crew registration

Crewing is a vital part of the Festival

Being a Crew Member on a hot air balloon is a fantastic way to be involved in a really great sport and community event. Those who have volunteered in the past years love it and come back each year. Those who have not, you don’t know what you’re missing out on!

Crews are a vital part of the Balloons Over Waikato Festival. It’s five fun-filled, hard working, action packed days. It’s a chance to make new and lasting friendships and lots of memories. It’s the beautiful and colourful sights in the sky that delight and awe the young and the young at heart.

Responsibilities of the Crew

The crews #1 job is to assist the pilot.

• Local volunteer crew members will be assigned to a pilot for the duration of the Festival.
• Setting up the balloon, helping to make sure the basket is arranged and stocked with those things the pilot likes to take along, and to help achieve a safe lift off.
• The crew takes the chase vehicle and follows the balloon for an hour or so.
• When the pilot has located a nice field for landing, the crew will be informed (usually by radio) of the intended landing site.
• The goal of the crew is to have the vehicle at the landing field before the pilot lands, and still have enough time to be waiting in the selected field to assist in any way with the landing operation.

It is fairly straight forward, most of the time! Crew tasks are often explained as 90% common sense, and 10% training. Every task the crew performs has a reason for why it is done a certain way, and once that reason is discovered, it makes perfect sense. The trick to learning is to ask lots of questions.

In order to participate as a crew member for the festival, participants must be available for all activities for the duration of the festival, and be available to attend registration.