‘Every flight is different in hot air balloon; you don’t know where you are going to land’

Despite being a trained and licensed pilot, Maritza Dekok prefers to fly adventure tourists in hot air balloons across some pristine destinations and attractions in South Africa.

For 20 years and running, Dekok, a pilot with Sun Catchers Ballooning, a tourism adventure company in Hoedspruit, has flown thousands of adventure tourists in balloons across several landscapes.

In this interview with OBINNA EMELIKE, after a flight, she shares her passion, preference for balloon flights when aircraft is more rewarding, her fulfillment, passengers’ experience, safety, place of wind in the business, the unusual runways, among related issues.

Excerpt:

What is your name?

My name is Maritza Dekok. I am a pilot for Sun Catchers Ballooning. I fly hot air balloons and I have been flying for 20 years.

Have you flown an aircraft before?

I am a trained pilot. I fly aeroplanes as well. I fly Jabirus. It is an Australian four-seater little aircraft. I flew them here in South Africa. They are small propeller aeroplanes and are even smaller than a jet. But you don’t have to be a real pilot before you fly the balloon. But you need a separate licence for ballooning.

Why fly a balloon when flying an airplane would have been more rewarding?

It is a choice. I like flying balloons more. I prefer flying hot air balloons, it is more romantic.

How did you train?

I did my ground school in Johannesburg and did my flight medical as well in Johannesburg and then I came here and became one of the pilots and an instructor as well. So, on days when the balloon and the pilot was not busy and the weather was good, I could do some training.

So, it took me a year to get a licence and then it took another year to get the hours you need to fly commercial because you have to have 100 hours to fly commercial. After that I could fly the little balloon like the one we saw today up to four passengers for another 100 hours and then I could go up to six passengers. Like the balloon we saw, the middle balloon had six passengers today.

You need to build hours and to fly a balloon like this, you need more than 300 hours on top of your licence. There is a bigger class than this, but we won’t fly a bigger one in this area because we don’t have space to land it.

What is the size of the balloon you fly?

It is 305,000 cubic feet. I am actually not sure about the biggest balloon here, but the next class and probably the biggest ones they fly in South Africa is 450,000 cubic feet.

Why balloon, when you are supposed to be an aircraft pilot?

I am a pilot for an aircraft but this is just so much different. I mean this is just floating with the wind, it is quiet and beautiful. You can fly very low, which you cannot do with an airplane safely. With a balloon, low is safe, but with an airplane, low is not safe.

I think it is just quieter and more romantic than an aeroplane and the fact that you do not know where you are going makes every flight different.

How important are timing and wind to balloon flights?

We have limits. We look at the direction of the wind and if it is going in a dangerous direction we cannot fly. If there is a wind going in a dangerous direction but there is another wind higher up that is going away, then you can maybe still fly but it depends on the speed as well.

At the moment, we do not really want to take off more than four knots or five knots, depending on the direction because we do not have enough space to fly faster than that. Then also, you can see our landing spots are very small, so we cannot have fast landings really. Of course, when you fly faster, you fly over more areas and then you have more options to land.

Before any flight, we make a call every morning. We send up a little balloon that shows us direction. This morning, we could send up the baby balloon because it can land within five minutes without upsetting anybody and see what the direction is. So, it reported favourable wind and we could take off because of that.

What powers the hot air balloon?

It is powered by propane gas. You need at least 40-minute reserves of propane gas to ensure smooth and safe flight. But we have enough to fly for an hour plus 40 minutes.

What are the panoramic views passengers usually see on a normal flight?

Like today, we saw the Drakensberg Mountain and we could see the foot of the canyon or the end of the canyon. We flew over the Blyde River, a little bit and then Hoedspruit farming community with farms with citrus and mangoes as well. But we did not see the Kruger.

Nobody is allowed to fly balloons over the Kruger National Park. We thought in the beginning that we would be able to do that when we started more than 20 years ago. But they did not want to hear about it at all.

They say it is visual pollution. Since we have been flying, we realised there is actually, even though there are landing spots in the park, there are no roads going to all the landing spots. So, it is not safe.

If you have an accident there, people have to be carried out with a helicopter because it is too far to get to a hospital from Kruger Park. So, at this stage, it is not safe to fly there and they don’t want to even hear about it because of poaching as well. Nothing is allowed to fly low there except for commercial flights going to the runways.

Has there been any incident in the 20 years you have been flying?

I had an incident once where I landed on a tarred road. I called an emergency because the wind suddenly turned around.

I landed on a tarred road, but because there is no traction on the road, the balloon scraped, the basket scraped all the way to the side and the top of the balloon touched a thorn tree and it actually grabbed onto the thorn tree. Also, because the wind was gusty, it damaged the balloon quite a lot. So, that is why it was an accident.

But nobody got injured and everybody was safe. So, yeah, it is sad and it happens, but I have not had any other accidents or incidents yet.

What are the major safety tips for balloon flight?

Well, for the passengers, you have to be able to get into the basket, climb the steps, and stand for an hour.

That is how we know that you are strong enough to withstand a hard landing. We do not take children younger than seven years because the noise of the burners is too much for their ears. They are also not strong enough to hold on during hard landing.

Their arms are not long, so when you go down, you are actually nice on the back, but they will be hanging on the rope, so it will be easy for them to swing out. We do not like to take children younger than seven years. If they are higher than 1.2 metres, at least they can see over the side of the basket and then they are welcome to come along, but we do not encourage it.

Also, children find ballooning quite boring because they stand still, they cannot see down like the adults, and they are not allowed to climb onto something. They are top-heavy, so you do not want them to fall out. They can still peek, but it gets boring in an hour. Children do not like to stand still for an hour. That is a punishment and not fun.

What are the considerations, in terms of weather, before taking off?

We have to check the wind direction and we cannot fly to the mountains. We cannot fly if there is a thunderstorm within 40 nautical miles, and we cannot fly if it is raining. If it was starting to rain today, we would have had to land as soon as we could. Rain is very bad for the balloon itself. Of course, the balloon is like an upside-down funnel; all the dirty water will go onto the passengers inside.

So, we land as soon as we can if it starts raining, but we try to see beforehand and land before we get in that situation. Also, to pack up the balloon when it is wet is very difficult. They are not good for the fabric.

What are the dos and don’ts for passengers?

No smoking and no jumping. You are not allowed to drink before coming on the balloon flight. If I suspect that you are intoxicated, I have to refuse you to get into the balloon. So, no drinking beforehand.

We have sparkling wine afterwards, which is fine, because then we are safe. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to take pregnant people. So, if we know that you are pregnant, we will not allow you to fly along.

Well, that is just a safety consideration, because you never know if it is going to be a hard or fast landing.

Is there an age limit?

There is not an age limit. You have to be able to stand for an hour and get into the basket. So, it is more on the fitness, not on the age. You have to be able to bend your legs to squat.

As long as the passengers can stand and bend their legs to go down in the basket, they are allowed. Also, no wheelchair is allowed because you use your knees to absorb the shock from landing. But on a wheelchair, you are sitting. I know they do have modified balloons in other countries, where you can put a wheelchair in. We do not have a safe option for that yet.

You have to pass your medical. So, when you get older than 60 years, the medical is every six months.

So, no, there is no limit in age yet. You have to be fit enough to fly and you have to pass your medical. So, that is the only restriction at this stage.

What about fast landing?

When the wind is like eight knots, the balloon comes down and it does not stop. It just carries on dragging. That is a fast landing.

What is the average speed for taking off, landing and highest height you can go?

We do not have a specific limit because it changes while you are flying. There is no average speed. It depends on where you are and where you fly and, on the day, because it can be different for every day. We are not allowed to go higher than 10,000 feet without oxygen.

That is very high and cold. So, there is no reason for us to go that high. On a normal day, I would not go above 1,000 feet from the ground in this area.

But my maximum on a commercial flight will probably be 3,000 feet (AGL) above ground level. But on a normal day-to-day flight, it is just above the trees.

I will go up once, people can see, and then come back down, depending on the wind. If the wind is going the wrong direction, you don’t have a choice. You have to go find the right wind.

But I like to fly low because you can hear more and see more, almost like we did here in the end, just a little contour flying. That is my favourite.

Is farmland not unusual for landing?

So, the gate was locked today. The crew was standing at the gate and the land owner came past to open the gate. So, some of the land owners already gave us codes for the gates that we can go in by ourselves.

Some of the owners have got security guards and we have to sign a book to go in. The balloon, of course, we don’t know where we are going to land, so we can’t ask permission beforehand. This is more like an understanding that we have with the farmers.

And you learn by landing there and then the farmer comes and you apologise and explain to them what is happening. If somebody doesn’t like us on their farm, they will tell us and we will mark it on the map and tell all the pilots not to land there. So, we have an idea where it is very difficult to get into, where you can’t get the gate open or whatever.

We have an area where we know it is easy for the crew to get in with nice spots and we prefer to go there rather than land on a difficult spot.

Any compensation for farmers for using their farms for landing?

The farmers can get a free flight. If we have extra space in the basket, we have a list of farmers, we will phone and say, I have got a space, do you want to come fly along? If they can’t, we phone the next person on the list until everybody gets a chance to fly.

Also, when the school has fundraisings, like the community in the area, we will sponsor a ticket and they can do things like a raffle or selling tickets to raise funds.

How much does a hot air balloon ride cost?

The balloon flight itself is R5,600, at the moment, per person.

Who are your passengers?

We have a balance between foreigners and locals.

Have you had passengers who were scared onboard?

I had one passenger that was really scared, but only after 40 minutes, somebody moved quickly and she got a fright and she just started crying. Then, another passenger said that when you go very high and you are standing still, they feel threatened and then they come down and sit in the bottom of the basket until you come down again and they are fine.

How do you feel when you fly a normal flight?

In an aeroplane, I am happy if I am in control, but I get seasick when I am not in control. So, I don’t like flying as a passenger in an aeroplane.

Beyond ballooning, how do you relax?

I am a birder. I love birding. I go bird-watching and I do photography as well, but it depends on where I am. So, bird photography mostly or macro spiders and butterflies.