Closing date for the July 2025 issue (No 459) is 27th June 2025
Latest Issue
Issue 458: June 2025
This issue is running a bit late due to our team being at the Midlands Air Festival over the past weekend. However that did result in all the new ads hitting ‘Stop Press’ on the website the day before we left. The meet was marred by strong winds except the Saturday early morning slot – when 112 balloons flew in sunny conditions in front of a sizeable public audience.
James McDonald and his team once again produced a well organised event – now established as ‘the’ meet for private balloons in the UK calendar. Particular mention must also be given to the girls & boys who served up several hundred meals on ‘Pie Night’ Saturday. Although not fans of “polystyrene box” meals, the pies were hot & tasty and much appreciated by all those we talked to ….
Sold during May were Allie’s “Cricket” envelope G-GCCC and Jim Atkinson’s V-65 envelope G-CEVH plus the Ultramagic ‘Vista’ basket, whilst envelope G-HCOS has been withdrawn from sale for the moment.
A large collection of balloons, baskets & burners join the List from various sources including two long forgotten envelopes from the eighties – Cameron O-77 G-BIET “Archimedes” and Thunder Ax8-105 G-BJMW “Parsifal both being sold by Geoff Westley, prominent in the London Region in that era. Also on offer this month are two ‘120 bottom ends’, one a Cameron single T from Martin Vennard, the other a pristine Thunder ‘open’ design from Ian Jones in Wales. Several other baskets, burners, 8 Worthingtons needing PPT etc, a Flytec Alto Element altimeter/vario and ICOM A6E (.833 compliant) join our pages, the last from Steve Richards. Andy Rawson has finished building his 13hp fan, so see his amended ad and recent pictures – yes, it looks newer than new – well done! Finally a late entry must be the largest balloon ever to have graced these pages is a Kubicek BB142P (500,000 cubic feet) from the USA. Read all the details in the Complete Balloons section.
Time for bed said Zebedee!
For several months we have been contemplating the future for our business, as has Chris Dunkley at Easy Balloons. Don’t panic! No immediate changes are planned, but being realistic the next few years will see us winding down and we thought we should spell out some timely truths and maybe encourage some youngsters into balloon maintenance & repair.
We have written a joint statement which we hope will trigger both business enterprise and some thoughts as to how you can ease the pain of your next repair …..
Scam Warning
WARNING!
We have been alerted by two of our advertisers to a scam which is currently doing the rounds. In each case the potential buyer agrees to buy an item and then sends a cheque in payment. However the cheque is for more than the asking price of the item. The ‘buyer’ then asks the seller to refund the difference. Because it sometimes takes a week or more for the bank to process a cheque, it can be some time before the seller realises the cheque has bounced.
We have heard of 4 advertisers who have received enquiries in the past week for equipment. They all involve a complicated routine involving (international) cheques and the fact that the enquirer is on honeymoon… beware !