What does a 'Toy Balloon' look like ?

[Mooncrest]

By which I mean those objects once listed in the Civil Aircraft Markings books with registrations in the G-FYA* sequence. They had names like Williams and Osprey. If I've seen one, I never knew it.

Thankyou.

[treadigraph]

Ever bought a roll of bin liners from Sainsbury's? :}

Some of them were quite good. Charles Saffrey built a number of radio controlled model hot air balloons which, for some reason, presumably size, had to be registered. Bernard Martin of Air Britain bought a couple, G-BERN and G-BFBM if memory serves, then several years later it became a craze and spotters built and registered them in huge numbers - the G-BI** sequence was stuffed with them. I saw a couple being surreptitiously shown to other out of a car boot during the Icicle Balloon Meet at Marsh Benham in 1981. The CAA then allocated the G-FY** sequence. I think I decided not to collect the registrations as I didn't consider them real aircraft worthy of my attention! A Mr Wakelin agreed and registered G-ZZZZ as a Pointmaker Mk1 balloon which I believe was never built!

Pic here of a Rango:

https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/search?registration=G-BINZ&exact=true&source=g-info

Here is a Saffrey which I think was balloon quality terylene...

https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/model/Model%20Balloon%20Saffery%20S.330

[DaveReidUK]

They are normally referred to as "Model Balloons" or (in CAA-speak) "Balloon (Minimum Lift)(Unmanned".

Here's a photo of one (a Saffery S.330):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/158949556@N05/43596667810

[Mooncrest]

Thankyou both. Now I know!