A novel way to promote Zagreb tourism over the skies of Dubai.
There is a Croatian family flying in a hot air balloon over Dubai! The hot air baloon team representing Croatia at the World Air Games on December 7, 2015 consists of pilot Igor Mikloušić, supported by his mother Marija and father Tom ‘The Baloon’ Mikloušić. Even Igor’s girlfriend Iva Šulentić is part of the team.
Tom has over 4000 hours of baloon flight under his belt. He was in the top six pilots in the world in 1996 and is the founder of ballooning in Croatia. He is a world renowned expert in the field, a competition judge, and on the international commission for balloon safety. He heads the Croatian Ballooning Association.
Marija is the first woman in the region with a balloon pilot licence. An instructor pilot herself, with over 1000 hours, she has for the past fifteen years consistently been in the top ten balloon pilots in the world. She was the first woman to fly a hot air balloon over Mt Olympus in Greece, and just last month, at White Sands in New Mexico, the first balloon pilot ever to fly a baloon powered purely by solar energy.
Igor is rapidly catching up. A pilot-instructor with over 400 hours of flight, he is the National Balloon Champion, and has been competing internationally since 2007. He has been invited to fly at the famous US balloon gathering in Albuquerque where he won a gold and a silver medal. Currently Igor ranks in the top 60 balloon pilots in the world.
(Croatian team meets fellow balloonist and FAI – World Air Sports Federation president Dr. John Grubbström)
In addition to the balooning team, Croatia is also represented in the individual and team precision parachuting events by parachutists Nebojša Ilić, Marko Premuzić, Damir Sladetić and Anđelo Vuletić.
The World Air Games, conducted in Dubai this year, under the rules of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), is one of the major international multi-discipline air sports events fielding the world’s top Air Sports athletes.
With 854 competitors from 55 countries competing in 23 different disciplines, this year’s WAG is set to be the biggest yet. As well as ballooning, disciplines represented at the event include model aircraft racing, paragliding aerobatics, speed skydiving, and hot air airship racing. Past editions of the Games took place in Turkey (1997), Spain (2001) and Italy (2009). The 2015 WAG in Dubai will run until December 12.
(Igor and Mum)
