1st Putrajaya Int Balloon Fiesta 2009

Hi All
We meet again and thanks for stoping by.. On 17/4/09, My Paramotor Team was invited to do a show at 1st Putrajaya Int Ballon Fiesta. As early as 7:30am , the sky of Putrajaya was populated with 17 hot air balloons with various colors and shape that come from country like Belgium, Japan, England, France,Holland,USA and many other countries that I cant remember their name. Since this type of event is very rare in Malaysia the excitement of being part of the team for this event was unspeakable. It really a beautiful sight..

Our Paramotor team was asked to perform simple aerial display after the balloon has took off . Otherwise there is nothing for people to see on the air except to visit the booths erected nearby. There were 6 of us doing fly-by performing basic aerial formation such as diamond, arrow, flying circuit etc.

Parent with kids were enjoying the scene and photographers busy snapping photos of us flying. It was a great event and people got to know how the balloon pilot setup their equipment ie: connecting the basket/gondola to the balloon attachment, using the motored-fan to blow the air into the balloon opening and then heat the air with flame inside the balloon to rise up the balloon. Then the pilots climb into the basket, squeezing more gas to make the flame bigger and when enough hot air generated inside, the balloon balloon+basket slowly lift off and start climbing up. For climb rate and altitude of the balloon travel, the pilot control the size of the flame. Most hot air balloon has no propulsion neither a rudder to steer for direction, it relies on wind direction to move about and it is flown in calm air. When the wind strength reduce, the pilot decrease the hot air volume in the balloon to land. Since they have no control of the direction, the landing can be anywhere and the extraction team will come to aid them.


At PIBF-2009 the balloon fly around 5km radius from the takeoff spot. When they land, the 4X4 Team help extract the balloon pilot from their landing spot and bring them back. I was told by the organizer the event is a big success that the next show will be bigger and grander as they will try to get sponsorship & fund from Ministry of Youth & Sport. Judging from the public response for this event, I'm sure they will get the $$$..

That's all for now. Enjoy the pictures..