The Flensted passion for hot-air balloons started with Christian who would eagerly attend the Danish Balloon Championships. This adventurous invention made him so excited and he started taking theory lessons with his son Ole at the Funen Glider Club. However, due to impaired hearing, Christian's dream of taking to the skies could not come true, but instead The Balloon Mobile was born in 1979. And having looked forward to a quirky, adventurous and festive hobby to start up, he then chose to invest in a set of cannons instead, and started The Funen Salute Battery that would salute on festive occasions in Denmark. The passion for mobiles still grew in his son Ole, and on November 17 1990, Ole sent a fax order with a drawing of a balloon filled with elephants from his mobile Elephant Party. The balloon arrived on December 24 at Esbjerg Harbour as a Christmas present for the family and was dubbed "Aeris Elephantis" (Elephants of the Air). Now, some would think that it would be prudent to take the balloon certificate before ordering the balloon, but Ole didn't waiwer. He would get it, and so he did. 5 months later, with the help from the Danish balloon pioneers, Kai and Toni Paamand, he flew out on his maiden voyage, that turned out a bit more dramatic than expected. Ole was supposed to land in a village called Føns on the west of Funen, but a big windmill made him think twice about landing there... He had heard Kai Paamand say that he had gas enough to fly to Jutland (the continental portion of Denmark lying west of Funen), and so Ole started flying across the water. Now, when flying on water, it is very difficult to assess the pace you're flying in, and it sure seemed as if Ole was standing still; both for Ole in the balloon, but also for his wife and two-year-old daughter waiting on the other side of the water, and he didn't have any communication device with him. Aase Flensted says: "It was the day my daughter learnt to say "Kom nu ned for helvede!" (Get the hell down). sagde der var nok gas. Whether Ole stood still over water or not is a bit difficult to say, but the weather forecast had promised a refreshing wind from the southeast, so Ole took the balloon to 3 km. Ole ended up landing in Jutland after 3 hours and 40 minutes in the air.
Since then, the mobile has been one of the big focal points in the Flensted Family and has created so many lovely memories, many championships, even a trophy, but most importantly; the best of friends. You see, attending a balloon championship obviously has a lot to do with being up in the air, but at one point one has to land. And on solid ground at these championships the Flensted family found so many warmhearted people around the campfires, to sing and talk with, to watch the sunrises with - and they still remain the best of friends to this day.
