The Royal Air Force Halton Hot Air Balloon Club was the brainchild of Sqn. Ldr. R S Dixon and the first balloon was delivered in June 1990 having been purchased with grants from the station and the Nuffield Trust. That balloon was an 84,000 cu. ft. Thunder & Colt Series 1 model and was registered with the CAA as G-ISTT. This registration was to represent 1 School of Technical Training, this being RAF Halton’s primary unit at the time. The first club flight took place on 16 June 1990.

During that summer the balloon was flown 14 times and the first club pilots were trained up over the next year by local members of the Black Horse Balloon Club. Sqn. Ldr. Dixon became Chief Pilot and Wg. Cdr. Attwood, a doctor at Princess Mary’s Hospital, was the OIC. As always, the club was run on a shoestring budget, and initially the retrieve vehicle was any private car with a tow bar and the trailer was a horsebox loaned by Halton Saddle club. Before the end of the summer of 1990, the club had a dedicated trailer and a gas guzzling long wheelbase Land Rover. The Land Rover proved to be a major drain on finances and was replaced with a Sherpa mini-bus that had been the Station mini-bus and was “donated” on long-term loan when Halton SIF upgraded to a new vehicle.

Flying continued apace over the next few years so that a cadre of pilots were qualified up to make the club self sufficient although much training was still done with invaluable help from Black Horse members. 8 members have checked out as pilots and 4 have moved on and have their own balloons.

Roger Dixon remained at RAF Halton until March 2007 and was Chief Pilot all the time and also Oi/c much of the time. Tony Attwood retired from the RAF in 1994 but has remained a Club member and training officer and is now the longest serving club member. Tony gained Halton higher profile when he flew G-ISTT in the first Cross London flight and the balloon appeared on the front page of the Daily Telegraph. Roger is the only club member to have done the Cross Channel balloon flight and both were in the team that won the Inter Services Hot Air Balloon Competition held at RAF Middle Wallop.

G-ISTT gradually became more tired and porous and in 2005 was replaced with the “Royal Air Force” balloon. This is a little larger at 105,000 cu. ft. and made by Lindstrand Balloons who, like Thunder & Colt, are based in Oswestry. This balloon was partially paid for by Royal Air Force Institute of Recruiting and bears the registration G-IOFR. This balloon is obviously Royal Air Force (as shown in the photograph on the first flight from Black Horse field on 17 July 2005) and so is used at recruiting events as well as for the usual club flying. This balloon has resulted in new enthusiasm to give the club a higher profile and there are plans not only to fly locally but to take part in more events with RAF or aviation publicity such as Biggin Hill Airshow, RIAT, Inter-Service Events and RAF recruiting.

Tony has ensured that Halton is well accepted nationally as he organises the annual Hot Air Balloon Event at Silverstone each year. The Club has regularly flown at major meets in Austria (up to 12,000ft) and The Northampton Balloon Festival, Chatsworth, Belvoir Castle, Newbury County Shows as well as local events such as Black Horse Meets and the Bucks. County Show.