Female Flyers: Tessa Tennant of Flying Pictures

For those that don’t know, tell us about Flying Pictures; what it was, where did it come from and how you got involved.

Started in November 1976 as The Hot-Air Balloon Company, it was the brainchild of advertising executive Colin Prescot who saw the potential for commercially managed balloon advertising.    I joined as general dogsbody/p.a. at a salary of £3,000 a year, and it was the  best decision of my life.  I had worked with Colin in advertising, so we knew each other well.   I had been ballooning in Kenya in the Masai Mara (one balloon in those days) and just couldn’t believe my luck.   Very few people had been ballooning in 1976 and to be involved at such a special time, and to help build the company so successfully, was a huge challenge and fantastic fun.

We started in a tiny office in the West End – spent £500 on letterhead and a typewriter, shared a table and one phone, and hired a spectacular board room when we needed to impress.  We ran ads in The Times – ‘low pay, high excitement – come and work for The Hot-Air Balloon Company’ and luckily, an extraordinary group of people did.  It worked, and between us we turned Flying Pictures into the largest balloon operating company in the world.

What do you feel is your greatest achievement with Flying Pictures?

Juggling so many balloon contracts, and keeping so many clients for so many years. We must have been doing something right!  Also managing an incredible mixture of characters and a wonderfully extrovert and hardworking bunch of pilots and crews.   We raised the level of showmanship and pushed the limits all the time – I just loved it.   I am so proud of what we achieved.

What do you think have been the most important moments in ballooning history?

I’ll leave that to the historians.  From a commercial point of view the improvements in technology made it possible for the manufacturers to produce spectacular special shapes for us – such as Douglas the butterman, Rubert Bear, the AXA FA Cup and Thomas the Tank Engine – a far cry from our first shape in 1976  – the relatively simple, but very effective, Osram light bulb.

What made you and the Flying Pictures team want to take on some of the more challenging or extreme aspects of ballooning?

A desire to show off I guess – and to steal the show.  Of course our objective was to get as much tv and press coverage as possible for our clients – we had 14 ‘And Finally’ slots on News at Ten over the years, plus hundreds of unbelievably blatant pieces of local, national and international news coverage– sometimes we couldn’t believe what we got away with! Mind you we did brand everything that moved – including the underneath of baskets – and spent a lot of time walking in front of cameras in the rain with sponsored umbrellas. Very useful the time Prince Edward came to the Fiesta – the cameras couldn’t avoid Unipart’s sponsorship as I held an umbrella on our tour of the site!

How did ballooning fit in with the rest of your life?

It completely dominated it – which I never regret.   I feel very lucky to have spent 27 years earning a living from something which was such fun and so unique – extremely long hours, hard work but never dull.    I caught up with my social life in the winter, and managed to fit in holidays when I could.   In the early days we used to close the office on Monday afternoons and go water skiing together, and all went on a ‘company conference’ to Colin’s flat in Almeria.    Working with the likes of Robin Batchelor, Joe Philp, Ian Ashpole and Lucius – and all the other fantastic pilots and crews – too numerous to mention but you know who you are – well it didn’t really seem like work.   Just a way of life.

How did people react to your aerial marketing campaigns? Which was the most memorable?

A few balloonists were welcoming, but in 1976 most were sceptical and some extraordinarily unhelpful – I think they felt their sport was being hijacked.  I think the thing that really upset them was that not only were we getting paid by clients to fly balloons but we were also having such a fantastic time doing it!  So we just got on with the job, gathering more and more clients, and employing more and more pilots and crews.  Once they realised we were here to stay, that we were giving so many enthusiasts a good living, and that actually we were quite pleasant people, the attitudes began to change and people were supportive.

There are so many memorable moments it’s a really tough question.   Colin dressed as a City Gent launching The Smirnoff Cloud hopper at Tower Bridge, or towing a bottle of vodka across Loch Ness, Robin pretending to be Richard Branson flying the Virgin Jumbo Jet, Ian doing a tightrope walk between two balloons, Colin doing his round the world flight, Joe and Heather Philp flying the Shell balloon over Soweto, flying the five Sainsbury’s balloons across London and getting the front page picture of every national newspaper – the list just goes on and on.

Personally, my highlights include lunching with the Queen at Windsor, flying with Ian across St Petersburg, and with Robin in Africa, working with so many celebrities, characters and eccentrics, clients and work mates who became such good friends and the chance to give so many people first flights, was such a huge priviledge – and I even got paid for it.

Who in the ballooning world has had the most impact on you and why?

To be honest we got on and did the job despite the ballooning world, not because of it. The manufacturers were very helpful of course, and did their utmost to meet our deadlines and sometimes fairly crazy demands!   I realised fairly early on that it was impossible to keep everyone happy, but my priority was to our clients – without them none of us would have a business.  I worked with some inspirational people, who had the foresight to see the benefits of balloon advertising – and to give us a relatively free hand to achieve the results we did for them.   Muir Moffat, still heavily involved with the Fiesta, was one of them.  He trusted us to get on with the job, and commissioned balloons for all his major customers.  The  wonderful Jaguar car still makes the occasional guest appearance.

Tell us about your thoughts and opinions on the social side of ballooning?

Well, I think I had a bit of a reputation for being the last to leave the bar – but I was also one of the first on the launch field in the morning.   The show circuit had some wonderful characters in it, and although we were all competitive, we all socialised a lot together.  We all worked hard, but we also played hard – and there always seemed to be something to celebrate!   I loved the style that so often went with ballooning – although I would be the first to admit I was very spoilt – Stately homes, Bentleys and Bubbly – what a combination. Of course muddy fields, disappointing weather and coping with impossible to please prize winners was the other side, but the contrasts made the job for me.

Tell us about your memories of the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta and flying in Bristol in general?

I have very fond memories of the Bristol Fiesta, going back to the early days of ‘aerial ballet’ displays in the Ashton Court bowl with the matching Lambert and Butler balloons, The Terry’s All Gold and Fisons balloons – tethering with load tapes and all the crowds milling around.   All much more relaxed and intimate.   I became involved with the Fiesta organisation when I represented Unipart on the committee – sponsors for 15 years – and then realised how much time and effort went into organising the event.  Of course I was pushing for as much exposure as I could for the sponsor, and that was an uphill battle to start with – but we soon got the measure of each other!

On occasions Flying Pictures was managing up to 22 teams at the Fiesta, so that became a serious juggling act.  We’d leave the hotel at the same time, with lights flashing and music playing, and also ensure our fleet of Discoveries were parked in a perfect line up.   Ian and Lucius coordinating perfect take off’s to ensure the camera crews filmed our balloons was always a challenge and made for some exciting flying – and a nightmare for the launchmasters because everyone else tried to take off at the same time!

Tell us about what it was like to hold such an esteemed position in a market predominantly dominated with men and how you dealt with that.

I am flattered that you call it an ‘esteemed position’!  Being a women in a male dominated world was a huge advantage and I used my womanly wiles to the full …..persuading clients to part with money, press to produce huge amounts of coverage and the long suffering pilots and crews to work way beyond the call of duty – they were FANTASTIC and I suspect if I’d been a man they wouldn’t have put up with my endless demands!      Please, just one more inflation for the cameras …..I remember one particular morning when Don cancelled the mornings flying due to a terrible forecast, so we all turned up and tethered and scooped all the press coverage.  We weren’t very popular that morning!

We would like to encourage more women to participate in hot air ballooning. Why do you think there aren’t many? How can that be changed?

We had two superb lady pilots working full time with us – and many female crew – they were a huge asset to the team.  I guess strength comes into it, but they used to put many of the male pilots to shame lugging cylinders around.     I think you just have to be determined to achieve your aim and go for it.  They all did.

Explain to us how you came up with an idea, and how much preparation goes in to each campaign you took part in?

Colin, Ian and Lucius were the ideas and creative team at Flying Pictures – I was the practical one who helped make it happen.   Some of the projects we did required many months of planning, particularly raising the sponsorship and permissions from the Civil Aviation Authority.   Stunts such as the trapeze acts, bungee jumping, tightrope walking, standing on top of the balloon, dropping hang gliders, mass balloon releases, and all the world records we did, were all weather dependent and that was the bane of our lives.

In most cases we provided our own camera crews and helicopters for filming – our other division was involved in providing gyro stabilised camera equipment and helicopters for most of the large budget movies and commercials – so we could arrange everything at short notice and work with the news networks.

By the by, Flying Pictures threw ‘the queen’ out of the helicopter at the Olympic Stadium, and if you have the patience to wait until the end of the credits of most movies involving aerial work, you will see the Flying Pictures credits.  I’m still one of the last to leave the cinema, to see if Flying Pictures did the filming.

Green Ice, flying three cloudhoppers from a skyscraper in Mexico City was our first big movie – I lost my top four pilots for the most of one season filming that, but we were involved with dozens of films and commercials, including the Great Muppet Caper, Superman III and Around the World in 80 days with Peter Ustinov.

What are your future ambitions? How do you see ballooning evolving in the future? What is next?

The Fiesta Committee have been kind enough to ask me to help at the last couple of Fiestas and its been interesting to see how much things have changed.   Perhaps its just because I don’t have my usual massive support team there, but somehow I feel the showmanship and comaderie has changed – crews seem to be working much more on their own rather than all lending each other a hand.   Of course there is a huge increase in passenger operations, and with the odd exception, there seems to have been a marked decrease in the manufacture of really special and unusual shapes. The Fiesta is an amazing event – so many of the other balloon festivals have disappeared through lack of enthusiasm and funding, and its great to see how popular the Fiesta still is.

Marketing has changed – and I don’t believe there are as many brave marketing directors out there who can see the benefits of balloon advertising.   Personally I think balloons are still show stealers and properly managed can bring a fantastic return to a clients investment but I can’t see the numbers of advertising balloons returning to the Flying Pictures and Virgin hay day, when so many clients were spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on balloon promotions.  Sainsbury’s had a fleet, so did British Gas, Unipart, Coca-Cola, and many others – sadly shareholders and companies watch every penny so carefully now and advertising budgets are spent on sampling, internet promotions, websites and texting competitions – well, I think its their loss!

Any tips for young pilots or someone that is interested in learning to fly but doesn’t know where to start?

Not my area really – sorry.   All of our pilots had been flying for many years and were very experienced – one of our selling points…..although certainly crewing is a great way to learn the ropes – literally.

How would you advise someone to approach companies for sponsorship or taking on a marketing/pr role?

To get together as many case histories as they can to demonstrate how well it can work.   To remember that if a client is covering the cost of your balloon operation, they deserve a good return, whether its in publicity terms, or taking their staff or prizewinners for flights and if you give them that then they may sponsor you for years.   Make sure you report back regularly and let them know what’s going on – your probably think you are doing a great job, but they need to know that too.

Do you feel ballooning is too regulated as a sport now?

I’ve been out of it now for ten years, but I know the regulations, forms and red tape was beginning to drive me mad even then.    Mind you I ended up living with Lou de Marco, whose department at the CAA regulated balloons and helicopters, so it can’t all be bad!

I was desperately sad to leave Flying Pictures, but with the decline in balloon sponsorship, and the effects the Foot and Mouth ban had on us, we just felt it was time to change the emphasis at Flying Pictures and concentrate on the filming side of the business.   From a personal point of view I needed a change.     I spent my Flying Pictures inheritance on a beautiful boat, which we renamed High Flyer and we spend four months of the year travelling on her.  We live on the River at Lymington, and are having a ball.    My office is still full of ballooning pictures, and I often see old ballooning friends – what fun it was.