For competition balloonists, it’s a game of fierce concentration and razor-sharp precision.
IT’S JUST AFTER 4am when hot-air balloon pilot Nicola Scaife trundles out of bed and pulls on thick, rainbow-coloured socks to brace against the pre-dawn chill. The two-time women’s world champion pads around in the inky darkness, brewing a cup of tea and steeling her mind for the day ahead. Nicola, a 38-year-old mother of two from Newcastle, New South Wales, has travelled across Australia’s wide expanse to plant herself in Northam, about an hour and a half north-east of Perth, in the Ballardong Noongar region. She is one of 30 of the best women balloon pilots on the planet, here to float through Western Australia’s giant skies, vying for the title of world champion, in the fifth Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FIA) 2023 Women’s World Hot Air Balloon Championship. It’s the first time the competition has been held outside the Northern Hemisphere, and it’s garnered even greater anticipation after COVID scuttled the 2020 event meant for Poland.
Competition ballooning for women is relatively new. The first women’s world tournament ran in 2014, more than 40 years after the first open championship, which was – and still is – dominated by men. For Nicola, a win would see her become a three-time world champ – the first pilot of either gender to do so. “One of my strengths is my ability to keep focus for extended periods,” Nicola says, on day one of the event. “Compared with the last couple of competitions, this is the most focused I’ve been. I’ve won two women’s world championships already, so winning a third would be quite an achievement.”
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