Allie Dunnington

“Having completed all my pre-flight preparations, it was at last time to take off and it would be fair to say I was feeling both excited and a little apprehensive,” recalled German born Allie, who could never have imagined that becoming a balloonist would be the result of her taking a job in South East Asia.

For it was while working as a tour guide in Burma, that she met her husband to be, Phil Dunnington from Bristol, and decided that if he was a professional balloonist, then it would be great to become one as well.

The Bavarian lake side resort of Starnberg, near Munich, was chosen for her maiden flight as she was familiar with the popular ballooning location and Allie had two factors in her mind as she took to the skies around lunch time on that especially memorable day.

One was to take account of the upward air currents caused by the nearby alps and the other was to make sure she did not land in the adjacent lake.

“I had to go high to manoeuvre into a suitable position and was so busy concentrating  that I did not really have time to be nervous and then any feelings of apprehension at flying solo were blown away by a tremendous feeling of exhilaration,” she said.

“I was in the air for around forty minutes and despite all my efforts to land well away from the lake, I still found myself drifting towards it,” recalled Allie, who brought her maiden flight safely to an end only one field away from the water’s edge.

“The funny thing is I hate conventional flying and before I met Phil, I would never have believed that I would so love ballooning,” she said.

“We all have special days in our lives which we will never forget and my first solo hot air balloon flight was certainly one of mine,” said Allie. 

Balloons, also had a fitting part to play when Allie and Phil got married because his wedding gift to her was a one person hopper balloon with which she went on to maker headlines in the couple’s local paper, the Bristol Evening Post.

For Allie, who was born in Hamburg, Germany, decided to make a special “hopper” flight over Bristol to commemorate the bombing of the city’s St Andrew’s Church in November 1942 and to celebrate Anglo-German friendship.

“I wasn’t able to take off from the site of the church behind Clifton Hill, on the actual anniversary, November 24, because of poor weather conditions,” she said.

“Once that date had passed, it was simply a question of waiting for the next most suitable day with the right weather conditions and that came along on December 10,” she said.

“The word had got around so quite a crowd of friends and locals turned out to see me off, “said Allie who was told by one elderly resident that it was believed that the bomber which had destroyed the church, had been on its way to bomb the city’s famous Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Her special commemorative flight in the 12-metre tall hopper balloon took her over the city’s historic Brandon Hill and the now redeveloped Harbourside, which was a busy dock when the bombers came over on that fateful November day back in 1942.

“The views of the city were simply fantastic and from there I drifted over Windmill Hill to find a most convenient landing spot in Victoria Park in nearby Bedminster,” said Allie.

Now she is busy planning for what will undoubtedly be another memorable occasion and that is the UK’s second woman’s ballooning meet which is expected to be held this autumn.

More information about this event can be found by visiting the couple’s website.
www.gonewiththewind.uk.com 

Meanwhile Allie keeps busy as a consultant to the ballooning business and as a tour guide with the added pleasure of being able to conduct the occasional
tour….from a hot air balloon!

Gone-With-The-Wind

Gone-With-The-Wind was established in 1985 by Phil Dunnington, one of the World’s most widely experienced commercial balloon pilots who in the course of extensive ballooning activities has flown balloons in 98 countries to date (December 2009).

The company aims to provide a unique source of advice and assistance for anybody considering a balloon-related event or operation anywhere in the world. We have unrivalled experience and contacts almost everywhere, can communicate in nearly 10 languages, and have visited a total of over 130 countries in the course of our careers.

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