are talking to her on monday as i understand. there is an aeronautical theme. a balloon festival is taking place this weekend and john maguire is up in the air with those celebrating and reminiscing. good morning. we havejust cleared the city of bristol. flying towards bath. looking for a place to land. those green fields look like a soft place for the pilot to take as a lad. the balloons flying with pink ribbons, with the idea to remind them of pete gregory. believing is a small family relatively, pete and his brother and dan and dad. all keen. pete tragically died. the
memory of pete, his name was mentioned in the pilot briefing this morning and of moment of reflection. racing balloons especially as a very tight knit community so pete s death has been very heartfelt. has been felt very hard. if ever, anyone was born to fly, it was pete gregory. a third generation hot air balloonist and also an airline pilot, he lived his life in the skies. since the age of three, pete and his brother dan often flew with their father, andrew. ballooning is a field and he was passionate about aviation as a job and ballooning as his hobby and his passion. i guess you could say we were born into hot air ballooning. pete gained his licence at the age of 17, i gained mine at 19, and we ve flown in many countries around the world and been
saint quite quickly. once the burners are turned off it becomes quite quiet. i want to ask you about pete gregory, you know the family well. a small community. a very safe activity, accidents are very rare. it s very sad. nobody knows exactly what happened at the moment. he was an amazing what happened at the moment. he was an amazing balloonist and amazing pilot, an amazing balloonist and amazing pilot, so an amazing balloonist and amazing pilot, so i an amazing balloonist and amazing pilot, so i very sad loss for the community. it pilot, so i very sad loss for the community- community. it is felt very hard across the community. it is felt very hard across the community. - community. it is felt very hard across the community. and i community. it is felt very hard - across the community. and you re trying to inspire the next generation with this balloon. yes, he has been generation with this balloon. yes, he has been in generation with this balloon. yes, he has been in bal
on my shoulder, being like, why are you doing that, dan? you need to go out and compete and do the best you can. and hopefully that s what i can do for him over this summer and also the years ahead. but andrew has reservations. because pete can t fly any more, sort of, so why should i, in a way? but i d like to think i will get back into it. but i think it willjust be a bit.a bit longer. hot air balloons are more than a pastime for this family. it s their profession, their passion. so in pete s name, they ve set up a trust to buy a balloon that trainee pilots will be able to use. encouraging the next generation of balloonists was an ambition of pete s. he aimed to become an instructor. i want pete to be there, everywhere i go. and i ll always be asking the question, like, what would pete be doing here? because that s what he d be asking about me, i m sure. pete was such a friendly and happy chap, and ijust want people to always think about him.
and what we do going forward is thinking like, yeah, pete would be so proud of what we re doing here. nothing can replace him, but keeping his name alive, keeping pete gregory flying, will at least offer the family some solace. we arejust we are just about ready to leave the ground here at ashton court, just getting the heat up in the balloon, the burner is what you need, and you can see the ground crew holding is in position ready to take off, and we can take off now. it is very difficult to hear me when the burner is going, a bit difficult to hear yourself think. we have been let go. giving a wave to the ground. we are above ashton court, chasing the pack just behind us here. you really do a