Been around balloons all my life, qualifying as a hot air balloon pilot in 2012. In 2025 I had the opportunity to fulfill a long held dream and learned to fly gas balloons in order to compete as co-pilot to Deborah Scholes in the Gordon Bennett.

Finishing a rather respectful 8th place, with a distance of 1107.61km in 55 hours, we ultimately had to land due to battery problems. This year Deborah and myself hope to build on last year’s experience and improve on that result, hopefully we don’t get any battery gremlins this time!