Way back home

Now being on the ferry there is some time thinking about the flight.

The decision to launch was taken with the assumption, that it would be possible to stay north of the mistral and be able to land before water. The velocity of the wind and the power of the Mistral was totally underestimated by the metrologist.

The launch itself was with calm winds, but we were to heavy at take off, so we had to dump a whole bag on Marc and my nephew Paul (sorry for that!) in order to avoid a collision with the Belgian balloon.

The night was beautiful with a bright moon. Unfortunately we hit a rotor flying over some of the mountains, which took us approx 20 miles more to the south. After being out of the mountains the mistral picked up to incredible wind speed. Our Finnish friends reported wind speeds of 102 km/h – which definitely got them the Mistral Rating. In higher altitudes, you were able to steer to the right, but not sufficient to avoid water totally. At this point Bepperl and Georg – Team Germany 3 – said “see you later”, since they took a different route and tried to hit Sardenia in which they succeeded.

After being on water we hit some turbulence from the Mistral hitting the sea and the winds turned more to the south. The cooperation with all the teams on water was excellent. Everybody shared information about wind and weather provided by the headquarters at home.  The winds turned more and more to the south and it became more and more clear, that probably the prognosed right turn won’t come in time for us to return back to the Spanish mainland. At this point we punched in Menorca as our “Fly In” target.

We studied the map of Menorca thoroughly and identified the West side of the Island as flatter. So we aimed at the Island and had a visual approximately one hour before hitting it. With 20 bags remaining on board we packed the balloon for an expected very hard landing. Meanwhile Gerald (AUT1) missed the island by only little and we could hear his concern in the voice clearly. Thankfully he provided us with some wind closed to deck, so we could plan with them. The controller (Damia) provided us regularly with wind updates from the airport, reporting 15 knots winds gusting to 25. Since we knew that the airport is behind the mountains – it was clear for us, the the wind will be much stronger. Willi (GER1) also was approaching the Island for landing. So we agreed, if we both succeed we will have a beer or two or three …… together.

At reaching the coast of Menorca, the wind hitting the coast line causes an hard upwind – since the Island is only 18 km wide and we came with approx. 50 km/h we had only less than 20 min. for finding a suitable landing spot. Pulling down the balloon through this upwind we immediately dropped like a stone to a forest before being taken up with approx 3 m/s by heavy thermals over the island (at 15:30 local time – no wonder). Volker forced the balloon through this thermal to drop, so we were approaching one of the trillion stone walls of the island. After throwing out bags completely and our trailrope, we overflew the last wall and hit with approx 20- 25 knots Menorcan ground. Balloon and Pilots were safe!!!

It was hard to find help, since it was landing in the middle of nowhere. But we found very nice farmers, who helped us retrieve the balloon and brought us to a hotel. Getting the balloon from the Island proofed to be impossible, so that our retrieve took the ferry. Before doing so, they picked up Matthias of Willis crew to come along.

After meeting them at the harbor of Ciutadella (beautiful town – worth a visit), we first picked up our balloon and then Willis gear. After that we met with Damia, the helpful ATC-controller, for the agreed beers.

All of this flight wouldn’t have been possible and propably wouldn’t have ended that well, without Dominik working in the background. He informed us about the changing weather and that it probably would be safer to risk a hard landing on the island than ending in nowhere or Algeria. It was calming for us to have him there whenever we needed him and he also was the one to calm us down and cheer us up. Dominik also assisted after landing by organizing the ferry for our crew and providing us with information about the the 3 balloons, who missed the Balearic islands. Thank you so much!!!

I was very worried about the Finish Team, since we educated them and it was their first Gordon Bennett. But now I am very proud how they handeled the situation and what mental strength they showed. Incredible – from now on we will call them “Hadschi Halef Olli” and “Kara Ben Nemsi”

The Gordon Bennett Race is being pushed to higher limits. Things that have been considered as impossible in the past are standard today. I think the safety issues must be considered more in races to come.