An Italian fishing boat has recovered the balloon USA2 flown by Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis. The basket contained two bodies which have been identified as the missing pilots. Plans are being made to repatriate the bodies and hold private ceremonies to remember the pilots.
Our press statement policy is to publish all statements issued by the families.
We intend that there will be no further statements from the GB organisation. Like the families, we hope that answers will be found soon
The Organising Committee of the 54th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett has received the following statement from Nancy Abruzzo, the wife of Richard Abruzzo, one of the two pilots in the USA2 team:
We received the following statement from the Italian Coastguard earlier today:
The Organising Committee of the 54th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett has received the following statement from Nancy Abruzzo, the wife of Richard Abruzzo, one of the two pilots in the USA2 team:
Don Cameron, Race Director, has issued this statement at 1530UTC (1630BST) on 29th September 2010:
Don Cameron, Flight Director, has just made this comment about the ongoing search for the American team of Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis:
Results in from GBR3 (David Hempleman-Adams & Simon Carey) and GER1 (Wilhelm Eimers & Ullrich Seel)
Two more balloons land.
Don Cameron, Race Director, has issued this statement at 1000UTC (1100BST) on 29th September 2010:
Don Cameron, Race Director, has issued this statement at 0900UTC (1000BST) on 29th September 2010:
GB2010 control team are in contact with all relevant agencies. The Italian Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre has a fast boat and helicopter in the area.
Next update: 1200BST/1100UTC
The Germans continue east, the Americans fly near an area of bad weather
Don Cameron, Race Director, has issued this statement at 0745UTC (0845BST) on 29th September 2010:
80 Hours in the air - Three balloons still flying
Not much different from the last report!
Three balloons fly through the night - one is going nowhere, the other two fly over the Balkans. They have been airborne almost 3 days now.
There are big storms over Greece. What happens as they move east? Stefan has an idea...
"If you follow the link you can see in the Middle an animated satellite film.
It looks like that the teams will have a rough time when they want to go more south east to Bulgaria or Greece to get the distance of the Swiss.
Now the race desicions will made by the weathermans, which will give the teams the path to go.
Good Luck to all flying teams"
The American team USA2 has almost stopped over the Adriatic Sea. Stafan Handl looks at the forecasts and comments about their options.
Three Teams in the air - interesting tactics?
Following the landing of GER2, we have three balloons left in the air.
Flight control just received a call from team GER2 (Matthias Zenge & Markus Pieper) that they have landed in the far north Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Colin Butter returns in time for the BBC news!
BBC Bristol arrived to film in flight control for the lunch time news, and just minutes before they began filming in walked Colin Butter (GBR 1 pilot) to a huge round of applause from the team. Colin said he had a fabulous flight, and that it was really cold up there.
Welcome back Colin ~ Robin wants to pop the Champagne apparently it’s a “tiresome tradition”. We don't believe you Robin, we know you love it!
The balloons have been flying for over 60 hours now.
The website is happier today, following the decision to split the tracking page and the shouts page.
With only four teams remaining, what do the forecast trajectories indicate for the teams? Stefan Handl comments:
Four teams are still in the air - but how much ballast do they have left?
The Swiss team SWI2 are currently in the lead in the competition. This profile shows that they acheived this by flying high thoughout most of their flight
With no more of the competition area available to them, the Swiss team SWI2 of Kurt Frieden & Pascal Witpraechtiger appear to have landed in the far east of Romania
The leaders are about to land, the rest decide what to do, except for FRA2 who lands near to Naples.
Looking good for the teams "held up" by Italian airspace regulations
The control room has a 24 hour web cam going and they were surprised to see Croatia Air Traffic Control comment on it "we have just spoken to the Swiss balloon and can see you on the web cam." The control room asked them to pass on good luck to the Swiss team which they did before turning around to look at the web cam to see written out on a piece of paper "HELLO CROATIA ATC", which made them smile very much.
The teams are not allowed to fly over Italian soil, or within 5nm of it, between 30 minutes after sunset and 30 minutes before sunrise. They are allowed to fly within Italian airspace at night, as long as they stay more than 5nm from the land.
Corsica is one of the 26 régions of France, and the island of Sardinia belongs to Italy.
They're in the lead - at the moment. The race isn't over until the last balloon lands...
The Swiss race ahead, the rest bide their time
Six balloons still in the race.
In what must be one of the best stories from the race so far, Frenchmen Sebastien Rolland and Vincent Leys in aerostat F-PPSE found themselves over Sardinia at a great height and at high speed today just before sunset.
Certainement une des des meilleures histoires du concours.
Our guru Stefan Handl has looked at the forecast trajectories for these two teams through the night
Into the third night...
The French team FRA2 managed to escape from Italian soil with minutes to spare.
The atmosphere in the Flight Control Centre is electric...
With six teams still flying it's still "game on"!
The French team (FRA2) of Sebastien Rolland and Vincent Leys must clear a line 5nm to the east coast of Sardinia before 1739Z (around 55 minutes from now) otherwise they could be disqualified
With night approaching, what are the teams to do?
The Russian team have confirmed their landing in the south of France.
Don Cameron has just had confirmation that, as suspected, teams GER3 and USA3 have landed
10 balloons landed, 8 still flying and maybe 2 landed and yet to report
The Austrian team of Gerald Stürzlinger and Nikolaus Binder have landed in France, after a flight of approx 38 hours and a distance of almost 1000km.
Over 36 hours into the race and we still have more than half of the balloons still flying.
To give you an idea of the sort of decisions the teams have to make, our guru Stefan has generated some possible trajectories for three of the teams
Here's an update from the GB2010 Control Room
We have just had confirmation that team USA has landed.
12 teams still flying, 8 on the ground!
The GB2010 website went down earlier this morning. Our hosting providers are currently tuning the server to get best performance out of it.
We have had confirmation from two of the British teams that they have landed safely.
The GBR1 team of Colin Butter and Paul Spellward has landed.
With six balloons confirmed as having landed and two more planning to land, the race is taking an interesting turn.
We have just heard that team GBR1 (Butter and Spellward) are trying to land. We will report when we have official confirmation of their landing. We also suspect that the ladies team of Janet and Ann have landed. We have reports that they collected a lot of ice on their balloon overnight and had to use ballast.
We have just heard that the French team FRA1, Benoit Pelard and Benoît Péterlé, has landed.
The Belgian team of Gino Ciers and Jürgen Dobbelaere landed at 0710Z this morning, and have just contacted race control.
We've had a great "night shift" at Flight Control, with 4 balloons now landed.
Swiss Team Max Krebs & Walter Gschwendtner (HB-QHP) have spoken to Flight Control Team to report their landing time and position.
All balloons now over the Bay of Biscay.
Swiss Team Kurt Frieden & Pascal Witpraechtiger (HB-QKF) just off the coast of France, and French Team Sebastien Rolland & Vincent Leys (F-PPSE) now flying over the sea off the coast of Spain.
With reports of temperatures of 5 degrees at 5,000ft we're sure all teams will be looking forward to seeing the sun rise.
Our "heros of the skies" have been flying for 24 hours.
It's midnight in Bristol, 24 hours since the fantastic launch of 20 gas balloons from the Oakham Treasures' site in Easter Compton.
Phil Dunnington has joined us in the Flight Control room to do the "night shift".
The late evening shift in the Control Centre are all busy on laptops.
Kevin Stass is looking after the ATC, Martin Harris has his eye on the latest weather forecasts whilst I've been given the keys to the website as Piers has gone home for a very well deserved sleep. Don and Hannah are also catching 40 winks whilst they can.
The French Team (Sebastien Rolland & Vincent Leys (F-PPSE)) are racing away having crossed the Pyrenees and we're all debating what their tactics are. At the moment the highest any balloon has been is to 12000 feet, with the lowest being 600ft.
Balloons head into the night
The plot below shows the dilemma faced by the teams. They cannot enter Italian airspace during the night.
Having warned our hosting provider about how popular the Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett website would be, they assured us all would be fine.
19 flying, one landed!
The Japanese team have landed. Their location is N44deg 05.217min W000deg 56.662 min. Landing time was 1715GMT. The team did not fancy flying over the Pyrenees during the night, having used too much sand since takeoff.
Their official distance is 838.758km
Japanese still ahead - what are they planning?
The latest "Hysplit" trajectory forecast shows the balloons turning left around midnight
No change at the front - Japanese 70km in the lead
The Japanese continue to increase their lead
The Japanese are still in the lead, by an increasing distance of 40km.
The Japanese team of Saburo Ichiyoshi and Akio Hachinohe have a 20km lead over second place Swiss team Max Krebs and Walter Gschwendtner.
"Stand back! Hands Off!"
The lead balloons (Max Krebs Walter Gschwendtner HB-QHP and Saburo Ichiyoshi Akio Hachinohe JA-A1044) have crossed the cross the French coast around Saint-Malo.
The lead balloons (Max Krebs Walter Gschwendtner HB-QHP and Saburo Ichiyoshi Akio Hachinohe JA-A1044) are about the cross the French coast around Saint-Malo.
The lead balloons (Max Krebs Walter Gschwendtner HB-QHP and Saburo Ichiyoshi Akio Hachinohe JA-A1044) are crossing the sea between Jersey and Guernsey.
All the teams except for the Swiss2 team (Kurt Frieden Pascal Witpraechtiger HB-QKF) are over the English Channel
The balloons are heading out across the English Channel on their way to France. The Swiss team of HB-QKF Frieden is in the lead at the moment
The UK Met Office has issued a final set of trajectory forecasts for the event.
Taken at 21.10
15 out of the 20 balloons have been inflated, or are almost inflated. Still hoping to launch between 2200 and 2300
12 balloons inflated in almost complete darkness,
8 to go
The Launch order of the balloons will be as follows:
RUS1 RA-0454G Tyukhtyaev
NLD1 PH-KTS Jurg
AUT1 D-ORZL Stürzlinger
USA1 N707GH Sullivan
JAP1 JA-A1044 Ichiyoshi
GER1 D-OEIM Eimers
BEL1 D-OCOX Ciers
FIN1 OH-OCO Luoma
SWI1 HB-QHP Krebs
GBR1 D-OCFT Butter
FRA1 F-PALL Pelard
USA2 N801NM Abruzzo
GER2 D-OWBA Zenge
FIN2 OH-ENI Mattsson
SWI1 HB-QKF Frieden
GBR2 D-OWNT Folkes
FRA2 F-PPSE Rolland
USA3 D-OWNL Wallace
GER3 D-OWBI Höhl
GBR3 G-CGOZ Hempleman-Adams
There are now three balloons inflated - F-PPSE, D-OWBA and D-OCFT
We have started to inflate one of the netted balloons. Watch online!
I've asked the versatile Jane to roam the site and take a few pictures. These should be available in our Gallery once they have uploaded.
The webcam is now available. At the moment it is transmitting pictures from the pilots' marquee - later it will be of the launch field
Go to our channel on uStream (apologies for the adverts - we can't afford to have the paid version)
The Pilots have just received their first onsite briefing. The news from Flight Director Don Cameron is that the wind should abate later this afternoon and the next briefing will be at 1800 local
Up at the launchsite, the hydrogen trucks have arrived and the teams are filling sandbags. It's very windy up here so it looks like the launch will be delayed into the evening.
Sorry there aren't more updates - I will try to update when I can - trying to get the webcam going!
The UK Met Office has issued another set of trajectory forecasts for the event.
Friday 24th: All 20 teams registered for the race this morning at the Redwood Lodge Hotel, Bristol.
In the afternoon, at the main briefing, the pilots were briefed by Bristol Airport Air Traffic Control, NATS (National Air Traffic Services), Martin Harris the Met Man, Johnathon Harris the safety and gas guy, Kevin Stass (dealing with overseas air traffic procedures), Ian Hooker (Chairman of the BBAC) and of course Don Cameron.
The take-off order of the teams was decided at the Master Briefing by a "tombola" draw.
The order will be:
All the teams have arrived in Bristol and registered their entries for the race. Pilots have time for a quick lunch before having to attend the master briefing at 2pm.
The UK Met Office has issued another set of trajectory forecasts for the event.
The Competition Map has been updated to reflect the latest countries who have confirmed that the balloons can fly through them.
The UK Met Office has issued another set of trajectory forecasts for the event.
The GB team of David Hempleman-Adams and Simon Carey have completed their test flight in their brand-new Cameron Balloons GB-1000.
Taking off from the Gordon Bennett 2010 launch site north of Bristol, they drifted over the city, creating a stir amongst those watching. The balloon successfully landed a little while before sunset; no parachutes were required!
Pictures of this balloon are available on our photo pages. The BBC has some video coverage here
The UK Met Office has issued the first trajectory forecasts for the event.
We have a very limited number of extra launch-day tickets available.
Please fill in the form on this page and someone will call you back (probably me)
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh has indicated that he will be attending the closing ceremony of the Coupe Aéronautique, and presenting the awards to the winners.
The Organising Committee are delighted that the Duke has chosen to support this prestigious, international event and look forward to welcoming him to Bristol.
All applications for tickets must be posted to Hannah Cameron TODAY (Thursday 16th)!!
The organising committee of the 54th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett is saddened to learn that our Czech pilots and friends Jan Smrcka and Zuzka Smrchova will be unable to take part in the race this year.
However there are still 20 teams planning to compete, promising an exciting challenge for all.
There is a campsite available within 1.5 miles (2.5km) of the launchsite, with an overflow into a normal grass field, with a drinking water standpipe and waste disposal services, but no electric hook-up. The cost is £10 per night per caravan or motor home.
If you have booked in with Tom and arranged payment, - there is no problem about times that you go back and forth from this campsite.
To book please email Tom directly (tomroper at hotmail.co.uk)
or call Tom and Jane Roper on 07768 286 924
With less than a month to go until the planned start of the race, preparations are in full flow. Your committee is working hard to ensure a successful race.
Members of the BBAC should order their launchsite tickets before 31st August, when the £10 special offer expires. Download the form from our tickets page
Newsletter number six for competitors has been published and sent by email to all registered entrants. If you have not received your copy and think that you should have, please contact Hannah Cameron
The starting place for the 2010 Gordon Bennett has had to be changed, owing to the huge cost and organisational effort of holding an event in a public space.
On Thursday 10th June the Organising Committee of the 2010 Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett held a press conference in the main chamber at Bristol City Council House. The "top table" speeches were given by Dr Janet Folkes, David Hempleman-Adams, Anthony Smith and Don Cameron. A demonstration of hot-air ballooning (rather than gas ballooning) was given on College Green, and various video clips were followed by a question-and-answer session.
The deadline for teams to enter the 2010 Race has passed. We are collecting all the information together and will publish a final list of entrants as soon as it is available.
Teams can now download the final rules for this year's competition from http://www.gordonbennett2010.com/downloads
There are now only four days left for teams to enter the competition.
The Organising Committee of the Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett 2010 is pleased to be able to offer VIP tickets to the two fantastic social events surrounding the race, as well as tickets for a prime spot on launch day.
The options are as follows:
The organising committee of the GB2010 is delighted to welcome Martin Harris to the team as the race's Meteorological Adviser. Martin has a vast experience of ballooning weather to share with the organisers and teams.
The revised entry date for nations to enter their pilots has now passed. Currently there are 23 teams entered from 12 countries. We may see some teams drop out because of a clash of dates with the America's Challenge Race at Albuquerque the week after.
Entries are invited from pilots who wish to fly "hors concours" (outside the competition). A separate trophy will be awarded. Enter by 26th April, cost is £3500 with £250 reimbursed on safe return of the logger.
In a surprise development, the closing date for nations to nominate teams to race in the 2010 Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett has been extended until 29th March. One more team, from the Czech Republic, has entered.
The deadline for National Aero Clubs to enter their country's teams into the race has passed! By 15th March, 11 countries had nominated 22 teams to fly in the 2010 Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett!
With just over a week to go until National Aero Clubs need to confirm their teams, six countries have replied and 13 teams are proposed.
We hope to hear from the USA, Switzerland and Belgium soon!
Entries are now invited for the Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett 2010. Please download your entry form from this page. We look forward to hearing from you!
