Heading to the Serengeti

what you need to know

2006

After an eventful time working in the Chicago region, I returned to my home city of  York; it was time to sit back and take stock. Past yet abysmal experiences have taught me well.  I was not going to allow another balloon company to get away without paying me my salary. This time, however, I managed to get paid in full only after fighting with the lawyer boss over all the bounced checks. Each time a paycheck bounced, I cancelled all flights until paid. Once Kent was informed, I would sit outside my bank talking to him whilst he was walking to his bank 60 kilometres away; no checks were allowed, only real cash had to be deposited.  

Nita was very busy working all the hours that god sent at the nearby nursing home in Fulford. Not only that, she was studying so hard for her nursing qualifications. She would start the day at about 5 AM with bookwork; she was off to work a few hours later. Later in the day, after completing her shift at the care home, she would disappear behind a mountain of study work. It was only at this time that I learnt how proficient she was,  producing intricate drawings of a human body, with each organ coloured and to scale, all identified.   She was happy to continue in this fashion so that I could get on with writing stepping stones, which, until recent events, were to be my first book. During the winter months, I spent many hours transcribing my thoughts and memories of years gone by.  Sitting down at the computer by eight AM,  the hours would be consumed at an astonishing rate. When I lost track of time,  the same could not be said for my stomach; by two or three PM, the need for food would demand that I stop for a much-needed snack.

In March 2007, I received an e-mail from Sundance Balloons. Sundance is a large operator running balloon ride operations throughout North America. The person contacting me was John Davidson, who, at that time, I understood to be the operations manager. Sundance asked me if I was interested in flying in Canada for the following summer season (2007). Having flown in Canadian parries of Saskatchewan previously, I was quite happy to return. Over the coming days, numerous e-mails passed between us. Eventually, I received what appeared to be my employment contract. At this point, I was quite impressed as the content looked to be very professional, exactly what I would expect for such a large and established organisation.

I was informed to attach their contract to my work visa application form with precise instructions so as not to waste any time getting to the Canadian High Commission. In the following e-mails received a few days later, it became apparent that this was just a mock contract in order to acquire the above-mentioned work visa and that a new contract would follow in a few days. Okay, I went along with this for a while, thinking that all would be okay and that any difference held within the revised version would only amount to minor technicalities. Well, that was until the real contract arrived.

Fortunately, Collin Mackinnon, director of UK company Serengeti Balloon Safaris Ltd., contacted me at the same time my Canadian visa was about to be processed. However, there is a catch in that I had already parted with a substantial amount of cash required for the work visa application fees; I had even gone as far as to organise my flight to Canada out of my own pocket, on the understanding that they would refund this once in Canada. I had to do this to show the Canadians that I had a  return ticket.  Upon reading Sundance’s revised contract, which I had been asking for quite some time, I found it in sharp contrast to what I had previously seen. Amongst the many anomalies, it became very clear that I was to be responsible for everything imaginable, including, would you believe, any landing fees, the cost of any damage to crop after landing and so on; it just went on and on. It also included a few situations in which the company could fine me if  I did not do this or  that. To say that I was irritated would be a gross understatement.  At this point, I’m totally sick and tired of balloon companies' antics,  bounced paychecks, and some not even bothering to send any checks at all. Payments for the last few flights at the end of the season were always in jeopardy. It is my experience that operators know that we pilots are addicted to flying.  

March 2007, I followed up with Serengeti’s offer.

Later, during a phone conversation with Colin MacKinnon,  he asked if I would like to bring my wife out to join me should I succeed in my application. It goes without saying that, of course, I would. Colin says it would be a good idea to bring Nita to the interview, as it would be about her, not just me. I found that tto be  very considerate and  professional; all sounded as if they had their head screwed on the right way.

On the day of the interview,  we departed York, where we had lived in our humble little flat that had been our home for the last two years. It was an early start, about 4 AM, needed in order to trundle down into London in time for the appointed interview. The journey was not without events. Keeping my eye on the time, suddenly, we are in a long queue of traffic on the M1. It turned out that a truck carrying mattresses had lost its load, whereas we lost about one-half hour of travelling time, and it was going to be a tight squeeze to get to our destination on time.

At Newport Pagnell, we take the park and ride on the commuter train, and it is not too expensive, just a forty-minute ride. The train is packed with office-bound dark suited twenty-something-year-olds, if not a mobile phone clogging up one lug hole, then it some other gadget squeaking away with fingers of dexterity fondling the controls, eyes glued to the smallest of gadgets resting in the palm of their hand. There is no doubt about it: each is used so as to have an excuse not to have any eye contact with others; that would not do; we are British.

Once off the train, it was one hell of a rush to get to our meeting place on time. Conscious that arriving late for an interview would not look good, we each quickened our pace. Nita is a lot shorter than me. To keep up, she almost had to break into a gallop!     Well, it was invertible,   arriving late by almost 20 minutes. I wasn’t happy about that.