by : Svatava Švihlíková

Fiesta of hot-air balloons accompanied by a Festival of Regional Life

This year, ballooning came to the Chrudim region in the Czech Republic for the third time. The first time, in 1998, it was a competition held under the name of a Balloon Cup, and last year it already was a balloon show. At first sight it might seem yet another fiesta, one of hundreds held in the rest of Europe and overseas. However, I dare say, that from some aspects it is really interesting and perhaps unique. (Please tell me if you think I am wrong.)

In this year's brochure, the venue, the Chrudim region, was described as a paradise for balloonists (inhabitants and visitors). It is a landscape offering many wonderful moments when seen from the sky, the undulating "Vysocina" countryside, region of dense forests and sunny valleys, interwoven by the meandering Chrudimka river, with glistening ponds and lakes. It is highly inspiriting to the poetic soul to fly over this territory. On the other hand, its orography has an impact on the weather which is always "a little worse" than in the rest of the Czech Republic. The nearby Elbe lowlands speed up the western air currents which become disturbed over the Iron Mountains and Vysocina (Highlands), and have a tendency to become turbulent. The pilots then have to link the beauty of the flights to higher requirements for their skills and expertise.

Thanks to wonderful weather, last year all the 13 planned flights took place. We were not so lucky this year, especially towards the end of the week, and so "only" 7 of the intended 12 flights could be launched. Thanks to the perfect meteorological service (there were immediate releases from the radar station), two flights could also be made between the passages of two weather fronts - in perfectly clean air and in the glow of the setting sun. There was a lovely rainbow in the background of one flight, formed against the receding clouds.

Soft landing, that is something a balloonist wishes most (besides having a wonderful flight, naturally) and this is also affected by the relationships with the land owners. And this again is something specifically Czech. Farmers and other land owners in the Czech Republic are friendly to balloonists and as long as they see no intentional harm to their property from the pilot, his crew or accompanying vehicle, they are kind. Often they would not know any other language than Czech, but still they would try to be helpful. In balloonists they see aeronauts who bring beauty and excitement to their lives. Kjell Abrahamsson, a Swedish pilot, one of this year's participants from abroad, remarked on this when speaking to the Balloon Show organisers. The fact is, we just take this for granted, as something quite normal. It may be due to the reality that ballooning for sport prevails in this country over commercial passenger flights and it is quite rare that people can see a balloon up in the air. If the numbers of forests are to increase, which is already happening in some parts of the country, then, as Kjell tells us, we should cherish these good relations with farmers. We have been informed, nevertheless, that unfortunately around Prague (the Czech capital) where our biggest balloon flight operators are concentrated, balloon crews do not respect land ownership and crops, unnecessarily bring their vehicles onto fields…

The third aspect of the Balloon Fiesta was its accompanying program, a Festival of Regional Life. It was held over the whole Fiesta period and filled the time in-between flights (from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.). It offered games and competitions for children and adults, a balloon post, cycling and walking routes and trails, performances in the open air theatre, presentations of companies and neighbouring regions, namely of places of interest (castles and chateaux, churches, historical centres of towns, protected natural areas…).

A speciality that the organisers can boast about was an Internet Centre. As is already a tradition, it was furnished with SUN computers and connected by KPNQuest. There were more than 30 top class computers, strong internet connection and excellent software. Visitors were able to use all of this free-of.-charge. The centre was often visited by balloonists who could easily reach those back home by e-mail.

At our internet address

http://balloon-show.eunet.cz

you may find the Balloon Show web sites. If you happened to visit our pages during the show you could see live broadcasts from the event. You may still do so, now as a reminder of the past. Articles, photographs and video broadcasts and recordings were made by the press centre of the Czech Aeronautic Society assisted by Internet Servis. Unfortunately press material is only in Czech, so please look at the photographs as these speak for themselves (Wednesday July 27!).

These were just a few words about the Balloon Show which took place in Sec near Chrudim (Czech Republic) from July 24 to 29, 2000. There were some twenty balloons from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the USA, Sweden, Austria and Slovenia. People who came regularly to see the launchings (especially in the evenings) were enchanted and the balloonists (and their sponsors) were content. Mass media coverage (press, radio and TV) was good. The main TV station (CT1) also made a live broadcast - twice eight minutes - filled by pre-recorded shots from the day before and interviews with a number of balloonists, especially Dr. Arthur Zucht from the USA. It was only sad that the weather was poor and it was not possible to make a live broadcast from a balloon, as was originally intended. But this is something a balloonist knows just too well - you cannot manipulate the weather.