Balloon Mass Skydive World Record

Posted Saturday, June 8, 2002

By David Fish

Sixteen skydivers jumped into the world record books on Friday 31st May 2002 when they all skydived from one of the UK's largest hot air balloons, 10,500ft above Peterborough Parachute centre nr Sibson. The Cameron A300 hot air balloon was flown by 28 year old commercial balloon pilot David Fish who flies full time for Flying Pictures the countries leading commercial balloon operator.

With two twin squirrel helicopters circling the balloon, filming the record attempt for national television, it climbed at between 500 & 800 feet per minute to the target altitude of 10,500 feet. After flying for twenty minutes the balloon was directly overhead Sibson airfield.

With the skydivers all standing around the edge of the basket and a rapid decent established all sixteen skydivers exited simultaneously. With the loss of just over 1 tonne in weight the balloon entered a very fast climb, causing distortion and partial collapse of the envelope. Eventually levelling off at just over 11,000 ft.

"It was quite a wild ride," explains David Fish, balloon pilot and project co-ordinator. "Pretty much as soon as they all left the balloon began distorting and spinning as it climbed rapidly and all I could do was hold on and wait for it to slow down."

Velvet Toilet Tissue, whose hot air balloon was used for the record attempt, built a special softer than ever landing zone for the parachutists. The zone, a 10-metre radius circle covering more than 314 square metres, was made from more than 5000 rolls of softer than ever Quilted Velvet loo rolls. The zone could be seen from more than 10,000 feet and acted as a target for the skydivers. All sixteen made the landing zone, with some making good use of the toilet rolls to soften their landing!

Team Members

Skydivers:
1. Matt Lee
2. Ian Ashpole
3. Andy Bennett
4. Simon Ward
5. Giles Fabris
6. David Sawyer
7. Dorian Harwood
8. Martin Williams
9. Steve Springys
10. Stuart Meacock
11. Rose Leggett
12. Mark Harris
13. Chris Donaldson
14. Andy Guest
15. Dave du Plessis
16. Rhino

Pilot:
David Fish

For further information please contact David Fish @ Flying Pictures Ltd. fish@flyingpictures.com

Photos: DSCF Flying Pictures Ltd and Simon Ward