At the age of 21 John left his home in Tasmania to travel the world. A journey of 12 months lasted 8 years. Because he fell in love with two things whilst in London; Clare & the world of hot air ballooning.

In 1986 he was fortunate enough to gain employment with the world’s leading balloon company, Flying Pictures and spent the following 6 years performing at Shows Fairs & Fete’s around the United Kingdom, mentored by the World’s finest balloon pilots.

Upon returning home to Australia in 1993, Clare & John started up a passenger ride operation called Cloud 9 Balloon Flights. Over the last 26 years they have flown over 45,000 passengers in the regions surrounding Sydney; Camden, Parramatta, Hunter Valley and the Hawkesbury Valley. 2019 is the time to return home to where it all began, Tasmania.

By September this year you will see our balloons flying over and near the City of Launceston.

John

John is the chief pilot and your only pilot, given his experience you will not only be in safe hands but you can be guaranteed to hear as many ballooning tales as you ask for. He also has a wealth of knowledge of the history of ballooning, how it’s evolved over the last 30 years, because in many ways he has been part of it.

When he’s not flying he’s planning to explore Tassies’ great roads on his motorbike and the tracks at Derby on his mountain bike, there’s always an adventure planned!

Clare

The guiding hand of Hot Air balloon Tasmania. Clare frequently has to use the ‘Claw’ to slap a bit of common sense back into John. Need to get something organised? Need a question answered or would simply prefer to talk to a human before booking? Clare’s your girl. You’ll meet her helping out during the flight but most of her time will be spent managing the business and taking loving care of you, our passengers and our company. We just can’t live without her.