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| About Us » Our Pilots |
| Serhan Rıza Leki |
 Serhan has been involved with Kapadokya Balloons since the very first day! He played a major role in scouting out the area as an aerial playground and helped to establish Cappadocia as a centre for ballooning. He has served our company in many capacities, from ground crew to Company Manager, and nowadays as one of the most experienced pilots in the region. Serhan is not only extremely familiar with the region and history of Cappadocia but, he has also lived and traveled all over the world. Those experiences,combined with being fluentin English and French, truly make him our resident teacher in the sky.Originally from Istanbul, Serhan is married to Asli and lives in Urgup with their little boy Can, and their loyal dogs Badem and Prince. |
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| Graham Luckett |
.jpg) Graham is a recent addition to the team but not new to ballooning. He has spent the last 24 years as a full-time pilot flying large balloons in exotic locations such as Kenya, Egypt, and India. Highly experienced and skilled, Graham was enticed to fly in Turkey by the beauty of the Cappadocia region and the professionalism of Kapadokya Balloons. He has a true passion for ballooning and enjoys sharing the thrill and joy of each flight with his passengers.Graham hails from England originally,but now spends his time away from Turkey in Colorado where he and his lovely wife, Alicia,have been living for the last 15 years. |
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| Huseyin Cingil |
.jpg) Cingil, pronounced "jingle" is exactly what you get when you fly with Huseyin! Our resident Cave Man born and raised right here in Goreme. Huseyin can inform you about all of the ins and outs of Cappadocia due to the extensive hiking, horseback riding and motocross bike riding he does in his spare time. After seeing the Balloons on all of his trekking through the valley, he decided the sky was the next area of Cappadocia he wanted to explore and set out to get his license. His favorite aspect of the job? Sharing his home town history with passengers. His energetic demeanor and boisterous laughter make Huseyin one of our wonderfully fun and highly skilled pilots. |
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| Andrew Parker |
 Andrew joined us in 2011, he is originally from New Zealand. Flying hot air balloons was his childhood dream and at 16 years old he began his career which currently spans 11 years. Highly experienced with passenger flying in many parts of the world including Australia, China, Russia, USA, Brasil, Colombia & France, he has become a valued and trusted member of Kapadokya's team. A great traveller, when not flying Andrew likes to visit exotic destinations. Andrew enjoys learning and is constantly improving his language skills, having worked in Brazil and France, he is competent in both languages.
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| David Chipping |
 The most recent addition to the team at Kapadokya Balloons, David was born & educated in England;although he has lived most of his adult life in Portugal where he ran his own commercial operation for fourteen years.
First qualified in 1987 at the age of 21, he has been flying large passenger Balloons & Airships for the last 25 years in many areas of the world including Kenya,Thailand,Australia & Switzerland. He is no stranger to Cappadocia having flown several seasons here since 2005. He speaks Portuguese, French & Spanish. |
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| Hatem Shehab |
.jpg) He joined us in 2011. Originally from the land of the pharaohs, Egypt.
Hatem flew with big passenger balloons and airships in the Valley of The Kings for five years before embarking on his latest adventure with us in Cappadocia.
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| Mustafa Aga |
 Mustafa has been with our company since 2007 and he has worked every facet for us, from the office, to crew he is crafting quite the Balloon career. Born and raised in the capital city of Ankara, he then moved to Ilgaz and eventually came to Nevsehir to attend College. Majoring in tourism and hotel management, he wound up writing final thesis on Ballooning in Cappadocia and was driven to pursue it after researching the field so extensively. Mustafa met and marry his college sweetheart and planned on going to Albequrquie, New Mexico to acquire his license. At the same time his wife, Serap became pregnant with their beautiful son, Mert, and Mustafa decided it best to stay here with his family for the time being. SInce then Mustafa has attained his commercial pilot's license in Turkey. His cool and calm demeanor reflect his cool and calm flight skills, we look forward to having him fly with us for a long time. |
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| Serkan Evirgen |
.jpg) Serkan's immense curiosity lead him to pursue a career in Balloons and we are happy to welcome him here! Although he started off working in Architecture, he quickly found himself deeply interested in the balloon culture of Cappadocian skies. Serkan had his own change of wind direction and began working for a balloon company and pursuing his license to be a pilot. Serkan says that he feels a great deal of freedom in flying, and you can easily witness this wonderful expression when you experience a flight with him. Serkan is looking forward to representing Turkey in future Balloon competitions held through out the world. We have no doubt he will make us proud, and we are eagerly looking forward to cheering him on! |
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