Meet the team

Jamie first became interested in ballooning as a child being taken to the local Northampton balloon festival by his Nan and her best friend. This passion grew over the years more and more until 2007 when, with the help from his family, he purchased his very first hot air balloon. The balloon was an ex-sponsored balloon carrying the Ford Sandicliffe logo and from there the passion grew even more and he began to learn to fly. He gained his licence in 2009 and continued flying from there. Jamie has been involved in the training of several pilots who have gone on to attain their licences and this remains a big focus of his.

Jamie’s favourite thing about ballooning is the freedom and challenge that flying hot air balloons offer. Every flight is different and provides a unique experience, as do different types of balloons, especially some of the more unique shapes.

Jamie’s favourite balloon is G-BVZT, which has the team name Molly Mae on the side. Jamie purchased this balloon early in 2008 with no artwork on the side. Sadly the same year he lost his daughter due to complications from a premature birth and chose to name the balloon in her memory. The balloon was used for a number of years to raise money for premature baby charities but sadly is no longer flown due to its age. However it remains in the care of Jamie and is inflated on special occasions.

Jamie’s favourite ballooning memory to date has been seeing the members of the Molly Mae Balloon Team come together as strangers and enthusiasts but becoming a close-knit team and group of friends.

In 2025 Jamie attained his group A commercial licence which allows him to carry out aerial work and also fly passengers. As well as this he transformed the Molly Mae Balloon Team into Molly Mae Ballooning and launched his own company. In 2026 Jamie attained his group B licence and is now actively working towards his flight instructor’s licence.

Growing up, Liam attended the Northampton Balloon Festival with his family most years. Back then it was a huge event, probably one of his favourite times of the year! His family would often spend the whole weekend at the festival enjoying everything it had to offer. Since then, he has always enjoyed hot air balloons.

Liam thinks there is something magical about hot air balloons, from watching them inflate and take off to seeing them fill the skyline. He enjoys sharing this with likeminded people and working with the team to ensure others can experience the same enjoyment.

When asked about his favourite balloon, Liam said that there are so many to choose from but the Churchill Dog was always a favourite of his. Amusingly, he recalls seeing it as a child and saying its famous catchphrase, “Oh Yes”, as it took to the skies!

Liam has two favourite ballooning memories. Firstly, being at the Northampton Balloon Festival and watching the mass ascents as a child, trying to keep track of the multiple balloon arenas so as not to miss any big special shapes. Secondly, his first balloon flight, which was with Molly Mae Ballooning!

He is extremely passionate about ballooning and has been a big driving factor behind the team developing over the last couple of years. He is making good progress, so expect to see him flying across the skies of Northamptonshire in the coming years.

Liam has loved hot air balloons for as long as he can remember and has been attending local events with his family since he was a young child. He has collected a wide variety of balloon related merchandise over the years and has amassed a massive collection of badges and photographs. Liam would always attend the meet-the-pilot events at the local balloon festivals and enjoyed his first flight with the team in 2019. He and his family kept in touch until he joined the team in 2023, and the rest is history.

Liam doesn’t have a favourite thing about ballooning, he loves it all equally.

Liam’s favourite balloon is his own: a Colt 77A, G-OAWS. First used to advertise Auto Windscreens in the 90s, following its retirement from commercial flying it had the middle part replaced and was used privately until it was purchased by Liam and his family. The balloon is unique in that it is one of the very few balloons remaining with a tri-vent deflation system, an early version of a rapid deflation system to get the balloon down quickly on landings.

Liam’s favourite ballooning memories are his first flight with the team in 2019 over the Leicestershire countryside, and his first flight in 2025 in his own balloon.

Liam has loved hot air ballooning from the age of 3, when his mum started taking him to the Northampton Balloon Festival. It soon became tradition to follow the balloons to their landing site. This passion then grew even more following his first flight and he has flown several times since.

Liam doesn’t have a favourite balloon but enjoys seeing new ones when they are made, special shapes and of course the team balloons.

Liam has lots of fun memories of ballooning, from his first flight and challenging retrievals to inflating and launching the balloon.

Helen has loved hot air balloons since she first saw them as a teenager at the Northampton Balloon Festival in 1989. The sky was full of amazing special shaped balloons. Helen always remembers her first balloon flight and how she landed in the field next to the giant Action Man balloon.

When Helen had her own children they would always go to the balloon festival and watch in awe as the balloons took off, then hope to follow one to its landing spot. It became a tradition to collect the pin badges of the balloons they followed on their balloon chase. Helen and her family followed the team balloons on a number of occasions over the years.

Helen’s favourite balloons are Rupert the Bear and Bertie Bassett.

Helen finds ballooning a fun and relaxing hobby. Her favourite parts are enjoying flights at both sunrise and sunset and, of course, the balloon glows after dark. There are great opportunities for photography too, so there is something for everyone to enjoy.

“My favourite parts about ballooning are seeing balloon glows and collecting pin badges, as well as making videos for the team’s TikTok page. I also love drawing hot air balloons and making crochet keyrings of them! I really like model balloons too, and we’re hoping to make our own sometime soon.”

“My favourite balloon is either Jamie’s G-TIMX or the ladybird balloon, but I love any of the colourful ones.”

“My favourite memory is seeing G-TIMX land in the middle of the road and then helping retrieve, as well as seeing many balloon glows over the years.”

It was something he really wanted to get into, but finding someone who did it was quite difficult. After that first contact he got involved with crewing and ended up helping other pilots too.

Phil’s favourite aspect of ballooning is the socialising and getting to meet and talk to likeminded individuals.

Phil’s favourite balloon is Sonic the Hedgehog from the 90s, as he used to play Sonic 1 and 2 on the Sega Mega Drive at the time, very topical back in the day. However all of the special shapes were very unique and it was hard to choose one. Other favourites are Rupert the Bear, the Caramel Bunny, the Tesco Trolley, and the list goes on.

Phil’s favourite ballooning memory is from the balloon flight he received for his 21st birthday over 20 years ago. Once he had learnt to drive he used to get up early and park up to watch the balloons take off in the morning, then go and follow them.

As well as Craig, his two daughters often join him and the whole family love balloons. Hopefully Craig, and in the future his daughters, will go on to attain their licences.

As many of the team have also said, Craig’s love for ballooning stems from memories of growing up in the 90s attending the Northampton Balloon Festival and watching 80-100 balloons of all shapes and sizes take to the skies over the local area. They have always amazed him since.

Craig doesn’t have a single favourite aspect of ballooning, he enjoys all of it. He loves being in the air, especially going over all the streets and places he knows so well, but he also enjoys being on the retrieve, trying to get there for when the balloon lands and having a laugh with the other team members.

Craig’s favourite balloon would probably be the Action Man one in the 90s, closely followed by the coffee jar the team previously owned. Craig was there for its first flight.

Craig’s favourite ballooning memories are from each year at the racecourse, waking his parents up each morning to look out of their window to see if the balloons were flying, then going to watch them in the evenings. More recently it would be a flight from the Northampton Balloon Festival 2024 when Craig and his daughters enjoyed their first flight together with Jamie. The girls have now got into ballooning just as much as Craig.

Katie is very keen to see ballooning grow and loves seeing new people getting involved.

Katie’s passion for ballooning was natural, as her father was also massively involved in it, so she didn’t really have a choice! This passion grew over time and eventually Katie set herself the goal of gaining her licence. She was trained by several experienced pilots and since attaining her licence has flown a variety of different balloons at a variety of different events. She has even gone on to build her own hot air balloon with the help of another enthusiast. As well as doing her own thing, Katie finds the time to help out the Molly Mae Balloon Team and also flies with us regularly.

Katie’s favourite thing about ballooning is the social side and getting to catch up with old friends and make new ones at events. She is also passionate about inspiring new people to take up the hobby, and shares it with her partner David, who often comes out flying and helps where he can.

Katie has two favourite balloons: G-CBRK, an old Ultramagic demonstrator balloon that she learned to fly in and co-owned with her dad, and G-CLNS, the home-build balloon that she made and her main flying balloon.

Katie’s favourite ballooning memory to date has been obtaining her licence, and also arriving at her prom in a balloon basket being towed on a trailer, now that was an entrance!