In this episode Andrew chats to ballooning Hall of Fame legend, Bruce Comstock. Having started ballooning 50 years ago, he has achieved a huge amount in ballooning and has an incredible resume. The below is taken from Bruce's website - A Life in the Air. Bruce Comstock’s extraordinary accomplishments in ballooning eventually landed him in both the …

In this episode Andrew chats to professional balloonist and competition pilot, Matthew Scaife. Matt is a second generation pilot that began ballooning as a kid in the UK. Having flown for many years commercially in England, he then migrated out to Australia to fly commercially and now runs Balloon Aloft. Matt, along with his wife Nicola, took up co…

In this episode, Andrew chats to Brad Temeyer. Brad is an internationally renowned ballooning meteorologist. He has been the meteorologist for many record attempts, ballooning events (including the Albuquerque Fiesta), ballooning competitions and for the US team. Brad was born in Rockford, IL on July 31, 1979. He graduated on the Dean’s List from I…

This is the first ever Aunty Monkey video episode. Go to http://www.auntymonkey.com to watch the episode. During this episode, Andrew walks through an array of helpful hints and tips about how to produce better ballooning videos. The topics he runs through include: Filming with phones Cameras Mounts Camera Movement Speeding up shots People Storytel…

Kim Magee is a second generation pilot from Iowa in the US. Having got her license at the age 19, she has achieved a huge amount in the ballooning world in a relatively short period of time. Kim has represented USA at the Women's World Championship, she has won the US BFA Long Jump and last year she did 2 World Record flights. So she is now the hol…

Deano Pegg has been involved in ballooning since the mid 1990s. In the years since, he has worked extensively as a professional crew person and has been very active in crewing for balloon teams at international events. He is a much loved character in international ballooning and is friends with everyone. In this episode Deano shares his background …

Leandro Corradini is a multi-discipline pilot and has been intimately involved with the paragliding and paramotoring world. His love of light weight, portable, personal aircraft led him to identify a gap in the ballooning market for this type of aircraft, so he decided to do something about it. After two years of planning and design, he launched hi…

In this episode, Andrew chats to the newly crowned World Champion, Dominic Bareford. Dom is a young UK pilot that has been dominating competition ballooning this year. You just need to look at some of his results in the last 6 months to see how well his is flying. 1st - 23rd FAI World Hot Air Balloon Championships 1st - 2018 British Nationals 1st -…

Tim is the lead protagonist in the birth of the modern Annex 2 ballooning scene in the UK, more commonly known as experimental ballooning to the rest of the World. Tim is a force of nature when it comes to his passion for life and encouraging and training other people to get involved in building their own balloons. Tim comes from a family of fixed …

In this episode, Adam talks to some of the World's best pilots about the upcoming 2018 FAI World Hot Air Balloon Championships in Großsiegharts, Austria. The guests include: Rhett Heartsill - 2016 Open World Champion Nicola Scaife - 2016 Women's World Champion Rokas Kostiuskevicius - 2016 Junior World Champion Daniel Kusternigg - 6 time Austrian Ch…

In this episode, Adam sits down and chats with Paul Stumpf. Paul Stumpf has been building, flying and maintaining balloons for over 40 years. He is one of the best known repairmen in the US and is based out of the North East USA in the state of Vermont. Paul's business Stumpf Balloons is best known to the wider ballooning community for its revoluti…

In this episode, Andrew sits down and chats with ballooning manufacturer and pioneer, Phil Kavanagh. Phil has been building and flying hot air balloons for 50 years. In this interview, Phil talks about the early days of ballooning and some of his adventures including attempting to fly over Mt Everest in the 1980s and trying to fly across Australia …

In this episode, Andrew sits down and chats with The Flying Lemmings. They are a self proclaimed bunch of self-indulgent millennials flying balloons and mucking around. The Lemmings are all about promoting the fun of the sport of ballooning and have created an exciting young culture in the the sport that has started attracting more and more like mi…

In this episode, Adam chats to FAI President of Honour, Dr John Grubbström. John is one of a kind. Intelligent, respectful, committed, fun, and completely addicted to all forms of aviation. John’s ballooning career started in the early 1970’s and in 1974 he acquired his hot air balloon pilot license. John is not the sort of guy who can just be invo…

In this episode, Adam chats to Petr Kubicek. From humble and quite recent beginnings Kubicek balloons has grown into one of the powerhouse balloon manufacturers in the World. The Kubicek story is fascinating with the beginnings of the business directly linked to the end of communism in the then Czechoslovakia. Petr’s father Ales founded Kubicek bal…

In this episode, Andrew talks to Nicola Scaife about competition ballooning. Nicola is an Australian balloon pilot with a passion for competition. She lives and flies in the beautiful Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia, with her husband Matthew and their son Hugo. She works as a commercial hot air balloon pilot for Balloon Aloft, flying up to 20 people …

In this episode Andrew chats to inspirational New Zealand pilot Andrew Parker. Andrew is daring to live his dream and use his passion for flying to change the lives of children around the world. The Flying High for Kids World Balloon Project was launched in 2013 and aims to reach communities in over 100 countries by 2018.…

To welcome in the new year, Andrew and Adam chat to each other about some of the Aunty Monkey highlights of 2017 and what is planned for 2018. They also share some stories about some interesting moments in ballooning history that they never knew about. As podcasting is new to many of the Aunty Monkey subscribers, the boys also share details about s…

In this episode Adam chats to one of the most gifted balloon makers in the World, Bert Padelt. Bert’s is best known for custom building record setting balloons. As testament to his enormous talent and skill, Bert’s balloons hold FAI World records in the hot air, gas and Rozier categories. Along with his wife Joanie, Bert runs a full time repair sta…

Troy is a full-time balloonist with over 7,109 balloon piloting hours (296 days aloft). As one of the most prolific record-setters the sport has ever seen, he has set 64 World Records in Hot Air, Gas and Rozier (hybrid) balloons. Troy has flown 223 different balloons ranging in size from 8,000 to 500,000 cubic feet. He has flown balloons on 5 conti…