July will certainly be remembered in the UK for high temperatures and lack of rain, with plenty of flyable slots, particularly in the South – a refreshing change from recent “summers”!
Two of July’s new entries to the List – both 77s, one an envelope only, the other a complete kit, quickly found new homes during the month. New for August is a Cameron bottom end ready to go with a tired envelope thrown in if the purchaser wishes – the latter having a few hours left to fly on a current ARC. Also new are two 105 envelopes in Italy which have featured in ‘Stop Press’ during July – both on the UK register, also the reappearance in the List of Chris Dobson’s Cameron 31 envelope and Ultramagic 77, both with very low hours. For anyone hitherto ‘low tech’ who wants to venture into flying with a GPS, then Dick Plume is offering a pair of Magellan units at a very affordable price, whilst Zebedee has a very good flip wheel 8hp fan for sale and an Annexe II chariot-style bottom end built in South Africa by Eddie Jacobs on T&C lines some years ago.
Two ‘winter’ jobs in India flying rides balloons are on offer – see Situations Vacant.
The annual Bristol International Balloon Fiesta is only a week away as this Intro is being written – 2018 being the 40th such event with several special events due to take place to celebrate. These include the inflation of some of the original balloons to fly from the 1979 1st Fiesta. Followed by a celebration lunch. Bristol has the reputation over the years for the unveiling of the latest special shape balloons, so this year 40 such designs are due to be inflated, many coming out of storage with the British Balloon Museum & Library to take part.
Whilst on the subject of Bristol, many regulars will be saddened to hear of the death of Roy Boyle who died on 17th July aged 87. Roy and wife Rita were well know at the ‘de-brief’ desk at the Fiesta for many years, plotting every landing on the OS map, recording farmer problems and dishing out the bottle for the next landowner. Prior to that Roy had been an early aviation enthusiast from the days of Croydon after the war and later owner of Thunder Ax6-56 G-BUSY “Busy Bodies” before turning to model balloons. A service will be held to celebrate Roy’s life at The Chapel, Blind Veterans UK, Greenways, Ovingdean, Brighton BN2 7BS on 24th August at 1430.