Features / bristol balloon fiesta
A ride in the sky with one of Bristol’s most experienced balloonists
The way hot air ballooning landed into Pete Dalby’s life was almost as unconventional as a career in ballooning itself.
Pete was 31 and a telecommunications engineer working for BT. Then one day, a hot air balloon landed outside his hamlet in Yorkshire.
“The pilot knocked on my door for some help,” Pete remembers. “At the time, I was interested in hang gliding, or anything that flew basically, and after a long conversation and helping him retrieve his balloon, he offered to teach me to fly.”
is needed now More than ever
Almost 40 years after that first encounter, Pete is now the owner of Phoenix Hot Air Balloons, and one of the most experienced and knowledgeable pilots at this weekend’s Bristol Balloon Fiesta, where he will be flying in the famous Taittinger balloon.
“Believe it or not, when we landed the balloon from my first flight ever, there was another balloon pilot on the side of the road, who was also willing to teach me to fly.”
Pete ended up with three different mentors who introduced him to the exhilarating world of hot air ballooning.
He his balloon pilot licence and kept his job at BT for two or three more years, until he took redundancy and became a full time balloon pilot. His first real job flying balloons was flying passengers over the Lake District, “which was amazing”.
The pilot believes he found his calling in hot air ballooning, describing the adrenaline he still feels 38 years on after that first flight: “I think doing an activity like ballooning keeps you young – I’ve got no intention of giving it up for a long time, as long as I’m fit and healthy.”
View this post on Instagram
“You do come across people who say, ‘you’ll never get me up on one of those’.
“I think it’s just the fear of the unknown, because they’re not quite sure of how they fly, but I will say that hot air balloons are the safest way of getting into the air, rather than a plane or a helicopter or a hang glider.
“I always say there are three things you never know when you take off on a hot air balloon: you never quite know where you’re going to go, who you’re going to meet when you land, and what’s going to happen, so it’s always an adventure.”
The 2024 Balloon Fiesta takes place from Friday to Sunday – photo: Rob Browne
Pete is now one of the organisers of Bristol’s world famous Balloon Fiesta. “It’s a year long project basically, as soon as we finish one Fiesta we’re starting on the next one…
“The thing about the Fiesta is that it’s just an iconic event for Bristol, and it’s run by volunteers. The board of directors don’t make any money from the Fiesta, and it costs a lot of money to put on.”
Pete added: “We want to carry onto our 50th Fiesta and beyond, but we need the support of the Bristol community to help us run the Fiesta for generations to come.”
Main photo: Cristina Pinuaga
Read next:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
