Model stunt planned for Llangollen Hot Air Balloon Festival

A UNIQUE ‘little and large’ stunt is being planned at the Llangollen Hot Air Balloon Festival.

For the first time in the UK, organisers are planning to fly a remote control model balloon inside the super-heated envelope of a full-size balloon.

The idea has been hatched by festival director David Green and Andy Marshall, of Lindstrand Balloons, which organises the show within a show, the UK’s largest indoor model hot-air balloon festival.

It will be a feature of this year’s three-day festival which takes place on the weekend of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, September 4, 5 and 6, at the Royal International Pavilion.

The pair are warming up for the attempt by flying Andy’s model balloon inside David’s 60,000 cubic foot monster indoors at the pavilion.

Andy said: “That’s a first in itself. It’s never been done indoors but maybe that’s because there isn’t such a good venue for model hot air balloons as the pavilion.

“The roof is big and it’s nice and soft with no sharp bits and nothing to get tangled up in.

“We have to cold-inflate David’s balloon using a giant fan and then get mine up inside it and once it’s in there should be plenty of space for it to fly about in.”

David said: “It should look fantastic and will make for some amazing pictures.

“It will be tricky recreating it outdoors at the show with the high temperatures involved with a normal inflation and the need for absolute calm with no wind at all but if we can we’ll go for it.

“We should be able to switch the burners off for three or four minutes and that should give us time to get the model balloon in there and fly it about.

“It will still be very hot and we may have to look at some way of protecting the model balloon.”

The festival itself is Wales’s biggest hot-air balloon event and the model festival is the biggest in the UK with over 24 balloons taking part, including the one featured in a recent Tesco TV advert.

“It was shot in such a way that it looked full size but it was actually quite a small model,” said Andy:

“Model balloons can be up to 12 feet high so they’re quite substantial.”

The festival will open at 6pm on Friday night when, weather permitting, over 25 balloons will launch, and then it’s party time until 11pm with an outside stage featuring live music.

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