David Bareford

Presently lives near Kidderminster, Worcs. He is a retired hospital consultant having worked at City Hospital, Birmingham and Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley. He started ballooning in 1974.He had been interested in aviation since the age of 16 when he joined the school air cadet force. While at school he was awarded an RAF flying scholarship and gained his PPL, aeroplanes in 1967 flying solo on only the third day of training after just under 6 hours instruction.. He later joined the University Air Squadron at Bristol while studying medicine at Bristol. Later while carrying out specialist training at Bristol he joined in a syndicate to buy a balloon, Crepe Suzette, G-BCVA. He gained his pilot’s licence in 1975 after 12 hours and then helped the remaining syndicate members gain their licences. He was a founder member of the first regional club of the BBAC, the Western region and helped organise some of the local balloon meets. From there he acted as meteorology officer for the 1976 British Nationals at Castle Howard and it was there he became interested in competition ballooning. He took part in the 1977 British Nationals and first represented the U.K. at the World Championships at Castle Howard later that year in the J & B balloon coming 10th.

His work took him to South Africa between 1978 and 1980 where he created another syndicate balloon team and introduced ballooning to the Cape Province. Out there he won the South African National Balloon Championships in 1978, 79 and 80. On his return he bought his own balloon and moved to Leeds. He joined the Pennine Region Balloon Club and stood on their committee for several years. He continued in the sport of competition ballooning representing the U.K. on many occasions since. He has won the National championships on 9 occasions, the European championships three times and won the World championships in Saga, Japan in 1997 and Chatellerault, France in 2002. He won the bronze medal at the first World Air Games held in Turkey in 1997. He has flown competitively in many countries of the world including the U.S.A., Jamaica, Jordan, Turkey, Australia and Japan. He flew all his 3 children out from the maternity hospital within 3 days of their births. He now has over 3,600 hours P1. Both his daughter, Stephanie, and eldest son, Dominic, now have their balloon pilot’s licenses and compete at international level.

David was chairman of the competitions club of the BBAC between 1985 and 1988 and was elected onto the main committee of the BBAC in 1996 acting as the regional liaison officer and medical representative on the CAA Medicine Forum. He was chairman of the BBAC between 1998 and 2001. He is a BBAC instructor. He was sponsored by ProSport (Seton Healthcare Ltd) between 1995 and 2001 and is presently sponsored by UltraMagic Balloons of Spain.

He received the Pilot of the Year Award in 1982, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002 and 2003. He was awarded the BBAC and CIA gold badges in 1994 and now has the three 3 diamond additions to it. He received the Gold Medal of the Royal Aero Club in 1997, the Britannia Trophy in 1998 and the Three Balloons Trophy in 2012. He was awarded an FAI diploma in 1999. He was given the Freedom of the City of London in 2008.

David still actively competes attending meets in the UK, Belgium and Luxembourg last year. He recently flew over Mount Kilimanjaro.