A very warm welcome to you and 2013. If this is your first visit you will find a rather eclectic mix of stuff here not just relating to balloons. Easy Balloons Ltd is actually a Part M Subpart F & G Organisation which looks after airworthiness matters relating to hot air balloons so here you will naturally find all the general (and not so general) airworthiness stuff. Because there is life outside ballooning elsewhere are all sorts of varied articles on stuff we hope you enjoy. As we have only just started the New Year the news is a bit light but at least the Icicle got some flights in and in a few days there should be a report with some piccies. We were busy clearing out the old man’s loft over Christmas, something we should have done a few years ago. Nothing of any real value turned up (unfortunately) so we won’t be retiring for a good few years yet. We did find some interesting stuff though, meaning that a few articles are in preparation and will be up soon, probably ship related! Rumour Control has it that now the Black Horse has been re-opened, and is well good, the Black Horse Club will be celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year in style. The pic is good old Barry Newman inspecting the collection of bottom ends now amassed by Tim Wilkinson ready for his new syndicate venture. See the News section for more details!
The workshop is all going full tilt boogey again and we have already had a few inspections in but the field, although seemingly dry on the surface a swamp lurks beneath the surface and trailers getting stuck is likely still, it is slowly drying out. We have had a look at our charges for CAMO services and for standby balloons we are offering the CAMO service for free with £15 per flight. All other prices remain unchanged. If you want to use our services we now have inspectors in the north who are approved to inspect and issue ARCs on our behalf. For a list and contact details please go to the pages bit and look up ‘Inspectors in the field’.
The popularity of the website has, to be Frank or Bob, surprised us immensely, thanks for the nice messages. The most hits apart from using the reference bits of the site were identifying Swallows and Amazons, The Allen Scythe, somewhat strangely the Pobjoy article and, making a late run, the stuff we did on The Liberty store’s founder. We’ll have to see what new ‘off the wall’ stuff we stick up this year brings. We are often asked about the HS2 route through the workshop and the latest plans show the farm being demolished so we may have to think about relocating locally in the coming year or two which will be a pain however there is strong sounds that they may tunnel completely under the Chilterns now so we may get spared. Plans for my train-spotting platform and hi-speed camera have been put on hold. If you want to stick something on the site please get in touch. It doesn’t have to be about balloons, it can be anything (subject to getting it past Barry). The comments page isn’t working too well so a bit more work will be needed there but it should be up and running soonish. Thanks again for visiting and your custom. Please stick around and have a browse, we hope you enjoy the site. Most of the piccies get bigger if you click on them and loads of stuff is downloadable. We wish you a very Happy 2013. All the best Chris, Jane and John.