Pilots | Nick Brau - Balloon Pilot
Born in the UK in 1962, Nicolas Brau lived a great part of his life in Argentina, mainly Buenos Aires and Bariloche in the Southern Andes. From a young age he became a member of the Club Andino in Bariloche, where he learnt to ski and took part in all mountaineering and climbing activities. He later complemented this with Outward Bound courses in England and Scotland. He learnt to fly aeroplanes and received his first licence when he was 19 years old. At 22 he graduated as a trekking and mountaineering guide in the first course ever run by the Argentine Mountaineering Guide Association. He subsequently worked for a few years as a guide and outdoor activities instructor during the summer and on the ski slopes during winter.
This passion for altitude and flight eventually brought him to discover ballooning at the beginning of the 1990's during a trip to England. He learnt to fly balloons with Terry McCoy in the town of Bath . He later worked for Virgin ABC, then a company owned by Richard Branson, where he learnt much of the experience involved in using these aircraft for advertising brands and products.
In 2002 Nick moved to Melbourne, Australia, on a contract to fly over the city with its high rise buildings and close to 4 million inhabitants and has since made Melbourne his home. Nick also operates his own promotional balloon company Flying Brands.
Nick holds licences in England, Argentina and Australia. He is the most experienced mountain pilot operator in South America and has been ballooning champion three times in Argentina. By 2008 Nick has accumulated 2000 hours flying both conventional and special shaped balloons and has flown over more than 100 cities all over the world. He has unusual experience in that a very high proportion of his airborne hours have been flown inside airport controlled zones and, due to geographical or meteorological reasons, in technically difficult areas .
