A Rollover from a Hot Air Balloon

Today, after twelve years flying, I have done about five thousand flights, so it’s  quite difficult to choose what is the most special flight of my life. But I’ll  try.

In 2014, with some friends, I did one of the craziest experience of my life. I did a “rollover” from a giant balloon at an altitude of  two thousad meters. Our experience was supposed to be in October 201, but the weather was not good so the project was postponed for November instead. In November, the weather was not good again and the project was postponed 4 times more.It seemed like the project was never really going to happen. After five months of waiting for the perfect conditions, that day finally arrived. I woke up at 4a.m. and drove to the take off place to find my friends. I was with my wife and my daughter who was just seven months old at the time. I was the first one to get there and I thought it would be cancelled again or that I was in the wrong place. But after about 10 minutes, everybody started to arrive too and I realized this was going to happen, finally. Caio, the pilot of the balloon, was the last one to get there. As soon as he arrived, we talked a little about the briefing and started to organize the equipment. After like 20 minutes, everything was done and we were inside the balloon basket going up the sky. There were 7 pilots, all of them were more experienced than me. I’ve only been flying for 4 years.. So, when Caio said “ok, you can go” they started to jump. All of them were perfect. Everything was going well. I would be the last one, but one pilot before me backed out as he was not feeling good. So it was now my turn. It was crazy! I was really scared, my legs were shaking, my mouth was dry and my wing was bigger than it should be for this kind of “flight”. I remember before I jumped, I said “Tell Monica, my daughter that I love her so much” and I finally jumped.

My wing was wrong. It almost closed when I jumped from the balloon. It was very crazy and uncontrollable.  But after 27 seconds that felt like an eternity, my wing finally opened and I flew the most incredible flight of my life! I kept flying above the balloon and the clouds. It was like a movie or a dream. It was one of the best days of my life (again). I’d  really love to do it again someday!

You can check out the video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IZ8FxQgMEo