Philippe Buron-Pilâtre’s Blog
Founder at Grand Est Mondial Air Ballons
Pilatre de Rozier Organisation’s
Grand est Mondial Air Ballons Organizer
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240 years since Pilâtre de Rozier made history
Paris, November 21, 1783, 11:00 a.m. Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, a native of Metz (Moselle), and the Marquis d'Arlandes took to the skies in a...
The last post
It's no secret that the last and 18th edition of GEMAB will have no successor. We're going to keep the website dedicated to the event so that it can...
Time to review
Once the event is over, it's time to review. Whether they be financial, technical, aeronautical, commercial or other, they enable us to draw up a...
The pilot’s jacket in the hit parade
Since the 1990's, the Pilâtre de Rozier organization has been offering pilots registered for the GEMAB a beautiful multi-pocket pilot jacket,...
News and fake news
Following the GEMAB withdrawal announcement by Philippe Buron Pilâtre and Aline Dufour, many comments have been made. But the saddest thing is the...
Dismantling in the rain
What's better: set-up in the rain or dismantling in the rain? The former lasts a month, the latter a week. On the other hand, during the finale, the...
Five flights out of 7
On Monday evening, the pilots were able to complete the 5th of seven flights. Two flights had to be cancelled due to strong winds. It wasn't easy...
Special shape balloons will be part of the party
What we call "shaped balloons" are balloons with an original appearance. Beethoven's head, a minaret, a champagne bottle, bees or Darth Vader. This...
All hands on deck
To move an army forward, you need three things, said Napoleon: reward your soldiers, feed them and provide them with accommodation. With this in...
Over 700 pilots for the 2023 event
More than 700 pilots from 50 nations will gather at Chambley airfield from July 21 to 30. That's just over 500 balloons in all shapes and colors. As...
Work gets underway
Two days ahead of schedule, the first preparations for #GEMAB23 got underway on Saturday, June 24, in bright sunshine. By Monday, some 40 people...
The pilots’ parade: a must
Every evening, as the pilots enter the runway, the music of the pilots' parade begins. It's both the history of the Mondial and the history of...
Organizing an international event
What's the hardest thing about organizing a Mondial Air Ballons? The time you have to devote to it: 22 months for a small team of ten people....
Latecomers to the call
Hot-air balloon pilots, especially French ones, are always the last to register. Not to mention the local pilots. In their defense, we've always...
After official forms, meetings
The modern world can't help wanting everything to be controlled, analyzed and coded. That's why the administration develops official forms, Excel...
Why did you choose these dates for GEMAB
Since 1989, the dates of the GEMAB are almost identical. The last week of July and sometimes a few days in August. But in 2023, it was necessary to...
The Partners’ Circle: an original feature of #GEMAB
Since 1989, the access for the public as well as the parking are offered by the partners of the event. Nearly 500,000 people from all over the East...
The #GEMAB 23 is also a competition
Even if it does not have the same value as a national or world championship, to enter the Grand Est Mondial Air Ballons Trophy ranking is an...
Mandatory presence at the briefing
Twice a day, at dawn and at the end of the day, the pilots are invited to the general briefing. It is compulsory and the pilots must even deposit a...
Nearly 1,000 from over a dozen countries
They are between 16 and 80 years old. They are American, American Indian, Belgian, German, Moroccan, Tunisian, Algerian, English, French, Polish,...
What to do apart from the balloon flights
The balloons fly very early in the morning and late in the afternoon. Between the two daily mass ascents, the public who rush to the Chambley...
What’s new in BallonVille Pilote
At each edition, the organization of the #GEMAB tries to innovate. This year, for the first time, the morning and evening pre-flight briefing will...
The Bonnard plan: the revelation
Designed almost two decades ago, the so-called Bonnard blueprint is the map that you find on all flyers, billboards, roadbooks and others. It shows...
30 years in Chambley
It is difficult to realize that the Mondial has been held in Chambley for 30 years. Even more incredible to remember that the first Pilâtre de...
Will there be special shape balloons this year?
This is a regular question asked by future visitors. Will there be special shape balloons? Prized by children, but also by adults, these balloons...
The retroplanning is confirmed
Even if the preparation of an event such as GEMAB starts almost 20 months beforehand, the last months are always tense. All the plans that have been...
The 5 golden tickets have been won
Germans and French share the 5 golden tickets that allow the winning pilots to enter the GEMAB with a privileged status. This is the first time that...
The organization team is being formed
Apart from the permanent team of ten people who prepare the #GEMAB event all year round, nearly 200 volunteers from eleven countries will join this...
A special AeroFil for pilots
Pilots all over the world will soon receive a special issue of our newspaper #AeroFil. It contains a lot of information about the future edition of...
Salute of our German ambassador
Surprise on Friday with the lightning passage of the father of our German ambassador Wilhelm Eimers, new president of the german balloon federation,...
Soon the arrival of a new collection
This year, we will find the famous cap embroidered with the colors of the event, the teddy, the tee shirt, the polo, the shirts. The color is still...
The madness of the pins
In the 1990s, the craze in the ballooning community was the pin. In gilded or silver metal, or plastic. In general, each pilot had a badge made with...
They chose to camp on site
Many pilots dream of finding a place to stay close to the site. A few editions ago the organization decided to create a place on the site where the...
Each edition is highly publicized
Since the beginning, the GEMAB has had a daily bilingual newspaper which reports the small news of the event field. It has been completed by a radio...
On this first day of the year
With an excellent average of 14 flights out of 19 scheduled for each edition, we can say more than 30 years after the creation of the event, that...
Balloonists looking for accommodation
For several editions, pilots and their crews prefer to stay near the airfield because the nights are short on the #GEMAB. In twenty years, the...