ONE man was making sure he wasn't going to get grounded by the virtual collapse of Fokker.

The Margin noticed that adventurer Henk Brink quickly removed his balloon from Fokker's facilities at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam before any receiver or liquidator got his hands on it.

Brink, a helicopter pilot, and Willem Hageman, a former jet fighter pilot in the Dutch air force, are on standby to fly from the Dutch city of Nijmegen, pending suitable weather conditions. The Dutchmen are locked in a head-to-head hot air battle with Richard Branson to become the first to complete the 25,000-mile, non-stop balloon trip around the world.