BALLOONING WITH WICKERS WORLD

The Wickers World Balloon Flight Experience! Call our central office on 01889 88 22 22

Step Off The Earth For A While!

A crisp Winter's day launch in the snow from Shugborough. We fly all year round, subject to suitable conditions.

In a nutshell, we fly on every single day of the year that the weather and ground conditions allow. Weekdays, weekends, Bank Holidays - every day! (except Christmas Day, please!). We launch twice a day; once about an hour after dawn, and again about two hours before sunset. It is at these times of day that the conditions are most suitable for ballooning. For safety and comfort's sake, we simply cannot fly if the weather is wet, windy or foggy - our aim is to give everybody a pleasant, enjoyable and safe flight!

On arrival at the launch site, you will be met by one of our uniformed personnel at check-in. The balloons are then prepared for flight by the ground crew, whilst the pilots give their passengers the mandatory safety briefing. That done, the inflation begins in earnest. It is a surprisingly quick process, with the balloons taking shape and rising off the ground within about 10 minutes. When ready, the pilot invites the passengers aboard, and within a few minutes more, it's up, up and away to the cheers from the crowd!

Once airborne, the flight is GUARANTEED to be at least one hour in duration - and is in fact more usually closer to an hour and a half! One of the beauties of ballooning is drifting with the wind - nobody knows where we will land until the pilot chooses a suitable place in which to bring you back to earth, which could be anywhere within a 20 or 25 mile radius of our starting point! Passengers are always pleasantly surprised by how warm and comfortable the flight is. There's no chill from the breeze, because the balloon is moving with the wind, and the basket hangs as if motionless in the sky! It all adds up to a wonderful experience. After landing, your pilot will sign the commemorative flight certificates for each passenger. Meanwhile, the ground crews, who will have tracked the balloons by road (whilst in radio contact with the pilots), collect all of the equipment and offer free return transport to the launch site in our fleet of Land Rovers. Passengers are extremely welcome to bring friends and relatives to see them off on their flight. Ballooning is a great social occasion, and everybody will enjoy watching or even helping with the preparations for flight.

14ft of flame shoots up into the balloon!

Furthermore, anyone wishing to track the balloons can do so in their own vehicles simply by following our crew's Land Rovers. This is a great way of involving friends and family in the fun! During almost every flight, we take a series of in-flight photographs, which make a fantastic souvenir to remind you of your balloon flight for many years to come. Seen below is our company chief pilot, Andy Rawson, flying an eight passenger balloon. Smiles all round, beautiful scenery below, and really warm!

Don't you love the view from Andy's office?

When purchasing a voucher, you are faced with two choices; either to leave the flight date open ended (so that the recipient can make their own arrangements), or to choose a preferred date, such as a birthday or anniversary, when making the purchase. Either way is fine, although most people do leave the date open ended - probably because they don't know when the lucky recipient will want to take the trip! Arranging the date is simple: either telephone our friendly office staff or visit this web site and click on the "book date" button... All of our vouchers are valid for a whole 12 months; so there's no need to worry about taking your flight in a hurry! Get organised, tell your family, check your diary and buy plenty of film for your camera - you're going to need it. So, once the passenger has chosen a date and made the arrangements with us, it just takes a quick telephone call to our office, closer to the time of the flight, to find out whether the flying conditions are suitable! If they are, then GREAT, it's all systems go! If not, then the passenger simply chooses another date and tries again! To see our beautiful launch sites, click here, or use the navigation buttons below.

Fly First Class with the County's Favourite Airline! Wickers World Ltd, The Hawthorns, Great Haywood, Staffordshire. ST18 0RA Telephone: 01889 88 22 22 or fax: 01889 88 11 22 email: office@wickersworld.co.uk