Swiss gas-balloon pilots win Gordon Bennett race after Loviisa welcome

Swiss pilots Balthasar Wicki and René Erni won this year’s Gordon Bennett gas-balloon race after landing in Loviisa, where 10 to 15 people greeted them with Finnish flags, beer and champagne within minutes, Yle reported.

“The friendliest welcome ever at a landing site in this competition,” Wicki told Yle.

The Gordon Bennett competition is the world’s oldest aviation race and has been held since 1906. Wicki and Erni were the only team to choose the demanding northern route this year, completing a flight of 1,555.18 kilometres.

About 70 per cent of their route took them over the sea, which is unusual in the competition. The pilots said they knew from the start that the flight would be difficult because of the weather, rain and the need to fly for long periods at very low altitude.

Gas balloons are controlled by changing altitude. Pilots drop ballast, such as sand or water, to rise, and release gas from the hydrogen-filled balloon to descend. Because wind direction varies at different altitudes, Wicki said they had to fly within a very narrow band.

Before reaching the Finnish coast, the pair flew only 20 to 30 metres above the Baltic Sea because that was the altitude at which the wind carried them directly towards Finland. The balloon’s movement up and down was unstable, and its basket touched the water once or twice.

Flying over the sea also saved ballast because the water does not produce the same thermal effects as land. On land, daytime heating creates turbulence that rises upwards.

The low flight brought other challenges. The balloon touched treetops two or three times over land, causing the pilots to lose equipment including their night-flight light.

During the flight, the captain of a Lufthansa commercial jet contacted the pilots by radio over the Baltic Sea, congratulated them and wished them luck.

“Everyone in the aviation world knows the Gordon Bennett competition. It is a highly respected event,” Wicki said.

The pilots were supported by a team of 12 to 14 people working from a command centre in Switzerland. The team included meteorologists, strategists and air traffic controllers working in shifts around the clock. Three other team members followed the pilots by car for two and a half days through the Baltic countries, then took a ferry from Estonia to Finland to collect them after the landing.

Wicki has flown gas balloons for 12 years and has sailed across oceans since he was 14. Erni has eight years of paragliding experience and has flown gas balloons for 10 years.

After leaving Loviisa, the pair will drive to Germany for the Gordon Bennett prize ceremony next week. In the autumn, they plan to compete in Pierz in northern Italy and attend a balloon festival in the Swiss Alps, this time using hot-air balloons.

Wicki said the reception in Loviisa had been unparalleled.

“We have never received such an incredible welcome anywhere. It felt as though the entire ballooning community in southern Finland had been following us. Absolutely amazing,” he said.