Congratulations to colleague Bob Berben for this victory and for breaking the record!
During a flight we performed together 6 months ago he told me about his hobby of gas ballooning and you could notice how much he was into his hobby!
Here is what the official website www.aibf.org says:
Gas ballooning enthusiasts everywhere are in awe at what they’re seeing in the 49th Coupe Aeronautique Gordon Bennett. The one team still flying – and the apparent winners – are the Belgium 1 team of Bob Berben and Benoit Simeons. They’ve already broken the old Gordon Bennett distance record by 1,000 miles, and so far they’ve shown no signs of stopping. Berben and Simeons are headed eastward across Quebec, Canada and at this writing are passing north of Montreal.
More on www.aibf.orgYou don’t have to look any further than the tracking map at http://www.balloonfiesta.com/Gas/tracking/index.php to see the story. The Belgium 1 Coupe Gordon Bennett contenders, Bob Berben and Benoit Simeons are in Quebec north of the Maine border. Twenty-five other gas balloons – contenders in the Gordon Bennett and the Balloon Fiesta America’s Challenge long-distance races – are scattered in their wake. And there’s a big gap between the Belgian team and their nearest rivals back in Ontario.
Berben and Simeons landed safely 30 miles east of Rivere du Loop, Quebec, Canada at about noon Tuesday MDT (1800Z), making them the apparent winners of the 49th Coupe Aeronautique Gordon Bennett. Their eye-popping flight of more than 2,100 miles (more than 3,379 km) shattered the Gordon Bennett distance record set in 1912. It’s the longest competitive gas balloon flight ever made from Albuquerque, eclipsing David Levin’s 2000 America’s Challenge record. They didn’t set a duration record, but their 65 hour, 16 minute flight was the third longest-duration Gordon Bennett flight in the century-old history of the race.
This was pilot Bob Berben’s first time competing in the Coupe Gordon Bennett, but he is an instructor pilot and examiner with more than 1,400 hours in hot air and gas balloons and more than 15,000 hours in fixed-wing aircraft. He is a commercial airline pilot. Co-pilot Benoit Simeons has competed in two previous Gordon Bennett races (2003-04). He is a professional balloonist who has been flying balloons since the age of 16. He now has 1,800 hours in hot air and gas balloons and is the vice-world champion in hot air airships. Berben and Simeons jointly hold the Belgian altitude record for AX-10 hot air balloons.
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