Soaring through the sky…

Flying is exhilirating… it is an experience unlike any other!In this article are a series of unique flying experiences and some reactions to each one.

Hot Air Balloon Flight in Africa

A lodge in the Serengeti desert offers Hot Air Balloon rides at dawn with a champagne breakfast in the middle of the Serengeti for US$400. Their hot air balloon was the 4th largest in the world and it seated 16 people at a time.

We started our flight sitting inside the basket, backs facing the ground. From there, we would be dragged up off the ground (slowly) as the balloon heated up. The landing was the same in reverse which proved to be much bumpier as we hit a termite mound in the process.

During our flight, a group of hippos splashed around playfully below us, giraffes and gazelles ran gracefully below and a lioness sat watching for prey just outside of some grasslands.

From time to time though, the animals below became really stressed out from hearing the balloon’s fire jet flared up to keep the balloon buyant. One little gazelle actually kept running in circles in a panic since he couldn’t place where the noise was coming from and didn’t know which way to go.

All in all, the dawn light set a beautiful glow upon the landscape below us and made for an amazing way to start the day.

Glider Flight Experience

With no engine and no propellors, you can’t help but think of the dangers associated with flying in a glider plane.

Carrying no more than two people (the pilot and one passenger), I was in awe with the science that managed to place this artificial bird in the skies — and could keep it there for hours on end. As I said, there is no engine to push it forward and the wings of this metal beast certainly don’t flap either (though there are small flaps on the wings like that of a jet plane to help with general steering and landings). Instead, gliders use the power of changing warm and cold air masses to keep them going. When gliders fly under clouds for example, the warm air masses under clouds allow the glider to rise. So cloudy days can certainly be good for a gliding experience as long as it doesn’t rain of course.

I’m sure you’re still wondering though how gliders make their way up into the skies without an engine. Well, it doesn’t hurt to get a little help every now and then. Small Cesna Planes specially-crafted for pulling gliders are tied to the gliders by means of a rope to pull them up into the air. Once the glider has reached its desired height, the glider releases the rope and is on its own for the remainder of the flight including the landing.

The cost of this flying adventure is a much more reasonable USD$100 and can be arranged through a local glider plane club in your area.

My pilot that day was a member of the gliding club who also happens to share ownership of a glider with two others. I asked her if she would do a loop de loop for me, but it turns out she didn’t have the additional required certification to do that. Bummer, I was really looking forward to a REAL rollercoaster ride.

However, she did say that you could arrange a wilder ride with those pilots that were certified. So you now know what’s next on my list!

As we arrived that day for the ride, we found out that the wind was too strong and we had to stick around for a few hours to see if it would dissipate or if we had to reschedule. As it turned out, the weather was in our favour and we were able to enjoy our ride a couple of hours later.

The zeppelin, which was already filled with air and had it’s nose docked into the eye of what looked like a giant sized sewing needle. To get us loaded, the crew undocked the zeppelin by pulling on some of its many many ropes attached to it and released some of the air to bring it down.