather Martin-Trigg, 51, were taking part in an early-morning joy flight when the terrifying incident occurred north of Bendigo.
It is believed the flight was a birthday present which had been postponed from earlier this year due to hazardous weather conditions.
Mr Prince, who suffered serious burns to his right arm and lower extremities, was in a stable condition in The Alfred hospital yesterday after being transported from the scene by helicopter.
Ms Martin-Trigg was taken by road ambulance to the Bendigo hospital and also transferred to The Alfred in a stable condition yesterday afternoon.
The couple are both life members of 3WAY-FM where Mr Prince is a founding member and presenter and Ms Martin-Trigg is the committee treasurer. She is also vice-president of the Friends of the Warrnambool Art Gallery.
They own and operate Henna Street Picture Framers and Ms Martin-Trigg also works with the Vision Radio Network.
The balloon, operated by the Goldrush Ballooning company, was on a regular flight from Bendigo with eight passengers ? two from Warrnambool, two from Rochester and four from Melbourne.
It was under the control of a Bendigo man who has 12 years experience as a pilot.
For the second year in a row, the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta was marked by the tragic death of a person in a balloon. Now, Wells Fargo Bank is trying to help the families of those at the center of this year's accident. Wells Fargo opened the account for the families of pilots Keith Sproul and Stephen Lachendro, who were in the "Wings Of Wind" balloon when it hit a power line last Friday morning. The gondola caught fire and separated from the balloon envelope, crashing to the ground.
Thieves made off with radios, computers and other items. Wells Fargo has already donated $1,000 into the account to help the families deal with expenses surrounding the funeral, medical care costs and the break-in . Donors who want to give to the account can contact Wells Fargo and should ask about donating to the Debbie Sproul account.
hi, would you advertise my balloon in your directory, balloons for sale section, thanks regards, david.
lindstrand 105 a series, 118 hours, red/yellow/blue. no artwork, fully complete, very pritty, cmeron basket, suade top/poles leg leathers, all tank straps, cameron mk 4 double burners rego fittings, x 3 worthington 40 litre cylinder tanks, blue covers, teema fittings, but with rego fitting adapters, bonano quick release. refueling hose, tether rope, all complete very tidy outfit, bargain UKP 4550 djfarrar@fsmail.net
Is this the reason that Albert Turkey keeps having fatals??
I know I wrote in several places last year that it must be the most dangerous festival on earth.
This year it has done nothing to dispel the myth.
But I just came across this.
Oct 12, 2008 (Albuquerque Journal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX)
Maryann Myers flew in from Michigan just to see the fabled balloons she had heard so much about. But all she got to see Saturday morning were flames shooting from a propane tank and some people flying kites. "We're very disappointed," she said.
Saturday's mass ascension was canceled due to wind, leaving a restless weekend crowd milling around the park seeking a diversion -- there's not much to see at a balloon festival sans balloons.
But organizers and pilots made every effort to appease the masses. Before the sun rose, several propane tanks belched fire into the darkness, surrounded by appreciative crowds.
Myers was standing near one such tank with her daughter-in-law and granddaughter Saturday morning, deciding what to do with the rest of their day. They planned to take in some of the booths at fiesta, visit the balloon museum and were hopeful that some balloons might inflate but stay grounded.
"We'll try and salvage the day," said Myers' daughterin-law Camely Myers, of Albuquerque. She said she has other activities planned for the weekend visit, but nothing that rivals the mass ascension.
"This was supposed to be the highlight," she said.
As the sky grew lighter and the crowd thinned, an enormous sheet of balloon material became a playground for the remaining children. Held near the ground by organizers at each corner, the sheet flapped in the wind as kids ducked underneath and played beneath its folds.
Colby Boudet, 4, was having fun playing under the sheet, but he still hadn't seen what he came for. Boudet's family flew in from Illinois on Friday for a trip they've been planning for nearly a year.
"We haven't seen a balloon yet," said Colby's father, Robert Boudet. But despite the disappointment, he said his son was finding ways to have fun anyway.
"He's having a good time collecting the trading cards," he said. "He loves balloons; that's his No. 1 thing."
Although several teams tried to inflate their balloons on the ground, their efforts were stymied by the winds. The Wells Fargo stagecoach made perhaps the most valiant effort but had to be deflated before it fully took shape.
The morning's only silver lining was that the same wind that canceled the ascension provided excellent kite-flying weather.
Colbie Boyd, 3, was flying a kite with her grandmother Saturday and seemed unconcerned about the cancelation. Her parents are pilots who live in Albuquerque, so there is no shortage of balloons in her world.
"Last Saturday was beautiful," said her grandmother, Jan Alford. Just then, though, Boyd let go of her fish-shaped kite, and Alford had to go running after it.
A farewell mass ascension is scheduled for 7 a.m. today, weather permitting. Inside
The balloon pilot injured in Friday's crash that killed another man remained in critical condition Saturday.
Now if that is not pouring the pressure on I'm not sure what is.
Is the Albert Turkey festival for balloonists or the public watching??? If it has turned into an event to please the masses then something is out of balance.
It amazes me that a local newspaper was not more sympathetic to high winds and their associated problems after last Fridays accident.
Looks like at Albert Turkey its less than a 1/1000 chance of death or serious injury when the flying field is opened.
Just being the biggest does not make an event the best.
But then thats America for ya all.
On a much brighter note, the 2010 Gordon Bennett coming to the UK, thats fantastic well done Jon and David.
Some better and fantastic balloon news from the USA
Adventurer David Hempleman-Adams has told how he landed a balloon in pitch black darkness to avoid plunging into one of the planet's biggest lakes.
The explorer from Box has just won the world's oldest air race with an 1,100-mile flight across the USA which ended on his 52nd birthday.
He and his co-pilot Jon Mason, 35, had been forced to choose between a complete darkness landing or the risk of ending up in Lake Michigan as they scented success in the prestigious Gordon Bennett gas balloon race.
Father-of-three Mr Hempleman-Adams took the decision to land the balloon in the dark rather than risk flying over the Great Lake without enough ballast.
He said: "I know you should never land a balloon at night but we had to make that decision as we didn't have enough sand to go over the lake and the balloon was going down."
The pair made two attempts to land in the drama on Friday at the end of the race, in which the winner is the crew flying the furthest distance.
"It's hard to judge from the air at night what is on the ground. During our first attempt what we thought were small bushes turned out to be 45 ft trees so we had to try again. We flew over the trees and landed near a maize crop."
The pair had taken off on Monday from Albuquerque in New Mexico and landed north of Chicago at 5am on Friday in their balloon Lady Luck.
They did not discover they had become the first British team ever to win the competition named after the man who gave his name to the famous exclamation until they had had a few hours of sleep.
Mr Hempleman-Adams said: "The sheriff picked us up and took us to the local hotel where we collapsed.
"We'd been flying for 74 hours taking it in turns to sleep at two-hourly intervals curled up on the floor of the basket. When we woke there was a note under the door from our chase team which said, 'Well done boys, you've won!'
"We thought we'd come second so it was a very good birthday present."
There were 12 crews in the contest, the 52nd ever held.
Mr Hempleman-Adams said. "It was a very tactical race with everyone trying to outdo each other like a game of poker."
Co-pilot Mr Mason, a consultant clinical psychologist who works in Canterbury, said: "We are a great duo and a foil for one another. David needs someone to restrain him and I need someone to encourage and push me. We arrive at a middle ground. We also work well together because we have different skills. "David is excellent at looking at the bigger picture and navigating while I am good concentrating on the detail doing what we have to do there and then."
He said he accepted the risky decision his co-pilot had made.
"It's easy to highlight the dangers but people do things all the time that are risky that, in the end, become routine.
"Gas ballooning isn't rocket science. You fill the balloon with gas that's lighter than air and you take sand with you. The risk isn't flying a gas balloon - it is flying a balloon for four days in bad weather when you are tired and in the dark."
One of their scariest moment came when the duo were hit by a snowstorm.
Mr Hempleman-Adams said: "We had some difficult weather. During the day it reached 42 degrees but at night it crashed to about 8 degrees and we would shiver.
"Once, we were up at 13,000 ft and it started to snow. The cooling on the balloon made it come down very quickly and we descended to 5,000 ft."
Another brush with death was when the team spotted two jets flying too close for comfort.
"At one stage we were over Albuquerque at 5,000 ft and two jets came in underneath us with only 500ft clearance and scared the daylights out of us," Mr Hempleman-Adams said.
The pair were due to fly back into Britain this morning.
The competition - founded by newspaper tycoon and adventurer Bennett - is described as the most prestigious event in aviation and the ultimate challenge for the balloon pilots and their equipment.
It was started in 1906, when 16 balloons were launched from Paris, but has never before been won by Britons.
It was put on ice at the outbreak of the Second World War and not revived until 1983.
The victory means the race will start from the UK in 2010.
Mr Hempleman-Adams turned to extreme and endurance ballooning after years of conquering mountains and polar regions.
He has climbed the tallest peaks on all seven continents, travelled to both the North and South Poles, completed the first balloon flight to the North Pole and the first flight across the Northwest Passage. He also completed the first balloon flight across the Atlantic in an open wicker basket in 2003. He holds the world altitude record for Roziere (a combination of gas and hot air) balloons at more than 41,000 ft.
By Gretchen Becker Posted: October 12, 2008 Read Comments(3) Recommend E-mailPrintShareA A A planned $2 million recreation of a historic balloon flight would give Conner Prairie visitors a bird's-eye view of the Fishers living-history museum. The project was expected to be announced today, said Ellen Rosenthal, Conner Prairie president and chief executive officer.
Beginning in June, a $10 ticket would let museum guests take a 15- to 20-minute hot-air balloon ride at an elevation of 350 feet. Rosenthal said Friday that the Balloon Voyage exhibit commemorates John Wise's 1859 launch of the first manned balloon intended to travel cross-country, from Lafayette to New York. "It is one symbolic event that draws attention to how much progress and scientific advancement was being made," Rosenthal said. "At this event, 20,000 people were there. There were only 19,000 people in Indianapolis then. (Since) 2009 is also the 150th anniversary . . . it's now or never to do the exhibit." Wise, a Philadelphia native, was trying to prove that mail could be delivered across the country by air, Rosenthal said. Winds on Aug. 17, 1859, sent him south instead of east as planned, so he landed 40 miles away in Crawfordsville. Although a train eventually delivered the mail, the landmark launch was still considered a success. Dan Freas, Conner Prairie's director of museum experience, discovered Wise's story, Rosenthal said. To learn more, museum representatives visited the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., to which one of Wise's relatives donated his journals and notebooks. Tom D. Crouch, a senior curator of the Smithsonian's aeronautics division, told Conner Prairie representatives he'd waited years for an exhibit like this to introduce people to early flight attempts in America. The exhibit is to be installed in the current Clowes Common area next to the main museum center. Before that can happen, Conner Prairie must appeal a Fishers zoning rule to allow for the equipment, Rosenthal said. The museum plans to renovate Clowes Common to make concessions look the way they would have in 1859, Rosenthal said. Plans also call for an outdoor exhibit to engage guests in activities such as filling gas balloons and trying on the helmets of balloon pilots, or aeronauts. The Balloon Voyage would join other living-history experiences at Conner Prairie, which include recreated towns from 1836 and 1886 and a Lenape Indian camp from the early 1800s, when white settlement of the area was beginning. • Call Star reporter Gretchen Becker at (317) 444-2805.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Pilots of hot air balloons on Saturday mourned the loss of one of their own in a fiery crash at Albuquerque's famous festival, even as they said another pilot fighting for his life after the accident would want them to keep flying.
Saturday's weather failed to cooperate. Windy, stormy weather grounded balloons readying for a morning mass ascension, and evening fireworks also were canceled, lending a somber mood to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
Keith Sproul of North Brunswick, N.J., was critically injured Friday when the gondola of his Wings of Wind balloon crashed into power lines and exploded into flames over the town of Bernalillo. His co-pilot, Stephen Lachendro of Butler, Pa., was killed.
Sproul remained in critical condition Saturday, a hospital spokesman said.
"Our friend who's fighting for his life in the hospital, he would have wanted us to fly if it was flyable. I mean, that's what we do," said balloon pilot Chris Keefe of Oshkosh, Wis.
Keefe said Sproul was one of about a dozen balloon pilots who belong to the dawn patrol, a handful of balloons that launch before sunrise to test air currents for other balloons that will take off later. The crash occurred around 8 a.m., too late for Sproul to have been carrying out those duties.
The pilots said Sproul would want them to learn from the accident.
Pilot Craig Kennedy of Albuquerque said of Sproul: "I'll bet you that he will share his experience with any pilot who will listen to explain what happened, so that we can learn from it."
Balloon fiesta spokeswoman Kathie Leyendecker said Lachendro was a "very well-loved pilot."
"There's lots of warm conversations and reminiscing going on today," she said.
Pilots and fiesta organizers gave no thought to shutting down the festival, which ends Sunday.
"It provides a lot of joy and excitement for a lot of people," Keefe said. "We don't consider (ballooning) a risk-taking activity. Just like an airline pilot flying cross-country with a load of passengers, he doesn't consider his job a risky thing."
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash. Witnesses on the ground said it was windy at the time, and authorities said they received several reports of hard landings within about 15 minutes of the crash.
Six people died from 1990 to 2007 when their balloons hit or snagged power lines during the fiesta. Four died in 1982 when propane tanks on a balloon exploded.
ONE man died and another was seriously injured when the balloon they were in crashed in the United States yesterday.
The balloon hit power lines and burst into flames at a ballooning festival near Albuquerque, New Mexico, throwing the two men to the ground.
Witnesses at the International Balloon Fiesta said winds had picked up and many of the balloons were flying low just before the Wings of Wind crashed in Bernalillo, just north of Albuquerque, in the southwestern American state.
Stephen Lachendro was killed and Keith Sproul was critically injured.
Kathie Leyendecker, a spokeswoman for the annual festival, said she did not know who was piloting the balloon.
Mr Lachendro was found dead on the side of a ditch, while Mr Sproul was unconscious and taken to hospital, Rio Rancho Fire Battalion Chief Paul Bearce said.
Witness Glenn Vonderahe said he "couldn't believe it".
"I saw the balloon and the next thing I knew there was a lot of fire and smoke. There was fire under the balloon," he said.
He said the balloon landed, then bounced back up and apparently hit some power lines.
The balloon was stuck in the lines, then Mr Vonderahe saw the balloon portion - called the envelope - float away, a burning tank still attached. "Debris was flying everywhere," he said.
The tank fell harmlessly to the ground and the envelope was eventually found about 25km away.
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.
The yellow, brown and orange triangle-shaped balloon was among hundreds competing in events at the weekend balloon festival.
Mr Lachendro was a father of two sons and a daughter and enjoyed ballooning with friends, said his daughter, Amanda.
"I just want everyone to know that he loved what he did," she said.
The annual festival is Albuquerque's major tourist drawcard, but it has had fatalities before, mostly from balloons hitting power lines.
Last year, a 60-year-old was killed. In 1982, four people died. Other fatalities were recorded in 1990, 1993 and 1998
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. (AP) — More than a year after the mysterious disappearance of millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, searchers found the wreckage of his plane in the rugged Sierra Nevada, along with enough remains for DNA testing.
A small piece of bone was found amid a field of debris 400 feet long and 150 feet wide in a steep section of the mountain range, the National Transportation Safety Board said at a news conference Thursday. Some personal effects also were found at the site.
Officials conflicted on whether they had confirmed the remains were human.
"We don't know if it's human. It certainly could be," Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said late Thursday, hours after the leader of the NTSB had said the remains were those of a person. "I refuse to speculate."
Asked about the sheriff's assessment of the physical evidence, NTSB spokesman Terry Wiliams reaffirmed NTSB acting Chairman Mark Rosenker's earlier statement.
"We stick by that. It's human remains," said Williams, who declined to say how the NTSB had arrived at that conclusion.
Fossett, the 63-year-old thrill-seeker, vanished on a solo flight 13 months ago. The mangled debris of his single-engine Bellanca was spotted from the air late Wednesday near the town of Mammoth Lakes and was identified by its tail number. Investigators said the plane had slammed straight into a mountainside.
"It was a hard-impact crash, and he would've died instantly," said Jeff Page, emergency management coordinator for Lyon County, Nev., who assisted in the search.
NTSB investigators went into the mountains Thursday to figure out what caused the plane to go down. Most of the fuselage disintegrated on impact, and the engine was found several hundred feet away at an elevation of 9,700 feet, authorities said.
"It will take weeks, perhaps months, to get a better understanding of what happened," Rosenker said before investigators set off.
Search crews and cadaver dogs scoured the steep terrain around the crash site in hopes of finding at least some trace of his body and solving the mystery of his disappearance once and for all. A sheriff's investigator found the 2-inch-long piece of bone.
The remains are enough for a coroner to perform DNA testing, Rosenker said.
"Given how long the wreckage has been out there, it's not surprising there's not very much," he said.
Fossett vanished on Sept. 3, 2007, after taking off from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton. The intrepid balloonist and pilot was scouting locations for an attempt to break the land speed record in a rocket-propelled car.
His disappearance spurred a huge search that covered 20,000 square miles, cost millions of dollars and included the use of infrared technology. Eventually, a judge declared Fossett legally dead in February. For a while, many of his friends held out hope he survived, given his many close scrapes with death over the years.
The breakthrough — in fact, the first trace of any kind — came earlier this week when a hiker stumbled across a pilot's license and other ID cards belonging to Fossett a quarter-mile from where the plane was later spotted in the Inyo National Forest. Investigators said animals might have dragged the IDs from the wreckage while picking over Fossett's remains.
The rugged area, situated about 65 miles from the ranch, had been flown over 19 times by the California Civil Air Patrol during the initial search, Anderson said. But it had not been considered a likely place to find the plane.
Lt. Col. Ronald Butts, a pilot who coordinated the Civil Air Patrol search effort, said gusty conditions along the mountains' upper elevations hampered efforts to search by air, as did the small amount of debris that remained after the plane crashed.
"Everything we could have done was done," Butts said.
Searchers had concentrated on an area north of Mammoth Lakes, given what they knew about sightings of Fossett's plane, his travel plans and the amount of fuel he had.
"With it being an extremely mountainous area, it doesn't surprise me they had not found the aircraft there before," Lyon County Undersheriff Joe Sanford said.
As for what might have caused the wreck, Mono County, Calif., Undersheriff Ralph Obenberger said there were large storm clouds over the peaks around Mammoth Lakes on the day of the crash.
Fossett made a fortune in the Chicago commodities market and gained worldwide fame for setting records in high-tech balloons, gliders, jets and boats. In 2002, he became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon.
He also swam the English Channel, completed an Ironman triathlon, competed in the Iditarod dog sled race and climbed some of the world's best-known peaks, including the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
"I hope now to be able to bring to closure a very painful chapter in my life," Fossett's widow, Peggy, said in a statement. "I prefer to think about Steve's life rather than his death and celebrate his many extraordinary accomplishments."
Marcus Wohlsen reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Malia Wollan in San Francisco and Scott Sonner in Reno, Nev., contributed to this report.
The website PLANETE BALLOON will be online at the beginning of May. The goal is to show "where to fly hot air balloon in the world" and it will offer you the possibility to exchange ideas, find/propose a job as balloon pilot, sale/buy material etc., it's free. We choose you to represent your country.
If you confirm your membership, thank you to send back the membership application and to make the link with our website.
On the contrary, if you do not wish to be member, you will be immediately removed from the world map.
We stay at your disposal for any furtherer questions.
We would be pleased to count you as member of Planete Balloon!
LUXOR, Egypt (AP) - Seven tourists in Egypt suffered minor injuries when their hot air balloon crash-landed Wednesday in the pharaonic city of Luxor, police said. Four of those hurt are Scottish and the others are from Belgium, England and New Zealand, said Al-Shafie Mohammed Hassan, the police chief in Luxor. Two of the tourists were hospitalized with broken bones, Hassan said.
Hot air ballooning, usually at sunrise, is popular with tourists in Luxor, the site of the Valley of the Kings and other ruins from Egypt's pharaohs.
Come celebrate the best year of Lisa's life all in support of 'Reach For The Sky!' a hot air balloon event dedicated to children with developmental disabilities.
All proceeds raised at the LeVack Block will be used to elevate this highly anticipated event far off the ground!
Suggested admission to LaVeck Block: $10 cover Special balloon martini's Hot DJ's Birthday cake Special *guest* appearances! Much, much more!
What is Reach for the Sky?
Reach for the Sky is a hot air balloon event dedicated to children living with developmental disabilities. The magical day will be held in June 2009 in Port Perry Ont (1.5 hrs north east of Toronto)
Objectives:
• An integral fundraising initiative for children’s programs which are not supported by the government and rely solely on public donations • To raise public awareness of developmental disabilities • To bridge family, charity and community
Event Attendees:
• The overall community and balloon enthusiasts of all ages • Families and their children with developmental disabilities • Charity staff and front line workers • Event sponsors
Charity Involvement:
• 50% of proceeds raised will be donated to The Reena Foundation in Toronto www.reenafoundation.org • 50% of the proceeds raised will be donated to a local childrens's charity for the developmentally disabled within the Port Perry/Scugog Township area
If you love meeting new and exciting people, supporting children's charities and have ALWAYS wanted to go up in a hot air balloon, join our event planning committee today!
Volunteer positions are available, details at event!
Submit inquiries to lisa_bradburn@hotmail.com for a full outline of volunteer responsibilities. Thank you for your interest in Reach for the Sky!
This is an ideaNation sponsored event.
ideaNation's mission is to INSPIRE, CONNECT & SUPPORT people who want to make a difference by developing projects in their community.
Steve Fossett, who has been declared dead aged 63, made his fortune on the Chicago futures exchange and embarked on a dogged campaign to break more world records than any other sportsman in history; he set 116 records in hot air balloons, sailing boats, gliders and powered aircraft, getting into numerous scrapes and surviving several brushes with death.
Steve Fossett: 'The things I do are things that a lot of other people would like to do – I actually go out and do them'
In 2002, after a series of dramatic failures, Fossett became the first person to fly around the world alone in a hot air balloon, completing 19,428.6 miles around the Southern Hemisphere in two weeks.
During a previous attempt, in 1998, his balloon caught fire and ruptured during a thunderstorm after 14,000 miles and he plunged 29,000 ft into the shark-infested Coral Sea off Queensland. For several hours no one knew whether he was alive or dead. His eventual rescue after 23 hours made international headlines.
Three years after his ballooning triumph, in March 2005 Fossett became the first person to fly an aeroplane solo around the world without refuelling - completing the journey in 67 hours. Four months later he and a co-pilot completed a transatlantic flight in a replica First World War wood and canvas bi-plane, navigating the route from Newfoundland to Clifden on the west coast of Ireland with nothing but a sextant and a compass.
In February 2006 Fossett again circumnavigated the globe non-stop and smashed the record for the longest flight by any aircraft in history; he covered 26,389.3 miles, beating the previous record of 25,361 miles set by the Breitling Orbiter balloon in 1999.
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After keeping himself going during the 76 hour 45 minute flight with 10-minute catnaps and a steady diet of milkshakes, Fossett was forced to make a last-minute diversion from Kent International to Bournemouth Airport; he developed a generator malfunction over Reading which gave him just 30 minutes to land the plane before the batteries went flat. He made it just in time, bursting two tyres on landing.
With co-pilots, Fossett broke some dozen glider records, including, in 2006, the altitude record, with a flight which took him up 50,671ft over the Andes.
As a yachtsman he set 23 official world records and nine distance race records in his maxi-catamaran Cheyenne (formerly named PlayStation). In 2001 he and his crew set a transatlantic record of four days 17 hours, breaking the previous record by 43 hours 35 minutes. Three years later he circumnavigated the globe in 58 days, nine hours and 32 minutes, lopping nearly six days off the previous record.
Not content with mere mechanical propulsion, the indefatigable Fossett swam the Dardanelles; ran the Boston Marathon; raced in the Ironman Triathlon; skied in the 100-mile Canadian Ski Marathon; ran in the 1,165-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across Alaska; climbed the highest mountains on six of the seven continents (only Everest eluded him); and drove in the Le Mans and Daytona 24-hour races.
In Britain he was known, among other things, for his dogged attempts to swim the English Channel. He succeeded on his fourth attempt in 1985, in a swim which took 22 hours and 15 minutes and earned him a prize for that year's slowest crossing. After staggering ashore in France he was whisked off to hospital suffering from hypothermia.
With his paunchy physique and thinning hair, Fossett was an unlikely daredevil adventurer. He did not appear to enjoy the limelight and was reserved and awkward in interviews, regarding the attention he attracted as an inevitable but unwelcome distraction from the serious business of breaking records. He became animated only when discussing plans for yet another endurance attempt.
He was known in Britain for his friendship with Sir Richard Branson, an erstwhile rival balloonist who became a co-sponsor.
Branson once described Fossett as "a loner: half-Forrest Gump, half android" and suggested that he was not so much interested in sport for its own sake as in testing the limits of his own endurance: "If there's an ocean to swim, he'll choose Christmas Day and it must be snowing and, if possible, the only day in the last decade when the channel ices over," Branson observed. "That's Steve for you."
James Stephen Fossett was born on April 22 1944 at Jackson, Tennessee, one of three children of a manager with a pharmaceutical company; he was brought up at Garden Grove, California. As a child he was fascinated by stories of adventure in National Geographic, but found his hunger to prove himself physically stifled at school, where he failed to get into the cross-country and swimming teams on account of asthma.
He found an outlet for his energies in the Boy Scouts. "When I was 12," he told an interviewer, "I climbed my first mountain, and I just kept going, taking on more diverse and grander projects." Aged 13 he became an Eagle Scout, a rank achieved by very few, and he would later serve as president of the National Eagle Scout Association and as a member of the World Scout Committee and of the executive board of the National Boy Scouts of America. "I learned my values in the Boy Scouts," he said, "and I am proud of that."
Fossett took a degree in Economics and Philosophy from Stanford University and (after swimming the Dardanelles) an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. After an unsatisfactory period running IT for a department store, he took a job with the brokerage firm Merrill Lynch in Chicago, specialising in soya beans. Eventually he founded his own firm, Lakota Trading, and moved to Beaver Creek, Colorado.
Although Fossett built up a personal fortune of at least $50 million, he disliked being described as a millionaire, arguing that people should not be described in terms of how much money they have. His heart was always in the quest for sporting adventure. At college he became an endurance sports fanatic, undertaking challenging wilderness hikes and college swimming feats. As a young man he was one of the first particpants in the Worldloppet, a series of cross-country ski marathons around the world. In 1980 he became the eighth skier to compete in all 10 of the Worldloppet races, a feat which earned him a medallion.
At some point in his thirties Fossett typed out a list of his lifetime sporting goals. These included swimming the English Channel, climbing the highest mountains on six continents, establishing eight world records in sailing, and flying non-stop around the world in a balloon. Once his business was firmly established he set out to tick items off the list. He achieved them all - and more. He became a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Explorers' Club, and in 2002 won the Gold Medal of the Fédération Aeronautique Internationale.
Fossett was reticent about discussing the dangers he faced, dismissing his various misadventures as "undesirable circumstances", and he never allowed anything to get in the way of his quest for new feats. "The things I do are things that a lot of people would like to do," he explained. "What's unusual is that I actually go out and do them."
On September 3 last year Fossett took off in a single-engine plane from a private airstrip in Nevada on a planned three-hour excursion to search for a suitable lake bed for a world land-speed record attempt. He had enough fuel for four to five hours, so when he failed to return after six, air search teams were sent out to look for him.
Steve Fossett is survived by his wife Peggy, whom he married in 1968, and by 60 of his records which remain unbroken. There were no children.
It's not every Air Force that has its own balloons, but the Royal Australian Air Force does have some operated by No. 28 Squadron, based in the nation's capital -- Canberra.
The balloon crews conduct regular training flights in the Canberra area in addition to conducting a touring program. Air Force balloon crews represent the service by traveling to many regions of the country where the mobility of a hot air balloon allows them to show the flag at events where it isn't possible or economical to send an RAAF aircraft.
Flying from open spaces rather than airfields, the balloons get around. These photos from the RAAF website are labeled balloon fiesta over Canberra (top), crew (above), burners (below) and one I'll call envelope (at the bottom). The photographers are not identified.
Newton Faulkner performed a selection of his hits way above the Swiss countryside
KENNETH Karlstrom is more used to piloting champagne balloon flights from a St Albans school than taking part in a radio sessions thousands of feet above the Swiss Alps.
As Virgin Balloon Flights'chief pilot, he flew the 100-foot-tall balloon in which singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner lived up to the title of his hit single Dream Catch Me while soaring near to the town of Greyere.
Kenneth normally pilots champagne flights from Nicholas Breakspear School in Colney Heath Lane but he found himself joining 13 lucky passengers to hear dreadlocked Newton play several tracks including his latest single Teardrop.
The performance was recorded for Virgin Radio and the gig was punctuated by the noise of father-of-two Kenneth firing the balloon's burners.
Kenneth and the singer enjoy an after-flight Champagne
The high altitude and cold temperatures meant Newton had to continually warm up his hands and retune his guitar in order to pull off his light-fingered guitar playing.
Unforgettable
It was the first time a radio session has ever been recorded in a hot-air balloon and Kenneth, who has flown balloons all over the world, said: "Every hot-air balloon flight is an unforgettable experience but this had to be in my top 10 and I've been flying for nearly 30 years."
After a 50-minute flight, a soft landing and a champagne toast, Newton continued the celebrations with an impromptu gig in a chalet among the mountains. He was then presented with a platinum gold disc marking half-a-million sales of his number one album Hand Built by Robots.
A video of the full Unplugged and Airborne session is available to watch online at www.virginradio. co.uk Nice one Kenneth, wish I could have made the meet, for those that don't know, the Virgin Balloon guys were flying 6 balloons for a week at Chateaux Dex
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - A gust of wind slammed a hot-air balloon into the ground as it was preparing to land near Austria's border with Germany on Saturday. Police said five people were injured, one seriously. The accident happened around 11 a.m. (1000 GMT) about five kilometers (3 miles) outside the Bavarian town of Koessen as the balloon was about to touch down. Authorities said the wind drove the basket into the ground and caused it to overturn. One occupant suffered serious injuries, and four others were less severely hurt, Austrian public broadcaster ORF reported. Koessen hosts a popular annual series of balloon races.
