News - Belgian Ballooning
Hot air balloon event in Waregem, Belgium
On sunday april 27 we organise again the balloon festival in Waregem, Belgium.
It is already the 16th edition of this ballooning event. The balloon fiesta takes place on the Gaverbeek Hippodrome in the middle of the city of Waregem (a city in the west of Belgium).
On Sunday afternoon 27th April we also organize the event “Waregem kinderstad” at the same location (this is an event for kids). We have more than 40 participating hot air balloon teams, and there are also some special shape balloons (like a cat and a lion). You can also make your dream come true: we offer hot air balloon rides and helicopter rides for passengers. More info about this event and the flights that we offer: Ballonhappening Waregem
 A balloon ride in Belgium as christmas gift
Are you searching for an original gift for Christmas? We are offering gift vouchers for a balloon ride in Belgium. Those vouchers are available for one year; you don't have to know the exact date on which you want to perform the flight. We have two ways to order such a flight ticket:
- You come to our offices near Kortrijk (map), but pleace call us before you come. We can make the ticket while you are waiting (it takes only 10 minutes)
- You give us a ring or send us an email with the details of what there should be on the ticket. We make the vouchter and send it to you, in the envelope we also include the invoice with payment details. We can send tickets within Europe.
For more info you can always call us: +32 51 312 325
Also balloon rides during winter
We also make balloon rides during the winter months.
The majority of our balloon rides are of course performed in the spring, summer and autumn, BUT also during the winter months we can make beautiful balloon flights. We have a "winter list", on which candidates can register for being a candidate for a winter balloon ride. When we see nice weather approaching, then all people from the list receive a message, and they can let us know if the date is ok for them.
Would you like to experience such a breathtaking winter flight? Do not hesitate to add your name to the list! That can send a simple email to info@hotairballoon.be
Winter trips can be booked by people with gift vouchers and by people who want to place a new booking.
We guarantee all passengers a wonderful, unforgettable experience!
Beer balloon rides - brewery visit
Especially for groups we also organise a special balloon trip in combination with a brewery visit.
Belgium is famous for its beer, and we like to combine this with a balloon ride. In co-operation with the brewery of Sint-Bernardus, we organise beer balloon rides. You first visit the brewery, and after it we plan a very nice hot air balloon in the beatiful and silent region around the brewery.
This type of balloon ride is only available for groups of minimum 5 people. Please call us for more info and prices.
Beautiful movie about our balloon adventures in France
Our crew and friend Benoit made a beautiful movie about the hot air balloon event in France, where we made beautiful flights last summer.
You can watch it in HD on the video player below.
Daily balloon rides
Are you tourist in Belgium (Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Brussels,...) and you want to make a balloon ride on short time? Just call or email us. We have daily balloon flights. Even the same day is possible!
We make your dreams come trough! This will be the highlight of your holiday.
World record breaking ballooning at Lorraine hot air balloon festival
We have a pretty big fleet of balloons in our balloon company but even we were amazed by the world record attempt of a 408 balloon launch at the Lorraine Mondial International hot air balloon festival in France. The previous record was set end of july 2013 at the Festival.
At least 5 of our balloons took place in this attempt. Pilots Gino, Stijn, Edddy, Hendrik and Jürgen made fantastic balloon rides over the French landscapes.
If you wish to experience ballooning for yourself back in beautiful Belgium give us a call on +32 51 312 325 or visit www.hotairballoon.be
Hot air balloon event in France
From 27th of July 2013 until 4th of August 2013 we will participate to one of the biggest hot air balloon events in the world. This event will take place in the French Lorraine region (near Metz). On a former United States Air Force base in Chambley-Bussières (the French department Meurthe et Moselle) hundreds of hot air balloons will make a beautiful and colourful flight. Our balloon team is participating there with our 3 biggest hot air balloons.
It happens every other year, and attracts pilots from all over the continent, including a large contingent of Belgian balloonists, and attracts many thousands of spectators.
It is an amazing experience to fly with so many other balloons at the same time. The flying is wonderfully relaxing on account of the huge landing fields in rural France. The farmers have either just cut their fields, or are in the process of doing so, and you always receive a warm welcome on the landing field.
Movie from pilot Stijn with onboard camera during balloon flight
Our skilled pilot Stijn created this very nice movie about a balloon ride last week from Meulebeke (south of Bruges). We performed this flight under the best weather conditions: very good visibility (we could see more than 100km), and no much wind during landing. On altitude there was quite some wind speed, which made us cover a big distance. We landed in the neighborhood of Gent. Ballooning Belgium from Stijn on Vimeo.
Movie about our very first balloon flights in Belgium
We have put on the internet a movie of the first flight with our first balloon.
This was in september 1990, and we took off in the west of Belgium, on a place where we start now also a lot of our balloon flights.
With this balloon we learned to fly. Nowadays hot air balloons are much bigger (although we still have a balloon of this size for prive balloon rides).
Nostalgic to look back on these days. You can watch the movie below.
sanmarino from ballonairchaud on Vimeo.
Balloon flights and helicopter rides on event in Belgium
During the latest weekend of april 2013 we organised an event for hot air balloons in Waregem (West of Belgium).
We were very lucky that on sunday April 28 the weather was very good: almost no wind and very sunny.
Thousands of people came to have a look to the beauty in the sky, and 45 hot air balloons took off.
Of those, 7 hot air balloons of our team made also a flight.
On saturday unfortunately there was too much wind, so no balloon flights but helicopter rides.
Thank you very much to everyone who was directly or indirectly involved in the organisation of this event!
New hot air balloon for our team
In the weekend of april 7 2013 the weather in Belgium was fine for making balloon rides.
For the flights of 2013 we have ordered a brand new hot air balloon, with publicity of our sponsor 'SupraBazar'.
The wind was very calm, so we 'baptized' this balloon in the morning. A lot of spectators came to see this beautiful yellow balloon.
In the afternoon we made the first flight with it above Belgium.
This balloon flies very well!
This balloon has a capacity of 7 passengers and 1 pilot.
It was created by the German balloon manufacturer "Schroeder Fire Balloons".
We really want to thank SupraBazar for the thrust in our balloon company.
We hope to make a lot of beautiful balloon flights with it in the coming years.
Crossing the Alps in a hot air balloon
Update 15 january 2013:
Belgian balloonists Jürgen Dobbelaere and Hendrik Deleu from our ballooning team have crossed successfully the Alps with the hot air balloon.
They made this flight last week.
In less than 4 hours they managed to cross the Alps from north to south. They took of in the region of Munich (Germany) and landed safely near Verona (Italy).
Everything was prepared very well the days before the balloon flight. Maximum altitude was 4500 meters, and at this altitude both pilots needed to take extra oxygen.
The top speed during this balloon ride was 102 km/hour.
Happily this was only at higher altitude, wind speed at the ground was almost nothing which made that the balloon was able to take off and land very softly.
This flight is for most balloonist the biggest dream. Hopefully we can make more flights like this!
Ballooning wishes for 2013
The entire team of Flybird Ballooning Belgium wishes you all the best for 2013!
Hopefully it will be a year full of beautiful weather, so that we can make a lot of balloon flights over Belgium!
On this day in history: Montgolfier Brothers first public balloon flight
21st November 2012 - On this day in 1783 (229 years ago) the two brothers Joseph (43 years old) and Étienne Montgolfier (38 years old) on 21st November 1783, completed one of their most famous tests.
Their balloon, measured 2,200 cubic metres and was heated by an iron furnace.
This time, two men flew; Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier (a physicist) and François Laurent, Marquis d'Arlandes, they became the first human pilots to fly untethered. The first manned hot-air balloon flight lasted 25 minutes, reached a height of 900 metres and landed about 10 kilometres away.
At that precise moment, they realised one of the oldest dreams of humankind – that of flight and it had taken just a year from concept testing to untethered flight…
How far ballooning has come since that time....
Happy Montgolfier Day everyone!
Blue Woods Hotel of sponsor Gaverzicht
Our sponsor Meubelen Gaverzicht has created a very beautiful hotel in Deerlijk (West of Belgium). The Blue Woods Hotel is situated close to the highway ( Antwerp - Ghent - Lille). This hotel has a very beautiful decoration! In this hotel are also meeting rooms for business purposes, a swimming pool, sauna and fitness. Visit the website of this hotel: Blue Woods Hotel
 New hot air balloon for 2013
Not without pride we can announce that we got the agreement of SupraBazar shops that we might purchase a brand new hot air balloon with their publicity.
We really want to thank them for their trust in our company!
Which other hot air balloon team in Belgium can tell that they got from their sponsors several different hot air balloons in a row?
This is the effect of the dedication and efforts of our entire team, and especially in these difficult times this is an acknowledgment and recognition that we are doing well.
Satisfied passengers, satisfied sponsors = a very happy balloon team!
Gaverzicht: 3 balloons in a row + 1 hot air balloon of Okay
Fun: 2 balloons in a row
SupraBazar: 2 balloons in a row
On the right side of this webpage you can see the visual of this brand new hot air balloon. This balloon will look a little bit different than the previous one. This balloon will soon be built in Schroeder Fire Balloons in Germany. He will make his first flights in 2013. He will fly mostly in the West part of Belgium (region of Bruges - Kortrijk - Ostend - Ghent).
 Hot air balloon meeting in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
Every year, during the first weekend of September there is a large hot air balloon event in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium.
We participated with the Okay hot air balloon. We were very lucky to have the perfect weather conditions. On Saturday morning we took of from the market square in Sint-Niklaas and the visibility was very nice. From an altitude of about 100 m we were already able to see Brussels, Antwerp (and its harbor), Ghent, Bruges, and the Netherlands.
We were even able to see the Easter Schelde and its bridge. Looking on a map it shows that this was a distance of more than 100km.
We took a lot of pictures.
We have placed a lot of them on a separate page on this website:
hot air balloon meeting Sint-Niklaas
Battlefield Flights: World War 1 100 year remembrance 2014-2018
For more than 20 years we offer fabulous hot air balloon rides and helicopter flights around IEPER / YPRES and the battlefields.
See the region from the air.
We made also a special website for balloon rides above the battlefields in the region of Ypres: Ypres Ballooning
Contact us now! Special arrangements for big and small groups are possible.
Flights every day, weather permitting…often last minute bookings accepted.
Mail: info@hotairballoon.be or call +32 51 312 325
 
A man in a hot air balloon
A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am”.
The woman below replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”
“You must be an engineer”, said the balloonist.
“I am”, replied the woman, “How did you know”?
“Well”, answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technical but I’ve no idea what to make of your information and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip.”
The woman below responded, “You must be a manager”.
“I am”, replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”
“Well”, said the woman, “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.”
 Hot air balloon event in Waregem
26th April 2012 - The coming weekend we organize "Ballonhappening Waregem", a Belgian event where more than 60 hot air balloons will take off! Our company organizes this event already for the 14th time!
We also organize helicopter rides on this event.
The entrance is completely free. We offer hot air balloon rides and helicopter rides with special prices.
More info: Ballonhappening Waregem
Today the ballooning season officially starts in Belgium
Belgium, 21 March 2012: Today the ballooning season officially starts in Belgium. The last days were full of beautiful hot air balloon weather (a lot of sun and no precipitation). The fields are also dry at this moment, so these days we are making our first hot air balloon rides of 2012.
Please call us if you have a gift voucher. It is now the time of the year to fly with us: it is very beautiful to see the beautiful colors of the landscapes.
Do you want to make a reservation? Please call or email us. We fly from now on every day (if the weather is good).
Movie with our hot air balloon in Ypres
In September and October 2011, Gino Ciers and his balloon team worked together with the cast of movie "Above my head", which was being recorded in Ypres. This movie will be released end 2012. The story of this movie takes place in Ypres, Belgium.
Gino's hot air balloon plays a role in this movie. The weather condition were perfect to record this movie.
This movie is recorded in 3D, which requires a special (rotating) camera. It was not very easy to have this camera as 'passenger' on board of our hot air balloon.
We are looking forward to see this movie in the cinema!
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