Today we received the news that last Sunday, April 10, 2022, balloonist Luc Herdewijn passed away.
Together with his family and many volunteers, he was the man behind the biennial international balloon meeting in his home town of Olen, Belgium. Due to a serious illness, it was decided in 2020 to cancel the event so that the family had all the energy to fight against his illness together.
However, his love for ballooning did not stop at the balloon meeting.
In addition to letting passengers experience a balloon flight, Luc also had a big heart for sports ballooning. For decades Luc was the driving force behind sports ballooning in Belgium as chairman of the ‘Sports Commission KBBF’.
Establishing a perfect organization of a challenge or the Belgian balloon Trophy was always his goal.
As a competition pilot, Luc already took the podium at his first Belgian Championship in 1995 and repeated this no less than 7 times, with the gold medal at the 2008 Belgian Championship as the icing on the cake.
On behalf of Belgium, he also took part 4 times in the European and 3 times in the World Ballooning Championship.
With Luc, our federation, and ballooning in general, loses a man with a huge heart for our passion.
On behalf of the organisation of the Belgian Balloon Trophy we wish Greet, Ann&John and Mieke&Lars, his grandchildren and family a lot of strength.
Luc, we wish you a safe last flight.
Balloonists never die, they only fly higher.
Luc heb ik leren kennen tijdens de gezamenlijke wedstrijden van NL-B. We zullen een zeer gewaardeerde ballonvaarder moeten gaan missen.
Veel sterkte voor familie en vrienden😔
Luc leren kennen tijdens een van de wedstrijden. Omdat ik altijd koffie en een koek bij mij had kwam hij graag een bakje meedrinken. Luc je was een fijne man. Heb je de laatste jaren al gemist tijdens wedstrijden maar nu is het missen definitief. Luc ik wens je een mooie laatste vaart toe. We komen elke keer als we een vlucht maken een beetje bij je in de buurt. Bedankt!