by Bonnie Collings

Hot air ballooning has taken Drouin's Peter Dutneall on adventures all over the world.

Peter recently shared his story with Warragul Ranges Probus Club members, giving them an insight to the world of hot air ballooning.

During his 27 years as a hot air balloon pilot, Peter has flown in countries across the globe, including New Zealand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, India, Canberra, Nepal, The Philippines and Malaysia.
"My story starts back in 1989," Peter said.
Taking a year off to travel the world, it was a visit to friends in the UK that introduced Peter to hot air ballooning.
"I just got there in the morning, and a guy that had flown a hot air balloon with passengers - a commercial flight - he just got back and was in a fluster because he had passengers that afternoon, and no one to follow in the retrieve vehicle to come and pick them up."
While he hadn't met the man before, Peter jumped in and offered his help, asking for a map of the area so he could drive the retrieve vehicle.
"I said (to him), this sounds good, I wouldn't mind learning how to fly, and he said 'alright, I'll teach you', and that was it."
Peter spent the next seven months travelling across the UK and Europe, doing more than 100 retrieve drives and learning about hot air balloons.
"We did a lot of flying around England, we went to Ireland and also France to a couple of festivals," Peter said. "As far as travelling, that was what I was doing and the ballooning was something extra."
When Peter's father died, he returned home to Australia to spend time with his mother.
"I got a job straight away and never got to finish my (balloon) licence. I bought a balloon in 1995 but couldn't fly it because I didn't have my licence.
"When I got my licence here in Australia I had to start virtually from scratch again which was really difficult because there's not many instructors here in Australia. There's still not many, so I made a point of saying when I get my licence, as soon as I can get my instructor rating, I'll try and help some people."
Peter recalled taking part in the Jaycee's Hot Air Balloon Fiesta at Logan Park in April 1998.
"That was the first festival I did and I made a point of doing a festival every year."
From there, Peter travelled to New Zealand, participating in the Balloons over Waikato festival in Hamilton.
"I met a few people and from that I started getting invitations to come (fly) in different places around the world, the first being Malaysia," Peter said.
After visiting Malaysia, Peter was invited to teach students in Taiwan how to fly hot air balloons.
Peter shared a selection of highlights from his time flying and a series of photos he had taken from the balloon's basket.
During one of his visits to India, Peter had a brush with high-level politicians. "I was all set up ready to go...I said to the organisers that I needed my passengers, but they (told me) to wait. Finally, two guys came up and got into the basket, and there was media everywhere."
Once in the air, Peter asked his passengers who they were.
"They were number one and two head of the state. We flew over this beautiful valley and military trucks were following me. As soon as I landed, people with machine guns were positioned about every 20 metres on either side of the road."Peter recalled his first visit to Saudi Arabia for a balloon festival and the sticky situation a fellow pilot found herself in.
"We were flying over a place called Mada'in Salih...there's a fence around the area (because) it's a historical burial ground," Peter said. "We were allowed to fly over, but not land in it, we weren't allowed to touch the ground."
One of the women flying in Peter's group miscalculated the amount of gas she needed to complete the flight.
"She ran out of gas and landed within the fence. It cost the (balloon festival) organisers $100,000 US dollars to get it out!"
Another highlight of Peter's time flying was participating in the annual Canberra Balloon Spectacular
"I always love going to Canberra," he said. "Canberra is a place where you can fly over a capital city, you can fly and land in the suburbs or fly out of the suburbs into open farm space, or even go into New South Wales."
Peter said one of his favourite images captured from his balloon was a bird's eye view of Parliament House.
"I don't know of anywhere else in the world where you could fly over your Parliament House with no security checks." Peter said.