Filming/Adventure travel
From Phil’s epic first documentary in 1972 ‘Safari by balloon’ during which he taught renown wild-life film maker Alan Root to fly a hot air balloon in Kenia, Gone-with-the-Wind were involved in many more TV programmes, films and documentary series.
In 2010 they worked extensively with ARTE/ZDF on a 5-part series taking their beautiful balloon to Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, the Alps and Venezuela where they had the honour to take famous film director Werner Herzog flying near the Tepuis. The series is named ‘The world’s greatest balloon adventures’ and can be viewed on YouTube.
A couple of years later they featured in the 3-part BBC natural history documentary ‘Wild Burma’ flying over the jungles of Rakhine state in Myanmar (Burma).
Further episodes followed but one of their most epic expeditions was crossing the Arctic in their own vintage Beech 18 carrying their ultra-light-weight balloon on board. Phil and Allie were the first pilots to fly a balloon in Cuba and Greenland.
After Phil's death in 2021 Allie took on the challenge to chase Phil’s world record in having flown in 127 countries. For this she recently took her small single-seater balloon to Sumatra to add Indonesia to her countries list which now stands at 115.
This winter she is hoping to balloon in Brunei, Timor Leste and Bangladesh as well as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Each destination will have its own challenges. ‘Conquering’ new countries by balloon means facing a myriad of challenges whether it be transportation, logistics, permissions or weather and natural boundaries. The reward though is meeting local people and most times becoming life-long friends whilst seeing our planet earth from a very different, extraordinary perspective.
