A SOMERSET balloon pilot is attempting to break the world record for most countries flown in a hot air balloon — a record currently held by her late husband.

Allie Dunnington, 56, spends the summer working as a commercial balloon pilot for Virgin in Taunton and Tiverton, and during the winter she travels the world with her balloon.

From October, Allie, who lives between Sidmouth and Bristol, will head out to  Kazakstan and Central Asia to tick off as many countries on her list as possible.

The balloon pilot currently holds the female world record for most countries flown in a hot air balloon, 115, and hopes to reach 150+ — her late husband, Phil Dunnington, holds the world record having flown in 127 countries.

Asked why she's taking on this challenge, Allie said: "I've always loved travel, I was a tour guide for 20 years in Asia, and I had nothing to do with ballooning until I met Phil in Burma [Myanmar] in 2002.

"I had my first balloon flight in Burma, and my future husband was the pilot there. We always joked, about what came first, falling in love with the balloon or my husband."

She added: "This mini-race has been going on for nearly 40 years since we looked at his old logbook thinking 'Oh my god I've flown in 50 countries', and that's when he suddenly thought that it sounded like a nice challenge.

"I've always loved challenges in my life, it keeps me going."

After finding a passion for ballooning, Allie made it her career, building up qualifications to work as a pilot, instructor, and examiner.

Although Allie warns that ballooning income is "sporadic" and seasonal, due to flights being unable to take off in certain weather conditions, she is now "just about" able to live off her ballooning work.

The pilot particularly enjoys flights over Taunton, but admits they're "challenging" due to the terrain.

Allie said: "You go up over the Moore and Burrow Mump, Glastonbury, and all the marshland there, it's amazing scenery.

"It's quite challenging to know where to land, you need access for the crew as I'm flying a 15-passenger balloon, but I love it."

Flying is "always an adrenaline rush", especially when landing in countries where "people have never seen a balloon", Allie said.

She added: "You don't know how people react when you suddenly drop out of the sky into their village."

Thankfully, Allie has had mostly positive experiences, she said: "I would say 99% you get a wonderful reception from the locals, and that's what makes it."

Sharing the other reasons she loves flying, Allie said: "Balloon flight is very environmentally friendly, and it's romantic as the oldest form of human flight, people still love it for that reason.

"It's visually very beautiful, as you can fly very low and very high."

However, it's not all plain sailing as Allie admits that it can also be "super frustrating" as "the most weather-dependent form of aviation".

Allie's husband Phil died in November 2021, and she is now on a mission to add as many countries to her tally as she can, with "150 to 160" being the limit she believes is "physically possible".

She added: "I reckon you can get to 150 to 160, and the rest of them would be super difficult, as they're all little islands and almost physically impossible to take off or land."

The pilot is taking on the challenge without any sponsorship, adding that her husband had been "very lucky in the early day of British Airways" with the airline sponsoring a balloon trip in different locations each time they opened a new flight route.

Allie said: "I don't have a penny of sponsorship for what I'm doing, and the world has become a lot more difficult with politics and wars. So it's not easy."

To keep costs down Allie has even found a way to check in her small hopper hot air balloon as luggage, splitting it into parts and then paying extra for more allowance.

She said: "I travelled for several months with just a small rucksack, then I could check in my cylinder, envelope, and electric fan, and then pay extra for the extra luggage."

"Once you're there, it's all just logistics. Hiring the car, finding crew, finding the gas and so on."

In some countries, Allie can hire a balloon to fly. However, that isn't always possible, including in Indonesia where there wasn't "a single balloon in the country", Allie said.

Allie has completed the "entire Americas from top to bottom", and has almost ticked off the continent of Europe apart from the Vatican and Monaco. She is documenting her journey on her blog gonewiththewind.uk.com.

Asked what's next after Kazakstan and Central Asia, Allie said: "Asia has the tricky ones left, like Bangladesh, Brunei, and North Korea, most of those we can forget for a while.

"So the biggest chunk of new countries that are realistically possible is Central Africa, over the next few years, I will try to take my two-person balloon out to Kenya and buy a car and then create a brand new team that joins me around Africa. 

"I'm trying to create a group of amazing international all-female crew to travel Africa."