Flight over Kilimanjaro

Kurt Frieden is an experienced balloon pilot who flies mainly in the area of eastern Switzerland.
He has logged over 5,500 flight hours since 1992.
In 2021, he won the Gordon Bennett Cup in the prestigious gas balloon race. 

He flew in a hot air balloon over the Kibo crater on Kilimanjaro on 6th December 2021.

"The view directly into the crater was unforgettable," recounts pilot Kurt Frieden.

The pilot explains how it started:

Summer in Africa is also the rainy season. It rains almost every day, but very quickly it wears off again. It took us an hour to get to the launch pad by bus. All the way it rained heavily, but the local pilots remained in complete peace. "Hakuna matata", it will be fine, they said. And they were right. When we arrived, the rain had stopped and we were able to inflate the balloons as we had planned. Just before takeoff, it started to rain again, but soon we got above the clouds and we had an incredible view of the sun-irradiated peaks of Kilimanjaro.

The weather conditions were great, the wind was not too fast, a maximum of 50 km / h, so the flight went smoothly. Just after landing, it took the escort team three hours to come pick the team up.

Flight data
Date: 6. December 2021

Flight time: 3 hours

Maximum speed: 50 km / h, mostly 30-40 km / h

Distance flown: 75 km

Highest attained flight altitude: 6,100 m above sea level.

Temperature: -5 °C, feel +10 °C (a big difference in these temperatures can be given by the fact that in the basket of the balloon there is heat from the burner)

The first to fly over Kilimanjaro was the Swiss aviator Walter Mittelholzer, who managed to do it 15. December 1929.

           Thanks for reading

                                                 Margaret