Following a failed attempt in mid-March to participate in a cross-channel balloon event due to high winds, New Spirit, the Luxembourg event management company headed by Carlo Arendt, together with Mathieu Mazzolini, were among the many pilots to cross the English channel in hot-air balloons in the Datum RPO Cross Channel World Record Flight 2017 event.
On Friday last, 82 hot-air balloons took flight for a New World Record. They launched from Dover, England, flew 35 km across the English Channel, and landed in Calais, France, etching a place in the Guinness Book of World Records after 2 hours and 44 minutes.
Balloon pilots Carlo Arendt and Mathieu Mazzolini, who took part, said “The most disconcerting thing was not being able to see the French Coast due to the haze. We flew over the White Cliffs of Dover and could only see an expanse of sea as far as the eye could see. Land appeared through the haze when we were only five miles away from the French Coast. There was a decent amount of steerage at different heights where the winds were in a slightly different direction; this meant that we could choose whether to stay within the centre of the pack or go it alone at the edge. We chose to stay on the left and to fly over Calais.”
