Virgin Experience day balloons issue livestock hurt.

[TrialsTech]

has anyone had any dealings with virgin experience days balloon trips, woke up this morning at 7:20 to find a hot air balloon very low over my heavy horses - to the event they were trying to land in a field id recently taken a cut of grass off, post flying over I've had a horse clear a gate and end up in a ditch for being spooked. we are talking excessively low I've had no indication to them landing etc. if theyd have actually succeeded they said they were addiment that they had right of way and passage. Now i've got to write to them to complain, has anyone had any payments from this gang of cow boys?

Cheers D

 

[melted welly]

Very arrogant people, they landed in a daffodil field of ours several years ago, chewed it up with their 4x4s then argued against there even being a crop in the field. I doubt you’ll get much response from them.

maybe an occasion where twitter has more effect.

 

[Forkdriver]

We used to have them over and round us North of Peterborough. They are chancers with no respect for your property and we had more than one heated exchange. Luckily no damage to our horses but the roar of the flamer certainly upset them.
To make a civil claim you need to show cause and effect. Bill them then small claims court if they don't pay may be the cheapest way.

 

[TrialsTech]

their office is in telford so debating going with the bale trailer and tractor and breaking down in their carpark on friday this week,

 

[GingerGenius78]

Would be a Shame to put a sharp blade through the ballon silk !

 

[elvin farmer]

We have had experience of a baloon harming our livestock we claimed on the baloon owners insurance and got paid for the damage they caused it was not Virgin baloons but they should have public liability insurance.

 

[HolzKopf]

Does anyone know the answer then to the OP's query about whether a ballon has a right to land on (our) private property?

Also unlike, say landing on a greenhouse where damage can be seen and quantified, a landing on or a low pass over fields containing stock is unwelcome and liable to cause damage that cannot always be seen immediately.

What's the legal position? If one lands on your ground, what right is there for recovery vehicles to be admitted

HK

 

[Exfarmer]

Does anyone know the answer then to the OP's query about whether a ballon has a right to land on (our) private property?

Also unlike, say landing on a greenhouse where damage can be seen and quantified, a landing on or a low pass over fields containing stock is unwelcome and liable to cause damage that cannot always be seen immediately.

What's the legal position? If one lands on your ground, what right is there for recovery vehicles to be admitted

HK

I believe all aircraft of any sort have a right to land in emergency, fairly certain that these balloons are franchised and it will be the franchisee who is liable. Sadly my experience of balloon operators is not good

 

[Andy Nash]

Does anyone know the answer then to the OP's query about whether a ballon has a right to land on (our) private property?

Also unlike, say landing on a greenhouse where damage can be seen and quantified, a landing on or a low pass over fields containing stock is unwelcome and liable to cause damage that cannot always be seen immediately.

What's the legal position? If one lands on your ground, what right is there for recovery vehicles to be admitted

HK

The rules of the air state (assuming balloons are included, and I’ve no reason to doubt that they don’t, that you can’t land anywhere, within reason, without the landowners consent. Furthermore you should fly no nearer than 500ft to a structure, person, animal, ship or vehicle. That doesn’t include the ground, but you must observe the distances from the previous obstacles. Except when making an emergency landing, and then you have right of way.
I guess the balloonists would argue that every landing is an emergency landing, since they are unable to steer to an airfield.

 

[L P]

Does anyone know the answer then to the OP's query about whether a ballon has a right to land on (our) private property?

Also unlike, say landing on a greenhouse where damage can be seen and quantified, a landing on or a low pass over fields containing stock is unwelcome and liable to cause damage that cannot always be seen immediately.

What's the legal position? If one lands on your ground, what right is there for recovery vehicles to be admitted

HK

Balloon pilots do not have the right to land on private property without consent unless performing an emergency landing. A commercial balloon will have contingency for fuel reserves but could claim a justified emergency landing for weather conditions prohibiting alternative landing sites or component failure, this should be logged on a commercial flight by law. Worrying animals whilst flying over open land at under 500' to my knowledge would not come under CAA legislation without a no fly zone being active. They have no right to recover a balloon from private property without compensation, equally if they land and that causes injury to livestock they are liable. You can refuse vehicular access of course for the collection, I did just that with Virgin when they landed here years ago and wouldn't even offer a flight voucher to drive across 60 acres of ploughing to collect it... Sat in the car and took great pleasure watching them for over an hour struggle a 21 man balloon by hand to the nearest road over some rather claggy ploughing. Commercial chaps are awful, plenty of pleasant privateers.

 

[Gedd]

Balloon pilots do not have the right to land on private property without consent unless performing an emergency landing. A commercial balloon will have contingency for fuel reserves but could claim a justified emergency landing for weather conditions prohibiting alternative landing sites or component failure, this should be logged on a commercial flight by law. Worrying animals whilst flying over open land at under 500' to my knowledge would not come under CAA legislation without a no fly zone being active. They have no right to recover a balloon from private property without compensation, equally if they land and that causes injury to livestock they are liable. You can refuse vehicular access of course for the collection, I did just that with Virgin when they landed here years ago and wouldn't even offer a flight voucher to drive across 60 acres of ploughing to collect it... Sat in the car and took great pleasure watching them for over an hour struggle a 21 man balloon by hand to the nearest road over some rather claggy ploughing. Commercial chaps are awful, plenty of pleasant privateers.

Did the same refused them entry to retreive the balloon from a grass field until they stumped up £200 which i gave to charity theyve never landed here since

 

[Canada Farmer]

Very arrogant people, they landed in a daffodil field of ours several years ago, chewed it up with their 4x4s then argued against there even being a crop in the field. I doubt you’ll get much response from them.

maybe an occasion where twitter has more effect.

Is not in your part of the world entering a property without forward notice or at the request of the owner or their agent uninvited nothing less than trespass?
Equally if no arrangement for damages occurred should mean said pick up truck is exempt from leaving said premises till damages are paid in full much akin to a lien???

 

[slackjawedyokel]

I’m glad we don’t get many hot air balloons around these parts. The last one that came near was several years ago in April. It flew VERY low over the neighbour across the valley’s lambing fields with the burners firing then flew off again. Ewes running madly in all directions abandoning their lambs…

Balloon operators will have liability insurance for damage caused but they probably won’t want to claim on it. Your best chance of negotiating a decent outcome is when you have the key to the padlocked field they need to access to retrieve the balloon. Afterwards they are unlikely to want to know. It probably gets tricky if you’ve got to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they caused that animal to break its leg, or that they caused £XXX damage to your ground or crop.

 

[devonbeef]

has anyone had any dealings with virgin experience days balloon trips, woke up this morning at 7:20 to find a hot air balloon very low over my heavy horses - to the event they were trying to land in a field id recently taken a cut of grass off, post flying over I've had a horse clear a gate and end up in a ditch for being spooked. we are talking excessively low I've had no indication to them landing etc. if theyd have actually succeeded they said they were addiment that they had right of way and passage. Now i've got to write to them to complain, has anyone had any payments from this gang of cow boys?

Cheers D

we had a very serious incident with a hot air balloon , the civil aviation authority ,take on our case to the courts

 

[devonbeef]

to all with animal /balloon problems you can get your farm circle as a no fly zone on the balloonists maps.

 

[devonbeef]

to all with animal /balloon problems you can get your farm circle as a no fly zone on the balloonists maps.

looking for details to do as such, will post when i find

 

[Vader]

Did the same refused them entry to retreive the balloon from a grass field until they stumped up £200 which i gave to charity theyve never landed here since

Did same, they landed and skidded 100m across wheat field.
Told them £200 for me to to drive down tramline to recover it with teleporter.

 

[Pan mixer]

I asked them how much a ticket was for the trip and parked in the gateway until they gave me that in cash.

 

[glasshouse]

Balloon scared the sh!t out of the wife's horse
They werr lucky i didnt have my gun handy

 

[slackjawedyokel]

There seems to be a general impression that ‘the balloonist always makes sure to seek out the landowner/farmer and pay them a landing fee’…

You can bet that the cost of a ride will incorporate a certain ‘landing fee’ component that generally doesn’t make its way to the landowner/farmer!