The first Cheltenham Balloon festival took place over the weekend and we took our Kubicek BB26E (90) Sport Balloon G-CKTG.

The event took place at the Cheltenham Racecourse world famous for the Gold Cup. With glorious weather we were able to fly on the Saturday with 2 flights morning and evening.

The morning flight was a slow flight over the Racecourse towards Bishop Cleeve along with 40 other balloons. The flight lasted around 50 minutes taking advantage of an ideal landing opportunity near a Waste Management facility.

The evening saw more challenging conditions on the ground with gusts pushing through after the heat of the day. The gusts however subsided and allowed over 20 balloons to inflate in challenging conditions and launch. We decided to wait before launching to allow the stronger gusts to go through, the flight itself was quite pleasant and after flying over Bishop Cleeve once more landed the balloon on a farm on the other side.

Sunday the weather started to deteriorate creating unstable conditions. However several balloonists took to the skies, for some discovering wind shear for the first time.

Overall it was a great Balloon fiesta in Cheltenham especially for its first year and great to be apart of. It was also a great opportunity to catch up with many Balloonists from around the country.