Alain Bard has been an avid flying enthusiast his entire life.
As a young boy, he built and flew dozens of his model aircraft creations.
As a certified skydiver, Alain has jumped almost 1,000 times from various types of aircraft, helicopters and hot air balloons, and is a certified skydiving instructor and parachute rigger. In 2012, he achieved the Canadian record for the largest formation in freefall (102 parachutists).
Alain is a paraglider pilot, and is a Transport Canada certified pilot in powered paragliders and hot air balloons.
Since 2009, Alain’s main passion has been piloting Hot Air Balloons. He is one of the rare people in the world to have constructed his own hot air balloon from scratch. In fact, he has made 2 of them, one of them being a “Special Shape” hot air balloon in the shape of an Alien Rocket Ship. This new balloon has been flown in some far-away places in the world, including Malaysia and Taiwan, as well as locally at many of the hot air balloon festival in Canada and the USA.
Alain is also the President of the National Capital Balloon Club where he has helped create several other balloons from scratch, as well as helping promote the sport and representing the sport of Hot Air Ballooning to Transport Canada.