At the end of April, we had a busy weekend tethering and flying some of our special shapes at the BBM&L inflation day and in Northampton with Molly Mae Ballooning.
For the first time in a decade, the bi-annual BBM&L (British Balloon Museum & Library) had a near-perfect weather forecast, with light winds and sunny conditions expected all day. The idea was then to drive on to Northampton and get some of our balloons flown. We managed to do it! This was all made possible by teaming up with Molly Mae Ballooning and chief pilot Jamie Edwards.
Molly Mae Ballooning is a Northampton-based hot air balloon team founded in 2008 by pilot Jamie in memory of his daughter Molly Mae. The company combines a passion for ballooning with aerial marketing and community events across the UK, while encouraging new people into the sport.
After picking up a rental van for the weekend and loading up the balloons, me and Chris, who co-owns six of the shapes with me, left for Northampton on Friday lunchtime with three Lindstrand balloons. Jamie and his team were planning a very special flight ahead of the inflation day in a very familiar-looking balloon, so we decided to stop by en route.
The BBM&L’s Maxwell House coffee jar (G-BVBJ) was flown on Friday evening from Billing Aquadrome holiday park. It was the first time I’d ever seen this balloon free fly and it was fantastic to watch, with the winds taking them directly over Northampton before landing around an hour later.
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As you may know, there are two identical coffee jar shapes, the other of which, G-BVBK, joined our collection in 2022. They’re both in excellent condition. The blue lids of the jars are made from Hyperlast fabric, a specially coated elastic nylon material that is stronger than standard rip-stop nylon. As heat rises in cold air, the tops of hot air balloons, particularly special shapes, get very hot (around 100°C), meaning the fabric at the top can wear out quite quickly. Using Hyperlast here will help prolong the balloon’s flying life.
Next stop: Pidley!
We arrived at 7:30am at the site in Pidley, Cambridgeshire, for a busy day of inflations and soon met up with Jamie and his team to begin setting up. First up was my J&B whisky bottle (G-OJBW), which joined the collection in summer 2024. I wanted to give it an airing and, as the balloon theme for the day was “beverages”, we just had to bring it along.
This balloon operates using two triangular Velcro rip panels on the neck of the bottle, the Velcro of which I had replaced at Cameron Balloons a while ago to strengthen it. We have only managed one flight of J&B back in 2024 and, although it was a warm morning, it didn’t perform too well. Ahead of this inflation we were considering trying to fly it again this summer, but unfortunately we think it’s now too porous to safely take up again.
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A few hours later we got our second shape of the day out, a rather appropriate balloon for the warm weather, the Cornetto ice cream (G-OZOE), for only its second inflation since we bought it last year. This balloon uses a standard parachute as the deflation system and is still airworthy. We were planning to free fly the Cornetto from Northampton on Sunday morning; however, this didn’t quite work out - read on.
Other balloons Molly Mae Ballooning inflated during the day included the Maxwell House coffee jar G-BVBJ and their main team balloon G-BVZT. Other shapes out that day included the bofrost ice cream G-BWBE (yes, we had ice cream competition!), the Guinness Can G-PURE, G-OLLI and Wash Cat G-WCAT.
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I’m happy to say that Wash Cat has since joined the collection as the 17th balloon over the last couple of weeks! It’s a balloon with a lot of nostalgia for me. Wind the clock back to 2012, to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta special shape rodeo on Thursday night. I was 12 years old, sat in the crowd with my parents watching all sorts of amazing shapes such as Action Man, the Palletways Dragon, Choc Dips and the Panasonic Battery - and Wash Cat was there that night too. That evening remains my fondest memory of ballooning as a kid. Quite incredibly, all five of those balloons I just mentioned are now in my collection, together once again right here in Bristol.
Wash Cat is an old shape built in 1990 and will now only be out occasionally for static displays. Unusually, it uses a rectangular parachute which seems to have some trouble staying closed, probably because the Velcro is very worn due to its age. See G-WCAT for more.
Many thanks to Tim Turner and the BBM&L for awarding J&B as the best beverages balloon at the event. It was a day to remember, and we’ll certainly be back in future years.
Sit back and enjoy our YouTube video below!
So, the inflation day was over, but our ballooning weekend was just getting started. We quickly dashed off and drove to Welford Christmas Tree Farm, north of Northampton, to fly one of our latest additions from 2025; the Panasonic Battery (G-OKCP) from 1999! It’s a heavy shape due to the gold fabric, weighing in at 261kg, but nowhere near as heavy as some of our others (Slick and Snow White at 320kg, Action Man at 358kg, and Miracle Man at 408kg!).
That Saturday evening, we enjoyed a fantastic 45-minute flight to Elkington in perfect sunny conditions with very calm winds. As we took off, revealing the battery-shaped shadow across the countryside, we took our total MJ Ballooning special shapes flown to six - soon to be seven when we fly the Cornetto. Thanks to Howard as well for coming along that evening to share the flying with Jamie.
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Sadly, the weather wasn’t suitable on Sunday morning and we want to fly the Cornetto on a morning flight for its initial test to see how it performs. On Sunday evening we flew the battery again, this time from Billing Aquadrome where we had started our trip on Friday night, and Jamie landed at Northampton Racecourse.
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Take a look at some great articles on Northampton Chronicle:
We had a fantastic weekend and we’re planning more trips to Northampton this year when we get another nice flyable weekend - next time hopefully with the Cornetto and Orange. In August we are teaming up for a second year at the Bristol Balloon Fiesta and bringing the battery back to the Bristol skies.
Thanks to Jamie and the whole Molly Mae Ballooning team for making the weekend possible. I’m already looking forward to next time.
See you all soon,
Matt
Matt
