One of Kim’s complete balloons has been sold and we hear that one of the 90s in the List is under negotiation. Stuart Seager reports the sale of his tank manifolds, whilst Zebedee has reduced its stock of baskets by 4 (plus a fan) during the month …..
New on ‘Stop Press’ this week is G-BOLN an aged Colt 21A Cloudhopper envelope from Glen Everett with low hours but from the old “bad fabric” days. This will go into the main List for May whilst Glen has also reduced the price of his Ultramagic H31 and M77 envelopes. Also new is one of the Cameron Elephant Special Shape envelopes built in the 1980s. Again tired, but intact and inflatable and at a good price.
The next UK event for Zebedee is the ever increasingly popular Midlands Air Festival on 2nd to 4th June. We already have a number of deliveries to make and will have a selection of our usual spares with us – but if you want specific deliveries please let us know in advance.
Sad news to reach us in April was the death of former glider pilot and balloon examiner 96 year old Laurie Ryan. He was one of the original London Balloon Club pilots, based at the London Gliding Club, Dunstable, Beds – and living all his later life in a caravan on site until he went into a care home a year or two ago. Many current pilots were checked out by Laurie, particularly around the Chiltern Region. He was famous for his prosthetic leg (known to have parted company from him on the odd landing!!) and quiet professional approach to instructing / examining. It was a pity that news of his death did not spread – such that his funeral on 4th May was only attended by 5 carers from the home and 4 balloonists – and no none from the London Gliding Club – all very sad …..