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30| FireFlyz
JOURNEY
The Flight Continues
Following his humble, yet glorious beginnings back
home,
Andrew Parker
shares with us the next leg
of his journey with the Flying High For Kids World
Balloon Project.
M
y
arrival into Kuala Lumpur from Sydney was a
smooth one and I was all set to attend the Putrajaya
International Balloon Festival. Excited, I joined other
pilots and ground crew as we headed to the festival
grounds. I was then introduced to my ground crew for
the event. A pick-up truck was provided and we were
on our way to unpack the balloon, which had arrived
from Australia a few days before.
Despite having a tropical downpour welcoming us as we unpacked and
refuelled the balloons, it was a big relief to see that the balloon was undamaged
during its voyage from Australia and all was in order.
The weather on the first morning of the balloon festival was perfect for
flying. About thirty balloons took off into the sky from an empty lot next
to the Alaf Baru monument in Putrajaya. The planned city, 25km south of
Kuala Lumpur, that serves as the federal administrative centre of Malaysia,
was a very interesting place to fly in – both for its layout and importance to
Malaysia. With the exception of Canberra, Australia, where I had flown just
ten days earlier, there aren’t many other places in the world where you can
fly over administrative buildings, embassies and other buildings of national
importance.
Our flying area was quite small due to its close proximity to the Kuala
Lumpur International Airport. We had an area with a radius of 5km to fly in
and weren’t allowed to fly above 500ft. After 30 minutes of flying, I found
a place to land in a new subdivision. We quickly packed up and went back
to the take-off area where we again inflated the balloon for a photoshoot, as
well as a short video shoot with UNICEF Malaysia’s ambassadors, the popular
cartoon characters, Upin and Ipin.
We flew every morning on all five days of the event, but some of the
balloons managed to make flights in the evenings as well. A competition
called ‘Hare and Hounds’ is held every morning, where one balloon – marked
as the hare – would take off, while the rest of the balloons – marked as
hounds – would take off five minutes after and try to fly over the place where
the hare would land. Whoever drops their marker closest to where the Hare
balloon lands, wins.
When I wasn’t flying, I joined other pilots and crews to explore the sights
and sounds of Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur.
After the final flight, my crew and I packed the balloon up, to prepare it
for an air freight journey to The Philippines a few days later for yet another
balloon festival. We emptied the LPG from the tanks and purged them,
before wrapping the balloon and basket up with plastic wrap. Lucky for us,
these balloons can be compacted into a small package. My balloon, when
compressed, measured at only 1m x 1m x 1.6m, which fits very easily in the
hold of most planes.
Once the packing was done, it was time for the final dinner. In the midst
of joyful conversations and heavy goodbyes, I was announced as the overall
champion of the Hare and Hound competition. I jumped for joy at the