ONCE YOU HAVE TASTED FLIGHT, YOU WILL FOREVER WALK THE EARTH WITH YOUR EYES TURNED SKYWARD
There is no other experience that offers a unique combination of excitement and calmness.
The view lefts you breathless, in front of you the attractiveness and miracles of the nature, the land from a completely new and different perspective – says Boris Sazdov-Chatal, the only licensed balloon passenger transporter in the region, at the beginning of his interview for Glass Full. After many years spent in the air, he says his love for flying was planted by his grandfather with whom he spent hours and hours at the old Skopje airport looking at the air gliders. Chatal is also a founder of the first Macedonian paragliding clubs, a participant at the World Paragliding Championships in 1996 and a few others later. Paragliding says it is an extreme sport, while ballooning does not belong to the so-called extreme sports. The balloons are much more used as a tourist attraction, that is, as a vehicle with which you can travel tens of kilometers in the air and feel a lot of pleasure.
Where does the love and interest for such a profession come from?
I have a love for flying from my early childhood, when I was 5 years old. Even today, I remember when my grandfather carried me on his bike to the old airport in Skopje, where many buildings are built today. I would seat on the grass and admired the air gliders and the parachutes who were jumping.
Far in 1984, at my age of 17, I finally sat in an air glider and finished my training. From then untill today I remained faithful to the flying. After that in 1989, I started paragliding, a sport in which I am still active today.
The first balloon over Skopje appeared in 1992, and normally as a flying addict, I immediately directed to follow the balloon where it would land.
At the landing I met a pilot of the balloon, Slavko Shorn, who was also one of the best balloon pilots in the world at that time.
And so it all started. I went to Slovenia for training and I gained a Slovenian license.
Today, even after 32 years, the love for flying does not pass, especially for the balloon and paragliding
What kind of preparations are needed for a flying with balloon over our country, to what kind of things one should pay attention?
The balloon is transported in a van or trailer. When it reaches the place of departure, all equipment is released and everything begins with mounting it. The weight of the balloon along with the gas containers is about 350 kg. A minimum of about 100 liters of propane butane, usually depending on the length of the scheduled flight, is usually taken during the flying.
Once the burner is connected to the brakes and the gas containers, the balloon should be spread to the ground and at first it is filled with cold air, with a suitable strong fan to get the shape. After being sufficiently formed, next is filling with a hot air i.e. with the help of the burner, a flame in the cupola is inflated. The whole operation lasts about 15 minutes.
Once the cupola is raised, another check is made and when everything is fine the flight can start.
I must mention that before each flight a flight must be announced in the flight control.
Passengers are briefly informed on their behavior during the flight and during the landing.
The most important moment before the flight preparation is to check the weather conditions, because the balloon is a spacecraft that flies in an ideally stable weather conditions, which means that the wind should not be stronger than 5m / sec, no thermal movements and, of course, no rain.
Also, it should be calculated approximately where it will land, i.e. landing should be on a clean surface, therefore every flight is planned not to be in the city area.
What is the most interesting moment you have captured on the Skopje sky?
There are countless moments in the flights for these 25 years, but I like those winter flights when I leave Skopje down below me in a fog, when the shadow of the balloon reflects on the fog and suddenly the beautiful sunrise, a view to the south to Vodno, then Karadjica and Solunska Glava, and to Tetovo and the beautiful Shara.
What does the security mean for this type of an adventure?
I must point out that the balloon is one of the most complicated flying objects, but also one of the safest, of course, if it is used with proper equipment, and normally the pilot should have an appropriate license, especially when it comes to passenger transportation. I own the only license for passenger transport in the region, and it is issued here in Macedonia by the Civil Aviation Agency. For a candidate to acquire such a license, there must be at least 200 hours of flight with a balloon.
Which landscape in Macedonia has surprised you with its beauty from a bird perspective?
Definitely, most can be seen around the Ohrid Lake, but the region around Markovi Kuli is very interesting as well. It looks completely different and unrealistic from the air, especially if you are flying low around the rocks. Each rock is a story for itself.
What would you recommend to those who hesitate about such an experience?
As a great lover of ballooning, what else can I say, except to warmly recommend it to those who have an adventurous spirit, a desire to fly in a different form and a need for a new experience. I assure them that they will not regret, on the contrary, they will enjoy it very much.
