All hot air ballooning depends totally on the good will of the farming community.
Whenever a hot air balloon takes off it will be taken by the winds exactly where the winds themselves go. There is no way to steer a balloon in a desired direction. Therefore when it is time to land we have to chose a landing site exactly along the path that the winds are taking us.
We are therefore inevitably going to be unexpected guests on somebody's land when we come down. and in order to be welcome to land there again we need to behave in a way which respects the owners of the land and thier property. We are very fortunate in this area to have a very good relationship with the farmimg community and to maintain this we need to do two things.
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Recognise from the air exactly what the land below is being used for and act to minimise our impact on that. Sometimes by flying high, sometimes by using the quiet burner.
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Secondly we follow a code of conduct which has been defined and documented through discussions with the farming community and the BBAC to ensure that all balloonists behave in a way which respects the needs of the farmers and allows us to continue to fly knowing that we will be an unexpected guest on somebody's land as a consequence.
