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My first balloonflight!
On the 26th of July 1992, there was a local horserace in our town. There was a contest where you had to fill in the text of a comicbook. The 3 best would be awarded a balloonflight that same evening. As you can guess I was one of those 3. ;-)
Together with the 2 other winners and pilot Luc Smeets we took of just behind our house. After a flight of one hour and a half we landed softly. My first words: "I want more of this". I was only 10 years old at that time...

Balloon crazy
Since my first flight I was really obsessed by these huge balloons, and I started to collect all kind of balloon-related items (pins, stickers, pictures, ...)
Everytime I saw a balloon in the air, I jumped on my bike and started to follow the balloon. When I returned, most of the times it was allready dark, so my parents often were worried... So, I suggested they would help me and follow the balloons by car, ... and after a while my parents became "balloon-crazy" too...

Our first balloon
In 1995 my father (Guy Geeraerts) became pilot and we purchased a second hand balloon, a Cameron O-90, registered as OO-BVW. A couple of years later, we started our company Rabbits Ballooning to organise passengerflights in Belgium and the Netherlands. Our balloon has been rebuilt in 1999 and is now black and yellow:

Balloons Rest In Peace
In 1998 Sky Promotions (the Netherlands) donated me an old balloon as a present for my birthday. I was very happy whith this old balloon and I wanted to have more retired balloons. So I started my own old balloon collection under the name "Balloons Rest In Peace". The collection now has 25 balloons of which 3 special shapes. If you are interested in donating a balloon just contact me and we will work something out.

Another "wasp" for Rabbits Ballooning
The year 2002 was a wonderful year.
We purchased our second balloon, a Cameron O-160 (OO-BVX), the "bigger brother" of the first one.
And on monday, the 27th of July, it was time for my practical exam to become balloonpilot, a flight with examinator François Schaut. The flight was excellent, so now I'm a real balloonpilot.

the future
What comes next? Who knows?
Maybe one of these years I can realize my dream: flying my own special shape...

You can contact me:

• by e-mail (bart@specialshapes.nu)
  
  
• at the following postal address:

  Bart Geeraerts
  Voortkapelseweg 18
  B-2250 Olen
  Belgium

All comments and suggestions are welcome.
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