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14 September 2003

The take-off ... and 2 abandonments

After midnight the wind suddenly picked up again. The balloncrew needed all their strength and ballast to keep the balloons to the ground. The balloon of Krebs and Vollenweider (SWI1) had to be deflated again because its heavy swaying had completely deformed the basket.

Some time later team SWI3 (Christian Stoll and Werner Najer) also decided not to inflate their balloon and thus not to participate at the race.

Shortly after 2:00 am FRA2 was the first balloon to be launched under very windy conditions, followed at 2:12 am by 'Belgica 2' (BEL1). In the mean time the wind still increased. In 40 minutes Belgica 2 managed to fly 41 km!

The last balloon (GER1) was able to take off at 4:27 am. So, after more than 2:15 hours of launching everybody was safely up in the air...

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