National Balloon Championships 2015

30 August 2015 – copyright © David Eyre

The 20th Australian National Balloon Championship was held at Northam Airfield, around 100km east of Perth, from 28 August – 6 September 2015.

The event was hosted by the Northam Aero Club and the Western Australian Balloon & Airship Club (WABAC).

History of ballooning and world record flights from Northam

This was the first time that the National Championship had been held at Northam since 1984.

Northam has been associated with ballooning and airship operations since the early 1970s, and a number of records (World, Australian, British and Japanese) launched from Northam Airfield.

Perhaps most noteworthy were the around the world solo balloon flights by Steve Fossett, who made two attempts from Northam airfield, with the second one being successful. Fossett became the first person to fly around the world alone, nonstop in any kind of aircraft. He launched the 10-storey high balloon Spirit of Freedom from Northam, on 19 June 2002 and returned to Australia on 3 July 2002, landing in Queensland. Duration and distance of this solo balloon flight was 13 days, 8 hours, 33 minutes (14 days 19 hours 50 minutes to landing), 20,626.48 statute miles (33,195.10 km). His top speed during the flight was 299 km/h over the Indian Ocean. Only the capsule survived the landing; it was taken to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, where it was displayed. The trip set a number of records for ballooning.

National Balloon Championships Competition

In all, 29 pilots from Australia, China, Japan, Russia and the UK took part in the Championships, with several of them bringing their own hot air balloon.

The competition involves pilots maneuvering their balloons over a set course with goals, targets, scoring areas, time and distance limits. This requires a lot of skill, using the variation of winds at different altitudes to fly over the target and drop markers (a sandbag with streamer attached) on, or near, the target. The competition area extends 40 kilometres north/south, and 30 kilometres east/west, from Irish Town (north) to Mackie Siding (south), and from Berry Hill (west) to Meenaar (east), with the launch site being chosen based on wind conditions.

Following practice flights on 29 and 30 August, the competition took place at sunrise and in the afternoons, from Monday 31 August to Friday 4 September, subject to wind and weather. This is because the balloons cannot take-off in winds of more than 10 knots. At sunrise on Saturday 5th September there is an additional competition flight, or a ‘key grab’, a difficult challenge where pilots have to grab a foam key mounted on top of a 10-metre pole. Pilots choose a take-off point based on wind conditions, that will allow them to fly over the Northam Airfield, where the prize pole will be located.

On 29 August, the Shire of Northam held a Family Balloon Fiesta at Henry Street Oval, Northam, including a balloon information area and a colourful ‘Night Glow’ event, where ten balloons (VH-LVD, VH-FEQ, VH-OTR, VH-BLQ, VH-NUD, VH-UAF, VH-EXT, VH-ACU, VH-YXY, and VH-IGH) fired their burners to illuminate the balloon envelopes.

The Australia winner of the Northam Championships will represent Australia in the 2016 World Balloon Championship in Saga, Japan, along with Matthew Scaife, the winner of the 2014 National Championship at Canowindra.

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