Boy, 9, floats into record books

Nine year-old Bobby Bradley floated into history yesterday, taking off solo in a hot air balloon and landing perfectly about a half-hour later to become the youngest trained pilot to accomplish such a feat.

As the morning sun rose in the remote New Mexico town of Tome, Bradley took off in the company of three other balloons, whose pilots included a designated balloon examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration.

A crowd of about 50 supporters, including family, friends and classmates, cheered as they took off.

“It was awesome. It was amazing. I loved it,” he said after the successful flight.

His father, Troy Bradley, proudly remarked that his son “flew the way we knew he could”.

For the past week and a half, the younger Bradley had been practising takeoffs and landing in an ultra-light balloon built specifically for his big day.

Bobby has been flying in balloons for more than half his life, with his parents and some of the sport’s most experienced and decorated pilots.

He has nearly 30 hours of flight time with his father in a standard hot air balloon. But he can’t get his pilot’s licence until he’s 16, so his family and friends built the smaller balloon that is classified as an ultra-light aircraft to enable yesterday’s solo flight.

Raymond Bair, a designated balloon examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration in New Mexico, planned to watch the flight. He said he was not particularly concerned about Bobby’s safety because of his extensive training and his father’s reputation as an instructor.

“I have worked with a lot of Troy’s students who have come in to get their certification and find them to be extremely well prepared and confident in all the flight aspects,” he said.

Bobby’s mother Tami Bradley said she was more worried about the little things, like “him needing to go to the bathroom”.