Balloon Rides was established by Tom Donnelly, one of the "grandfathers" of the hot air balloon revival in the 1970’s. Tom retired in 2009, and the operation was taken over by Adventure Balloons, another founding member of hot air balloon rides in the UK. Tom had been involved with Adventure Balloons chief pilot Kim Hull in the 1980's. And in 2008, a young resident of York, Ollie Webb started working with Tom on his balloon operation as a crew person. This lovely story now goes full circle because in 2017, Ollie started flying as a pilot for Adventure Balloons in York and in late 2019 took over the running of Balloon Rides. Ollie has considerable experience in the UK and abroad and has great enthusiasm for the sport of hot air ballooning. Indeed, after the flight you will have no difficulty getting him to tell you a few ballooning stories.