EP #20 - The Champions

In this episode Andrew chats to ballooning Hall of Fame legend, Bruce Comstock. Having started ballooning 50 years ago, he has achieved a huge amount in ballooning and has an incredible resume. The below is taken from Bruce's website - A Life in the Air. Bruce Comstock’s extraordinary accomplishments in ballooning eventually landed him in both the international and the U.S. ballooning halls of fame. Bruce has set world records, won major championships, guided the national organization of balloonists, revived and edited Ballooning magazine, flown all sorts of balloons, planned and made epic balloon flights, created the first U.S. balloon repair facility, established and built up a major balloon manufacturing company, designed and built the autopilot that made solo ultra long distance balloon flight possible, trained and educated other pilots, and represented the Federal Aviation Administration in the certification of new pilots and of newly manufactured balloons. Driven by curiosity and blessed with an aptitude for physics and math, Bruce started college studying engineering physics. Despite doing well in this, the curriculum seemed too narrow to him. He transferred to the college of arts and sciences and graduated with a degree in economics. While in graduate school, his plan to teach economics in college was sidetracked by an unsolicited job offer designing and creating computer software. A chance series of events while he was doing this drew him into the then nascent sport of flying balloons. The rest is history.

In this episode Andrew chats to professional balloonist and competition pilot, Matthew Scaife. Matt is a second generation pilot that began ballooning as a kid in the UK. Having flown for many years commercially in England, he then migrated out to Australia to fly commercially and now runs Balloon Aloft. Matt, along with his wife Nicola, took up competition ballooning in the early 2010s and they both quickly rose to the top ranks in international competition ballooning. Matt has won the Australian National Championships three times and has stood on the podium at many events in Europe and Japan.

In this episode, Andrew chats to Brad Temeyer. Brad is an internationally renowned ballooning meteorologist. He has been the meteorologist for many record attempts, ballooning events (including the Albuquerque Fiesta), ballooning competitions and for the US team. Brad was born in Rockford, IL on July 31, 1979. He graduated on the Dean’s List from Iowa State University with a BS Degree in Atmospheric Sciences. He also earned his MS Degree in Atmospheric Sciences at Iowa State University and continued his education with a MS in Public Administration from the University of South Dakota. His professional career started in 2003 with the National Weather Service as an Intern Meteorologist in Glasgow, Montana where he regularly utilized observations and model data to create public, aviation and fire weather forecasts. He continues as a General Forecaster with the Sioux Falls, South Dakota office of the National Weather Service where, among other duties, he continued to produce public, aviation and fire weather forecasts. He led a team charged with developing Digital Aviation Services at the Sioux Falls and other offices. His first exposure to ballooning was in 1982 at the National Championships in Indianola, IA when he was 3 years old. He soloed on August 7, 2007, received his private license on June 1, 2008 and his commercial license on June 6, 2010 all in Indianola, IA. To date he has amassed over 200 hours of flight time. His most memorable flights were in 2007 when he flew box winds over Devil's Tower and in 2009 when he flew with Jim Winker on the day of Jim’s induction into the United States Balloon Hall of Fame.

This is the first ever Aunty Monkey video episode. Go to http://www.auntymonkey.com to watch the episode. During this episode, Andrew walks through an array of helpful hints and tips about how to produce better ballooning videos. The topics he runs through include: Filming with phones Cameras Mounts Camera Movement Speeding up shots People Storytelling and music Drones

Kim Magee is a second generation pilot from Iowa in the US. Having got her license at the age 19, she has achieved a huge amount in the ballooning world in a relatively short period of time. Kim has represented USA at the Women's World Championship, she has won the US BFA Long Jump and last year she did 2 World Record flights. So she is now the holder of six FAI World Hot Air Balloon records . Three years ago, with her husband Adam, Kim set up the not for profit Balloon Training Academy. They help people get into ballooning and improve safety in the ballooning community. They have helped about 40% of all new pilots earn their rating in the USA and provide many continuing education resources.

Deano Pegg has been involved in ballooning since the mid 1990s. In the years since, he has worked extensively as a professional crew person and has been very active in crewing for balloon teams at international events. He is a much loved character in international ballooning and is friends with everyone. In this episode Deano shares his background and his thoughts and philosophies about ballooning and balloon crew.

Leandro Corradini is a multi-discipline pilot and has been intimately involved with the paragliding and paramotoring world. His love of light weight, portable, personal aircraft led him to identify a gap in the ballooning market for this type of aircraft, so he decided to do something about it. After two years of planning and design, he launched his new Light Sport Aircraft, named FLYDOO, two weeks ago, and a new balloon company was born. As you will hear in this interview, Leandro is passionate but realistic about the innovation his company is delivering. He has identified his market as other sport aviation pilots (such as paragliders or glider pilots) and also existing balloonists looking to down scale or looking for something lighter for their recreational flying.

In this episode, Andrew chats to the newly crowned World Champion, Dominic Bareford. Dom is a young UK pilot that has been dominating competition ballooning this year. You just need to look at some of his results in the last 6 months to see how well his is flying. 1st - 23rd FAI World Hot Air Balloon Championships 1st - 2018 British Nationals 1st - 2018 POST Luxembourg Trophy 2nd - 2018 Coupe d'Europe de Montgolfières 3rd - 4th FAI Junior World Hot Air Balloon Championship In this interview, Dom talks about how he got into competition balloon, his preparations for competition ballooning and he reflects on the World Championships.

Tim is the lead protagonist in the birth of the modern Annex 2 ballooning scene in the UK, more commonly known as experimental ballooning to the rest of the World. Tim is a force of nature when it comes to his passion for life and encouraging and training other people to get involved in building their own balloons. Tim comes from a family of fixed wing pilots with his grandfather and father being pilots, his 4 daughters are also now pilots. Aviation runs in Tims veins but his primary career has been in agriculture, specifically targeted at pregnancy scanning in animals. At 40 Tim decided it was time to make a shift in career and set about becoming a commercial airline pilot and did this for the next 18 years. Tim's family owns Sackville airfield in the UK and has dedicated himself to saving the local gliding club. Sackville also forms the base for his balloon building exploits and also hosts one of the biggest ballooning events in the UK. He has been the Chief Flying Instructor for the gliding club and is a true enthusiast in all senses of the word.

In this episode, Adam talks to some of the World's best pilots about the upcoming 2018 FAI World Hot Air Balloon Championships in Großsiegharts, Austria. The guests include: Rhett Heartsill - 2016 Open World Champion Nicola Scaife - 2016 Women's World Champion Rokas Kostiuskevicius - 2016 Junior World Champion Daniel Kusternigg - 6 time Austrian Champion