Date of birth: 28th September, 1984
Function: GASPOL Team pilot
I fly with GASPOL Team since the beginning, or maybe even earlier J
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My experience in ballooning: I have been building my experience since 2000. I started training when I was 16 and have been gaining experience by taking part in contests with a ballooning team. I passed the examination for pilot licence just after I finished 17 – such were the rules. I have been gradually gaining experience during minor competitions, later during higher-ranking ones; I’m a member of the national team incessantly since 2007.
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Ballooning attracts me with: Versatility; we can fly dynamically and with adrenaline, e.g. during competitions; or sedately and scenically, e.g. during tourist flight. Ballooning requires broad knowledge from different science fields, such as meteorology, navigation and IT.
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My favourite flight spot: I have no single favourite place. I can fly everywhere, of course taking safety matters into consideration. To sum up, first – the flying itself, then – the spot.
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I’d like to fly in a balloon: In Peru, over the Nazca plateau. It is a distant dream. Once we were close but at the end of the day we didn’t make it. The dream lasts on.
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My ballooning dream: A flight around the world in a hot-air balloon. No one has ever done it. A sports dream – world and European championship. Preferably a year after year J
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My biggest success in ballooning: Third position in European Cup, Polish championship in 2011, Poland’s Cup in 2010, 2014 and 2016, winning two rankings simultaneously in 2016. When it comes to the titles, the most important one is definitely a gold medal in Polish championship, but the win in Poland’s Cup and in the ranking for the best pilot (2013, 2016) are awards for whole seasons of good flying at the top level. Among international successes there was third place in European Cup, which means the bronze medal and the FAI diploma.
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My best and worst moment in ballooning:
The best moment – 2009 and start of the cooperation with GASPOL. It was a good year – first (bronze) medal in Polish championship, but the most important moment came later – when ordering the first balloon and formal founding the GASPOL Team. Then came a true explosion of successes, which has been lasting for few years, and soon we’ll be celebrating a tenth anniversary of it. We managed to create a great partnership on the right terms. Each of us has a key date in our lives – for me the point of reference is “before” and “after” the beginning of cooperation with GASPOL.
And the worst moment – probably the Polish championship in 2012. We came to Nałęczów with golden medal from the previous year. The plan was simple – to keep the gold for longer. Everything was fine until the last but one flight, when we were freed to go with lowering cloud base and were flying literally blind, with no visibility. Of course, the results of this flight turned the score table upside down and we fell from the leading position. What’s even worse, we lost another points during the last flight and two other competitions, which left us several points off the podium. If the “fog flight” was cancelled, we would have defended the gold.
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My other hobbies: Ballooning preoccupies my life almost completely, so there’s not much time left for other hobbies. However, I’m still interested in automotive, I follow Polish Basketball League and when I can, I go to the game. I like good movies, lately series. In the winter I try to go skiing at last once. Youth passions, such as windsurfing or playing percussion lost competition with balloons, but my skills gained earlier still pay off, due to the versatility of this discipline.
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I’m inspired by: My biggest passion, which is ballooning is such a broad discipline, in my case combining so many features, skills and fields, that regardless of the form or project, you can still raise standards, find something new, gain new experience. Of course, I use proven patterns, yet still I try to create my own goals and ways to achieve them, without looking to anybody, which allows me quite often to break boundaries and do new, unconventional things.
