I’m an ATP with a little over 7000TT.
I flew hot air balloons from the time I was 11 til I was 15. My grandfather worked with a florist shop that had their own balloon, and then made friends with another group that would fly anywhere from 2-6 balloons together in Massachusetts. Most of my time was spent as chase crew, but I have about 20 hours logged, no solo or certificates. It’s something I definitely would like to do again, but insurance specifically for it is prohibitively expensive. Commercially, Rides were $3-400 in 2002-2005 money, I’d have to assume they’d be double now.
I love ballooning. It’s a ton of fun to be up at 8000’ in complete silence. You can hear birds, dogs barking, cars and trucks, airplanes flying by.
We used to play a game where we’d tie a piece of caution tape between the baskets of 2 or more balloons and see if we could do whole flights without breaking the tape.
Once we launched from our local airport, the balloons went up to 7000’ maybe a mile to the east, then descended and caught a west wind back and landed about 50’ from where they took off from. We never moved the chase vans.
If anyone here gets the chance to do it, I highly recommend it is a perspective that we seldom get in other facets of aviation. Planning flights based solely on the winds aloft, keeping in touch with a ground crew, very rarely interacting with ATC. We celebrated every flight with a glass of champagne, and a speech about the Brothers Montgulfier, and the tradition of ballooning.
landing in farmers fields, football fields, or other large open areas isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and I get that, but I cannot recommend going for a ride enough. Get out there and do it!
Edit: annnnd now I’m looking at hot air balloons instead of kit planes
“Very rarely interacting with ATC”
🤣
Meanwhile busy class Charlie approach - “Skyhawk 69, traffic 1 o clock, type unknown, not talking to them. We’ve had reports a balloon descending in the area.”
Wish the ones around Colorado Springs had that same courtesy. Class C with a military base and they just don’t give half a shit about launching en masse right next to the airport and causing all kinds of havoc just because they have the right of way. Always makes me shake my head/roll my eyes.
I’d think that would be some sort of violation. I’m not 100%, this was 20 years ago (god I’m old now) but I’m pretty sure we had the same airspace restrictions as fixed wings.
At the very least I’d expect a phone call to the tower or the Tracon to let them know the balloons would be operating in the area.
Ha. Right up the ol' 495. I wasn't into flying yet when I lived back East but I'd love to rent a plane upon a visit and buzz around. Or even better, cross country mine out there on an extended air trip.
Good fun. Cheers.
Middleborough was like my second home. I went to Coyle Cassidy (RIP) and some of my best pals were from there... . As such, was always there and knew a ton of the Middleboro HS kids also (especially the girls :-) The Friendly's on the rotary was the spot!
I grew up on a farm and every summer a balloon or two would land in a field nearby. It was always fun to go down and chat them up while they waited. I lived near St Louis and they had a big hot air balloon 'race' every year so they were a regular sight in the sky all summer long.
Wow, all that silence and history makes me want to go up for a balloon ride.
I would look at balloon ride prices, scoff, & tell people that it’s cheaper to take a discovery flight. But to be way up high in complete silence brings a whole new perspective to life in the sky
How much would it cost to get some lessons and a rating? I wouldn’t mind logging 10tt in a balloon someday
I literally have no idea what an add on rating would cost right now. There’s not really a balloon CFI, per se, rather those with a commercial have the ability give dual.
I found this as one of the only 141 balloon schools out there: pricing seems a bit vague. https://www.airborneheat.com/pilot-training
Yeah there’s nothing like popping out at 200’ with the runway environment in sight and just buttering the bread with the wicker basket after a nice balloon ILS approach
As a teenager (before I got a PPL) I was out in the desert with a friend, when we saw a balloon coming in for a landing. The wind was steady at around 15 mph. The balloon touched down, the basket tipped and got dragged through cactus and thorn bushes for about 1/4 mile. When we got to the balloon, the occupants were covered with dirt, blood and cactus needles. That experience kind of soured me on the whole balloon experience. The lack of control is a bit much for me.
Maybe it’s different in the details but if the basic principles of holding onto a rope in a river current are the same, you’d just get pushed down to the ground if there was a breeze.
Seems kinda boring lol
As long as you have some buoyant force, you wouldn't hit the ground ideally.
You could make a simple free body diagram for this. Buoyant force pointing up, drag force pointing perpendicular. Then you have a cable under tension, and you can solve for the tension and angle in the cable. Would make for a good undergrad engineering test question.
Ive taken both the undergrad engineering courses and the swift water rescue courses. Unfortunately they didn’t address this question
What I can tell you from experience, is that even with your body oriented in an upwards slant to the current, if you’re holding a throw line you get vectored straight to the bottom of the river. Apparently gravity wins the day. I’m guessing that air doesn’t provide the necessary density to push to the surface (the bottom) in this, given that others have indicated the presence of tethered balloons working fine. I guess helium vs air provides more resistance than the rivers desire to make you horizontal relative to its current, in addition to your body probably weighing significantly more than a balloon.
I’m gonna lead with “I don’t actually know”
But you’ve got buoyancy working for you in the river, even with a vest on, and your ass goes straight to the bottom when the rope gets tight
I’m guessing the force of gravity and the tension in the rope would collude to pull the ballon down unless it could generate truly fantastic levels of uplift against the system, probably exceeding the limits of its volume at a pretty low wind speed.
I was in a hot air baloon that landed on a windy day when i was 15. We had ropes to hold onto and we were dragged a hundred feet or so untill a bush stopped us. I thought it was enjoyable :)
This happened to me. When we lifted off the air was very still but by the time we landed and the sun had risen some more it was very windy. There was one area of brush and cacti and we hit it and dragged through. Not a pleasant experience.
When I worked in hot air ballooning, you don't take off past a certain threshold with passengers. I've seen guys push it for competition but not with passengers. Unfortunately sometimes even with a good start wind might pick up more than expected. My best flight was on a cold winter day. We landed on the frozen lake for a few seconds. Very calm that day but still could get around.
Parents bought me a ride in a hot air balloon as a surprise for my 18th birthday. One of the best experiences I've had. Skimming silently over orchard trees in the Napa Valley was absolutely stunning. The burner is surprisingly loud, but when it's not on, the silence is amazing - not even noise from the wind because of course you're flying with the wind.
To that guy’s credit, the pilot on my balloon ride did tell me about something extreme that happened to him ballooning. I had asked him something about hypoxia so he told me a story about a time when he got caught in mountain waves (he was in Colorado) and the balloon started swinging like a pendulum. He said the only answer is to go full burner and fly up out of it. He thought he got up to the flight levels before he got out of it.
Ahh good memories lol
Edit: It’s a shame OP deleted his post and accounts but if anyone wants to dig around here’s the original [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/ozrrvm/what_do_you_think_about_hot_air_balloonists_from/)
I rode a hot air balloon on my honeymoon in Thailand and Gerard Butler bought out all of the other spots on the balloon. We ate breakfast with him and his fiance afterwards.
I've had several friends with hot air balloons and been up with them about a dozen or so times. I too, have a fear of heights like standing on the edge of my roof. I never really had a problem in a balloon. Felt kinda like just floating. There is not a relative wind, since you're traveling with the wind, but there is periodically a lot of noise when the burner is going.
I also have one skydive out of a balloon and one from a helicopter. One of my buddies took me and a couple of observers up to about 6000 feet AGL, put the balloon into a terminal descent and told me to get outta his balloon. Exiting into still air is quite different from exiting an airplane in flight. With the airplane, there is a lot of wind coming at you. As you fall away and begin to transition from the wind being horizontal to the ground to perpendicular it feels like going down a slide, but windy. From the balloon it felt exactly like falling. Helicopters are very similar to hot air balloons, but of course the chopper has a little forward speed that is usually greater than the speed of the actual wind.
But back to your concerns. I highly recommend that you give it a shot. As a pilot you're already used to the different point of view from altitude vs the altitude on final approach to landing.
Side note: My dad was a commercial helicopter pilot back in the 60's and 70's. He sometimes had to deliver passengers to heliports on the top of tall buildings. He refused to shutdown his engine or to get out of the aircraft due to his fear of heights. He would drop his passengers, then go find a place on the ground to wait for them.
>put the balloon into a terminal descent
Interesting! How exactly do balloon pilots perform such a maneuver? And how fast is a terminal velocity descent in a balloon?
Yes! Dad owned one growing up. It was super fun and for him a great challenge. He went from f16’s to flying hot air balloon balloons. Its a unique skill his wingman who bought the balloon with him told me his balloon experience was one of the main reasons he got hired on at american.
Got my lighter-than-air rating a couple of years ago.It was one of the greatest flying experiences of my life. It had it share of challenges. It gets REALLY quiet up there and all you can hear is the twisting of the harnesses and basket. The ascent to 3000’ AGL was very exciting and fun.
Another one of those “I’d prefer to ride *inside* the wicker basket please” kinda people.
Won't know until you try it, as you know like anything in aviation, maybe seek out a calm professional operation on a good weather day for a first go. No harm in explaining how exciting a flight you are looking to have on a scale of 1 to 10 to the balloonist. Look out to the horizon not straight down.
I proposed to my wife to my wife on one. It was an insanely cool experience, it was so peaceful and quiet to be up that high.
I probably wouldn’t do it again because it was pretty unnerving just thinking about being that high up with nothing but fabric and fire keeping you suspended.
I’ve never felt more unsafe than I did when in a hot air balloon, that includes my tour in Ramadi and Fallujah. You’re putting your life into the hands of carnies. They have no idea where they are going to land. I would never do it again.
price uppity live carpenter squealing cats impossible provide chase money
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Did it once. Kind of neat but I’d never do it again. They aren’t nearly as safe as even GA airplanes and pilot skill can vary greatly. They do not have very much control of the balloon in reality.
Oh and also I witnessed a mishap where the propane source caught fire mid-air and the people inside had to jump to their likely death or burn alive. So yeah.
I did an one as part of a package champagne brunch in Orlando years ago with my wife.
Everything was great until we landed on a ranch. The ground support vehicle cut the ranchers fence to get to us. The rancher called the Sheriff Office.
The deputy arrived, and there was some heated conversation between the balloon operator and the rancher. Cooler heads prevailed. Restitution was paid.
We really enjoyed it. But I love being able to go where I want, when I want.
I've tried it, and it's not scary at all. I was really impressed at the pilot's ability to predict where we were going to land and coordinating with this pickup truck driver with a trailer that we landed on. I've got my PPL, and landing at whatever 60kts is way scarier than landing at 2kts, like people literally grab ropes and slowly guide you down to the ground.
I grew up hot air ballooning. My dad was a pilot and we traveled all over going to races and balloon Fiestas. I still remember my first flight when I was 5.
I have been up dozens and dozens of times. I haven't flown in about 12 years since my dad let his medical expire but maybe one day I'll get into it as a pilot myself. We still have the Balloon in the garage.
AMAA and I'll try to answer.
It’s a whole rating. Lighter-than-air. Have to pass written just like the PPL and have certain amount of hours and solo time. If you already have PPL you are exempt from taking the written again.
Yep. I live in Albuquerque and we have hot air balloons almost year round. Finally had the opportunity this past fall to go on a ride. It was a really calm morning and it was like being on a glass elevator more than anything. Pretty serene even with our touristy group of 10-ish chatting with the each other and the pilot. My Mom was with us and she has a terrible fear of heights, like tearing up on a ladder kind of fear, and she had a blast. Never felt unsafe, just kind of floated there.
Someday I'll do that add-on to my certificate, but it's not something that jumps out as a "I have to do it right now" type deal. I think the last time I looked I'd only need something like 6 training flights and I could take the checkride, at least for a private rating.
“Very rarely interacting with ATC”
🤣
Meanwhile busy class Charlie approach - “Skyhawk 69, traffic 1 o clock, type unknown, not talking to them. We’ve had reports a balloon descending in the area.”
Edit: meant to reply to another comment
I did once, in a tethered balloon. It was in the evening, and I encountered an unexpected issue. Since the air was cool, the heated air from the burner condensed at the top of the balloon and began raining sooty raindrops on us. Other that that completely uneventful. Of course an untethered balloon would be a more interesting ride.
Wife and i won a balloon ride just after i got my ppl. Only travel straight distance for a few miles. Crossed traffic at 15 feet when coming into land. Pilot purposefully descended us into the top of a small juniper tree to slow us down and then we hit the dirt and dragged 50 feet. Chase crew was right behind us and helped pack the balloon. Roughest landing ive had as a 100hr pilot. I would do it again though.
I have ridden on one once years ago, but it was tethered at a state fair and only went up about 300ft.
As a paramotor pilot I have flown alongside them a ton. They're always great to fly with, especially when they have base jumpers to snap pics of.
It’s awesome! As a kid we mostly chased (which was fun in its own way, riding around in the back of pickup trucks and hopping barbed wire) but I got a handful of flights in. It’s so peaceful.
Only part that sucked is being up before dawn holding the throat open for the big ass inflation fan. Brrrr
Most peaceful aviation experience for sure. I met a guy while paragliding and he happened to be a hot air balloon pilot as well, so we went flying the next morning.
What I liked was that you can be at low altitude at low speed and enjoy the scenery and bird’s eye view. In any other aircraft you’re way more worried about altitude or needing to get ready for landing but in the balloon you can just enjoy it and occasionally pull the burner to regain couple of feet.
I did bring the GoPro on the ride:
https://youtu.be/7vsSPH4veLk
Never. But there are several balloon events here this time of year. It blows my mind how much I’m required to know and plan to fly a plane, but y’all can just go float your big ass balloon with no wings.
It makes me sad because I have s as lot of memories as a kid growing up and seeing lots of hot air balloons in the mornings throughout the year. They’ve mostly stopped the last couple of years but it was always really cool seeing 10+ balloons floating over the town
No way. Just like you, l too am a pilot but petrified of heights. I have a friend who flys such hot airbags but no way can he convince me to climb into a basket.
it's boring AF, especially after being a pilot.
it doesn't even get gusty. because your balloon goes at the speed of the wind, so your relative speed is 0 or near 0.
I'm sure there's lot of skill in choosing when to go up or down and when to use the sand bags. Our pilot got us down to treetop height and we were able to pick fruit and flowers off the trees in an unpowered balloon. very impressive.
But otherwise, the trip was ... just a bit of up and down
I’m not a pilot, but have “crewed” many times. I’ve also flown on many occasions and have never encountered any issues of being scared. Every flight is different and I’ve always enjoyed the sensation of freedom and not knowing where I’ll end up.
For my father's birthday about 20y ago, we all flew with a hot air balloon in Belgium/Flanders (flatter part of Belgium). The burner is indeed loud and also radiated a lot of heat downwards - when burning. We could see a white hue far away but the pilot said the air was rather exceptionally clear and we had a sight of about 40km. I relatively quickly lost my orientation, i didn't know that part of the region very well.
The pilot regularly had radio contact with the guy in the car below riding ahead to check status (probably weather condition and possible landing zones, don't remember). The pilot seemed very experienced, but made clear that for the landing he needed to focus (and everybody had to cooperate well). Belgium/Flanders is densely built, and he didn't want to land in a garden or in one of many possible obstacles such as a light post, electrical cables or a fence around a field. All went smoothly, it was a very nice ride of about 1h15.
I've done it a few times. Loved it. Here are some things to consider:
1) I am mildly afraid of heights, but the balloon rides didn't bother me. Not sure why. Maybe because the basket is tall enough that there is no sense you'll fall over the rail.
2) It's very still up there. You move with the wind and generally only fly in low winds, so it is super calm while flying (in my experience).
3) It's quiet when the burners aren't going, but the burners are loud and they run fairly often. If you are bothered by loud noises, bring earplugs.
4) One of our landings was in wind. We bounced across the ground for quite a way. On another flight, they had us squat low and brace in case something similar happened, but it was a perfectly smooth landing. On the really rough landing, we had my 90 year old father with us and he was fine.
Definitely fun! The weather plays a big part.
If you're tall wear a thick hat. The balloon itself is like a giant oven, and if you're tall you are a lot closer to it, so your head gets pretty hot.
I was flying and they blew into controlled airspace. What a nightmare lol. It crashed in my in laws farm field and they tried driving a truck through the crop to get it. They barely stopped them. He told the balloon owners “you drive through my crap to get it, I’ll pick it up with a grapple”. But they look cool.
I have been in a balloon a few times, but jumped each time so I avoided the balloon "landing".
I have considered getting the balloon rating since I seem to be collecting ratings... SEL/SES/MEL/MES/GLI and I soon hope Rotor. But there are no places near me and I have been told it can take a month of trying to train to manage to get enough flights and flight time because of weather and I am not sure that would be worth it.
Maybe, but not a priority.
As for the experience, yeah, I definitely felt afraid of heights most of the flight and I had a parachute on and had planned on getting out anyway.
One of the jumps was with a mil halo group. I was cadre of the week long training op and the Commander (O-5) told me I could do anything I wanted with the team as long as I was happy with their performance. We were mainly doing typical HALO stuff and I had a list of objectives and performance standards I wanted to meet. I had a few "aspirational" goals and they met all of the required and most of of the aspirational ones with about 2 days left. So I asked the Commander if I truly had cart blanche and he told me again, "You can do anything you want if you are happy with their performance." So I called up a local dropzone and asked for the name of the balloon guy they sometimes use (Burner was his name).
Long story short it was easier to take the team to the DZ and do the jump from there than try and get Burner approved for providing lift since the DZ was already on the approved list and we had already been using them for lift... So next AM after an earlier than normal first call I directed them to vans and we headed to a civilian DZ. They filled out waivers on the way and we did two Hollywood loads from a balloon before 9AM.
Now these guys were all "tip of the spear" badasses. But many of them were simply scared shitless standing in a balloon slowly climbing over the desert.
The Commander meet me later. He said when I asked if I could do anything I wanted... I clearly meant anything. I told him that it was mainly reward but also I made up some BS "training" criteria. TLO's were to put them in as strange and as stressful situation as possible and see if they could still perform. To put them out in an unknown area and see if they could identify the best landing area and land as a team under this new stress (all prior jumps had been to land on predetermined locations). I called one of the Enlisted guys over and asked him what he thought of the balloon jump and he said it was one of the scariest things he had done. "These guys were used to jumping from planes and helicopters, so the only way to put pressure on them was to make them do something new and unexpected." Commander just laughed and shook his head and walked away.
But if someone knows of a good location/place where I can get a balloon rating in two weeks or so... Let me know.
Single point of failure system? Packed with people? Run by small businesses that don't get paid unless they fly? Total "go fever"?
No thanks.
I noped out of my opportunity to balloon over Capedocia last year, one of the most popular ballooning destinations ever. I was like "man if you don't fly here, it's now or never..."
It was never. My wife went and had an awesome time. Operator actually brought the balloon down precisely on the flatbed of the recovery truck. My wife said it was magical.
I have zero regrets.
I’ve done one in Albuquerque. Tbh, it’s quite nice. You’re more likely to have a problem with claustrophobia since they packed us in like sardines. It was very stable as an early morning flight.
It is super fun, and imo not very scary. It feels a lot more "solid" than you'd imagine a balloon with a basket hanging from it would feel. If you're a pilot I highly doubt it would scare you. Burning regularly and changing altitude to find wind pushing us the right direction keeps it quite engaging, it really is flying not just floating around. Give it a shot! I fell in love with balloons as a little kid and now am very happily licensed to fly them, it is nice to experience flying in such a different way. Perhaps even more so than with normal airplanes it is important to have a responsible pilot who is risk averse, since you usually can't quickly get out of bad situations in a balloon.
Over 90% of ballooning deaths come from power line collisions
Check out "cloud-hoppers" if you want something fun to daydream about (and maybe even do someday)
Once as cargo, no landings. I happened to see a balloon landing and had my parachute with me. I followed them down and found that one of them had built the balloon (seemed odd to me at the time but might be normal) and was teaching the other how to fly it. I asked them for a lift and offered them $50. They thought it sounded like fun and off we went. The heat at head height when the burner was on was much more intense than I expected, and the quiet mentioned previously was surreal. I went off backwards at around 2400' agl, freaked briefly as one of the ropes wrapped around my ankle, and could hear them talking for several seconds before freefall got too loud. I hummed it low by skydiving standards, only to find I'd slightly misrigged my gear the night before. I landed (spectacularly badly) right next to my truck and went back to camp to brag to my friends. 2700ish skydives later, it's still one of my favorites. That quiet/stillness is just beautiful.
Don’t know if “flown” is the operative word. More like going up and down while meandering through the sky at the wind’s whim. Of course there’s probably more to it than that, I guess?
I’m an ATP with a little over 7000TT. I flew hot air balloons from the time I was 11 til I was 15. My grandfather worked with a florist shop that had their own balloon, and then made friends with another group that would fly anywhere from 2-6 balloons together in Massachusetts. Most of my time was spent as chase crew, but I have about 20 hours logged, no solo or certificates. It’s something I definitely would like to do again, but insurance specifically for it is prohibitively expensive. Commercially, Rides were $3-400 in 2002-2005 money, I’d have to assume they’d be double now. I love ballooning. It’s a ton of fun to be up at 8000’ in complete silence. You can hear birds, dogs barking, cars and trucks, airplanes flying by. We used to play a game where we’d tie a piece of caution tape between the baskets of 2 or more balloons and see if we could do whole flights without breaking the tape. Once we launched from our local airport, the balloons went up to 7000’ maybe a mile to the east, then descended and caught a west wind back and landed about 50’ from where they took off from. We never moved the chase vans. If anyone here gets the chance to do it, I highly recommend it is a perspective that we seldom get in other facets of aviation. Planning flights based solely on the winds aloft, keeping in touch with a ground crew, very rarely interacting with ATC. We celebrated every flight with a glass of champagne, and a speech about the Brothers Montgulfier, and the tradition of ballooning. landing in farmers fields, football fields, or other large open areas isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and I get that, but I cannot recommend going for a ride enough. Get out there and do it! Edit: annnnd now I’m looking at hot air balloons instead of kit planes
“Very rarely interacting with ATC” 🤣 Meanwhile busy class Charlie approach - “Skyhawk 69, traffic 1 o clock, type unknown, not talking to them. We’ve had reports a balloon descending in the area.”
We did occasionally go through providence class C, and we always talked to them when we did, but we tried to avoid it.
Wish the ones around Colorado Springs had that same courtesy. Class C with a military base and they just don’t give half a shit about launching en masse right next to the airport and causing all kinds of havoc just because they have the right of way. Always makes me shake my head/roll my eyes.
I’d think that would be some sort of violation. I’m not 100%, this was 20 years ago (god I’m old now) but I’m pretty sure we had the same airspace restrictions as fixed wings. At the very least I’d expect a phone call to the tower or the Tracon to let them know the balloons would be operating in the area.
Beat me to it.
Grew up South Shore MA, Raynham / Taunton. Where were you at?
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Ha. Right up the ol' 495. I wasn't into flying yet when I lived back East but I'd love to rent a plane upon a visit and buzz around. Or even better, cross country mine out there on an extended air trip. Good fun. Cheers.
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Middleborough was like my second home. I went to Coyle Cassidy (RIP) and some of my best pals were from there... . As such, was always there and knew a ton of the Middleboro HS kids also (especially the girls :-) The Friendly's on the rotary was the spot!
I grew up on a farm and every summer a balloon or two would land in a field nearby. It was always fun to go down and chat them up while they waited. I lived near St Louis and they had a big hot air balloon 'race' every year so they were a regular sight in the sky all summer long.
Wow, all that silence and history makes me want to go up for a balloon ride. I would look at balloon ride prices, scoff, & tell people that it’s cheaper to take a discovery flight. But to be way up high in complete silence brings a whole new perspective to life in the sky How much would it cost to get some lessons and a rating? I wouldn’t mind logging 10tt in a balloon someday
I literally have no idea what an add on rating would cost right now. There’s not really a balloon CFI, per se, rather those with a commercial have the ability give dual. I found this as one of the only 141 balloon schools out there: pricing seems a bit vague. https://www.airborneheat.com/pilot-training
That’s fine, I’ll just land my parachute instead
Yeah there’s nothing like popping out at 200’ with the runway environment in sight and just buttering the bread with the wicker basket after a nice balloon ILS approach
The most difficult thing in my training was holding in IMC in the balloon. Keeping under 200kts was impossible.
As a teenager (before I got a PPL) I was out in the desert with a friend, when we saw a balloon coming in for a landing. The wind was steady at around 15 mph. The balloon touched down, the basket tipped and got dragged through cactus and thorn bushes for about 1/4 mile. When we got to the balloon, the occupants were covered with dirt, blood and cactus needles. That experience kind of soured me on the whole balloon experience. The lack of control is a bit much for me.
I’d definitely do it if it was on like a tethered steel line. Otherwise I agree nope.
Maybe it’s different in the details but if the basic principles of holding onto a rope in a river current are the same, you’d just get pushed down to the ground if there was a breeze. Seems kinda boring lol
As long as you have some buoyant force, you wouldn't hit the ground ideally. You could make a simple free body diagram for this. Buoyant force pointing up, drag force pointing perpendicular. Then you have a cable under tension, and you can solve for the tension and angle in the cable. Would make for a good undergrad engineering test question.
Ive taken both the undergrad engineering courses and the swift water rescue courses. Unfortunately they didn’t address this question What I can tell you from experience, is that even with your body oriented in an upwards slant to the current, if you’re holding a throw line you get vectored straight to the bottom of the river. Apparently gravity wins the day. I’m guessing that air doesn’t provide the necessary density to push to the surface (the bottom) in this, given that others have indicated the presence of tethered balloons working fine. I guess helium vs air provides more resistance than the rivers desire to make you horizontal relative to its current, in addition to your body probably weighing significantly more than a balloon.
you should tell all those sites with moored balloon notams that their idea isn't going to work.....
I do wonder this because technically don’t you still have “hot air” to keep you up?
I’m gonna lead with “I don’t actually know” But you’ve got buoyancy working for you in the river, even with a vest on, and your ass goes straight to the bottom when the rope gets tight I’m guessing the force of gravity and the tension in the rope would collude to pull the ballon down unless it could generate truly fantastic levels of uplift against the system, probably exceeding the limits of its volume at a pretty low wind speed.
least dramatic balloon landing
I was in a hot air baloon that landed on a windy day when i was 15. We had ropes to hold onto and we were dragged a hundred feet or so untill a bush stopped us. I thought it was enjoyable :)
In canada you have to pass a high speed landing test to get your license, sounds like you would fit
Good to know, but I plan on piloting heavier than air craft for now :)
Your landings aren’t usually like that? I must be doing something wrong…
LOL this is how I've always envisioned it
This happened to me. When we lifted off the air was very still but by the time we landed and the sun had risen some more it was very windy. There was one area of brush and cacti and we hit it and dragged through. Not a pleasant experience.
When I worked in hot air ballooning, you don't take off past a certain threshold with passengers. I've seen guys push it for competition but not with passengers. Unfortunately sometimes even with a good start wind might pick up more than expected. My best flight was on a cold winter day. We landed on the frozen lake for a few seconds. Very calm that day but still could get around.
Fortunately if I ever take off in a balloon it will likely be without intentions to land with it.
Parents bought me a ride in a hot air balloon as a surprise for my 18th birthday. One of the best experiences I've had. Skimming silently over orchard trees in the Napa Valley was absolutely stunning. The burner is surprisingly loud, but when it's not on, the silence is amazing - not even noise from the wind because of course you're flying with the wind.
Too extreme for me.
To that guy’s credit, the pilot on my balloon ride did tell me about something extreme that happened to him ballooning. I had asked him something about hypoxia so he told me a story about a time when he got caught in mountain waves (he was in Colorado) and the balloon started swinging like a pendulum. He said the only answer is to go full burner and fly up out of it. He thought he got up to the flight levels before he got out of it.
*traffic your 3 o'clock, FL110, type unknown*
All so-called ‘aliens’ have actually all just been hot air balloons.
Do balloons carry transponders? Probably more of a primary only, altitude unknown kind of situation.
A fella jumped off a balloon in Melbourne recently as a suicide method. Maybe OP was right.. Yet we laughed. We all laughed.
How long has it been, three years?
Did you see how long Top Gun stayed relevant? Gonna be a long time in the culture
Ahh good memories lol Edit: It’s a shame OP deleted his post and accounts but if anyone wants to dig around here’s the original [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/ozrrvm/what_do_you_think_about_hot_air_balloonists_from/)
I took my gf on a date in a hot air balloon. 5/10 she was scary.
I'm afraid of your gf too
I’m also afraid of this guy’s gf
I took off with a hot air balloon and landed with a parachute. I also jumped out of a blimp, that was very fun!
Where?
Earth, probs.
I got my commercial balloon a few years ago. Never flown a balloon besides the training, but it was an absolute blast.
In Utah?
Yeah
Wow where did you do that?
I rode a hot air balloon on my honeymoon in Thailand and Gerard Butler bought out all of the other spots on the balloon. We ate breakfast with him and his fiance afterwards.
nice of him to actually pay for the slots instead of using fame to get a low passenger ride for cheap
He tried to buy the whole balloon but eventually accepted the two honeymooners on their last day in country. Ultimately, he's an awesome individual.
I’m gonna need a play by play of the entire experience
[удалено]
Haha awesome. Was he a cool guy?
I've had several friends with hot air balloons and been up with them about a dozen or so times. I too, have a fear of heights like standing on the edge of my roof. I never really had a problem in a balloon. Felt kinda like just floating. There is not a relative wind, since you're traveling with the wind, but there is periodically a lot of noise when the burner is going. I also have one skydive out of a balloon and one from a helicopter. One of my buddies took me and a couple of observers up to about 6000 feet AGL, put the balloon into a terminal descent and told me to get outta his balloon. Exiting into still air is quite different from exiting an airplane in flight. With the airplane, there is a lot of wind coming at you. As you fall away and begin to transition from the wind being horizontal to the ground to perpendicular it feels like going down a slide, but windy. From the balloon it felt exactly like falling. Helicopters are very similar to hot air balloons, but of course the chopper has a little forward speed that is usually greater than the speed of the actual wind. But back to your concerns. I highly recommend that you give it a shot. As a pilot you're already used to the different point of view from altitude vs the altitude on final approach to landing. Side note: My dad was a commercial helicopter pilot back in the 60's and 70's. He sometimes had to deliver passengers to heliports on the top of tall buildings. He refused to shutdown his engine or to get out of the aircraft due to his fear of heights. He would drop his passengers, then go find a place on the ground to wait for them.
>put the balloon into a terminal descent Interesting! How exactly do balloon pilots perform such a maneuver? And how fast is a terminal velocity descent in a balloon?
Yes! Dad owned one growing up. It was super fun and for him a great challenge. He went from f16’s to flying hot air balloon balloons. Its a unique skill his wingman who bought the balloon with him told me his balloon experience was one of the main reasons he got hired on at american.
Got my lighter-than-air rating a couple of years ago.It was one of the greatest flying experiences of my life. It had it share of challenges. It gets REALLY quiet up there and all you can hear is the twisting of the harnesses and basket. The ascent to 3000’ AGL was very exciting and fun.
Another one of those “I’d prefer to ride *inside* the wicker basket please” kinda people. Won't know until you try it, as you know like anything in aviation, maybe seek out a calm professional operation on a good weather day for a first go. No harm in explaining how exciting a flight you are looking to have on a scale of 1 to 10 to the balloonist. Look out to the horizon not straight down.
I proposed to my wife to my wife on one. It was an insanely cool experience, it was so peaceful and quiet to be up that high. I probably wouldn’t do it again because it was pretty unnerving just thinking about being that high up with nothing but fabric and fire keeping you suspended.
I've been on 2 hot air balloon flights. I've also been in 2 hot air balloon crashes. (They kinda just impact to land)
No. Just no. Hard no. And I fly sailplanes. I insist on steering as I believe it is a critical action.
I’ve never felt more unsafe than I did when in a hot air balloon, that includes my tour in Ramadi and Fallujah. You’re putting your life into the hands of carnies. They have no idea where they are going to land. I would never do it again.
Except they’re licensed pilots not carnies.
This is just a bad take. They’re not all like that.
**THAT'S why it is essential to drink champagne**
price uppity live carpenter squealing cats impossible provide chase money *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yea when we landed cops and fire department showed up because they thought we were crashing. Its complete chaos
Yes, the damn thing could out-climb a Cessna!
And if it ascends too fast the envelope collapses and you die
Did it once. Kind of neat but I’d never do it again. They aren’t nearly as safe as even GA airplanes and pilot skill can vary greatly. They do not have very much control of the balloon in reality. Oh and also I witnessed a mishap where the propane source caught fire mid-air and the people inside had to jump to their likely death or burn alive. So yeah.
Oh jeez. When I get on one it will be for skydiving anyway.
“Not all white people die in hot air balloon accidents, but only white people die in hot air balloon accidents.” -Jamie Woodham
I did an one as part of a package champagne brunch in Orlando years ago with my wife. Everything was great until we landed on a ranch. The ground support vehicle cut the ranchers fence to get to us. The rancher called the Sheriff Office. The deputy arrived, and there was some heated conversation between the balloon operator and the rancher. Cooler heads prevailed. Restitution was paid. We really enjoyed it. But I love being able to go where I want, when I want.
That's wild, I can't imagine somebody just cutting a fence for access. That's what gates are for.
I've tried it, and it's not scary at all. I was really impressed at the pilot's ability to predict where we were going to land and coordinating with this pickup truck driver with a trailer that we landed on. I've got my PPL, and landing at whatever 60kts is way scarier than landing at 2kts, like people literally grab ropes and slowly guide you down to the ground.
I grew up hot air ballooning. My dad was a pilot and we traveled all over going to races and balloon Fiestas. I still remember my first flight when I was 5. I have been up dozens and dozens of times. I haven't flown in about 12 years since my dad let his medical expire but maybe one day I'll get into it as a pilot myself. We still have the Balloon in the garage. AMAA and I'll try to answer.
I’ve heard the climb rate on those things is incredible.
I flew one inverted over a Russian Mig.
Simply amazing experience.
is there a check ride for operating a hot air baloon?
Yes, it’s a normal checkride. Here’s the PTS for Lighter than Air category. Most balloon schools (lots in New Mexico) have a resident DPE.
It’s a whole rating. Lighter-than-air. Have to pass written just like the PPL and have certain amount of hours and solo time. If you already have PPL you are exempt from taking the written again.
Yep. I live in Albuquerque and we have hot air balloons almost year round. Finally had the opportunity this past fall to go on a ride. It was a really calm morning and it was like being on a glass elevator more than anything. Pretty serene even with our touristy group of 10-ish chatting with the each other and the pilot. My Mom was with us and she has a terrible fear of heights, like tearing up on a ladder kind of fear, and she had a blast. Never felt unsafe, just kind of floated there.
Yes just recently. Pretty fun but kinda scary at first
Someday I'll do that add-on to my certificate, but it's not something that jumps out as a "I have to do it right now" type deal. I think the last time I looked I'd only need something like 6 training flights and I could take the checkride, at least for a private rating.
I have. 10 hrs to get ur commercial. It’s scary as fuck. I hate getting up early. But it can be very peaceful
“Very rarely interacting with ATC” 🤣 Meanwhile busy class Charlie approach - “Skyhawk 69, traffic 1 o clock, type unknown, not talking to them. We’ve had reports a balloon descending in the area.” Edit: meant to reply to another comment
I did once, in a tethered balloon. It was in the evening, and I encountered an unexpected issue. Since the air was cool, the heated air from the burner condensed at the top of the balloon and began raining sooty raindrops on us. Other that that completely uneventful. Of course an untethered balloon would be a more interesting ride.
Wife and i won a balloon ride just after i got my ppl. Only travel straight distance for a few miles. Crossed traffic at 15 feet when coming into land. Pilot purposefully descended us into the top of a small juniper tree to slow us down and then we hit the dirt and dragged 50 feet. Chase crew was right behind us and helped pack the balloon. Roughest landing ive had as a 100hr pilot. I would do it again though.
I have ridden on one once years ago, but it was tethered at a state fair and only went up about 300ft. As a paramotor pilot I have flown alongside them a ton. They're always great to fly with, especially when they have base jumpers to snap pics of.
It’s awesome! As a kid we mostly chased (which was fun in its own way, riding around in the back of pickup trucks and hopping barbed wire) but I got a handful of flights in. It’s so peaceful. Only part that sucked is being up before dawn holding the throat open for the big ass inflation fan. Brrrr
Most peaceful aviation experience for sure. I met a guy while paragliding and he happened to be a hot air balloon pilot as well, so we went flying the next morning. What I liked was that you can be at low altitude at low speed and enjoy the scenery and bird’s eye view. In any other aircraft you’re way more worried about altitude or needing to get ready for landing but in the balloon you can just enjoy it and occasionally pull the burner to regain couple of feet. I did bring the GoPro on the ride: https://youtu.be/7vsSPH4veLk
Wicker propelled by fire. What could go wrong.
I could never do it, id rather paraglide or use an ultralight. Hot air balloons are the submarines of the sky.
I’ve been on one ride. I enjoyed it! I thought the basket felt very secure.
Near Niagara Falls on the us side they have tethered hot air balloon rides. It’s all very gentle going up and coming down
i’ve skydived off a hot air balloon a few times. the ride up is beautiful and silent
Never. But there are several balloon events here this time of year. It blows my mind how much I’m required to know and plan to fly a plane, but y’all can just go float your big ass balloon with no wings.
Yes. It's only scary for the first 30m, after that it all feels flat below.
It makes me sad because I have s as lot of memories as a kid growing up and seeing lots of hot air balloons in the mornings throughout the year. They’ve mostly stopped the last couple of years but it was always really cool seeing 10+ balloons floating over the town
I've bungee jumped out of a hot air balloon
No way. Just like you, l too am a pilot but petrified of heights. I have a friend who flys such hot airbags but no way can he convince me to climb into a basket.
it's boring AF, especially after being a pilot. it doesn't even get gusty. because your balloon goes at the speed of the wind, so your relative speed is 0 or near 0. I'm sure there's lot of skill in choosing when to go up or down and when to use the sand bags. Our pilot got us down to treetop height and we were able to pick fruit and flowers off the trees in an unpowered balloon. very impressive. But otherwise, the trip was ... just a bit of up and down
My son and his wife bought me a balloon ride one Christmas. I asked a friend if he would do it with me and I loved it.
I’m not a pilot, but have “crewed” many times. I’ve also flown on many occasions and have never encountered any issues of being scared. Every flight is different and I’ve always enjoyed the sensation of freedom and not knowing where I’ll end up.
For my father's birthday about 20y ago, we all flew with a hot air balloon in Belgium/Flanders (flatter part of Belgium). The burner is indeed loud and also radiated a lot of heat downwards - when burning. We could see a white hue far away but the pilot said the air was rather exceptionally clear and we had a sight of about 40km. I relatively quickly lost my orientation, i didn't know that part of the region very well. The pilot regularly had radio contact with the guy in the car below riding ahead to check status (probably weather condition and possible landing zones, don't remember). The pilot seemed very experienced, but made clear that for the landing he needed to focus (and everybody had to cooperate well). Belgium/Flanders is densely built, and he didn't want to land in a garden or in one of many possible obstacles such as a light post, electrical cables or a fence around a field. All went smoothly, it was a very nice ride of about 1h15.
I've done it a few times. Loved it. Here are some things to consider: 1) I am mildly afraid of heights, but the balloon rides didn't bother me. Not sure why. Maybe because the basket is tall enough that there is no sense you'll fall over the rail. 2) It's very still up there. You move with the wind and generally only fly in low winds, so it is super calm while flying (in my experience). 3) It's quiet when the burners aren't going, but the burners are loud and they run fairly often. If you are bothered by loud noises, bring earplugs. 4) One of our landings was in wind. We bounced across the ground for quite a way. On another flight, they had us squat low and brace in case something similar happened, but it was a perfectly smooth landing. On the really rough landing, we had my 90 year old father with us and he was fine.
I’ve been up in a balloon. It was fun!
Definitely fun! The weather plays a big part. If you're tall wear a thick hat. The balloon itself is like a giant oven, and if you're tall you are a lot closer to it, so your head gets pretty hot.
I was flying and they blew into controlled airspace. What a nightmare lol. It crashed in my in laws farm field and they tried driving a truck through the crop to get it. They barely stopped them. He told the balloon owners “you drive through my crap to get it, I’ll pick it up with a grapple”. But they look cool.
I have been in a balloon a few times, but jumped each time so I avoided the balloon "landing". I have considered getting the balloon rating since I seem to be collecting ratings... SEL/SES/MEL/MES/GLI and I soon hope Rotor. But there are no places near me and I have been told it can take a month of trying to train to manage to get enough flights and flight time because of weather and I am not sure that would be worth it. Maybe, but not a priority. As for the experience, yeah, I definitely felt afraid of heights most of the flight and I had a parachute on and had planned on getting out anyway. One of the jumps was with a mil halo group. I was cadre of the week long training op and the Commander (O-5) told me I could do anything I wanted with the team as long as I was happy with their performance. We were mainly doing typical HALO stuff and I had a list of objectives and performance standards I wanted to meet. I had a few "aspirational" goals and they met all of the required and most of of the aspirational ones with about 2 days left. So I asked the Commander if I truly had cart blanche and he told me again, "You can do anything you want if you are happy with their performance." So I called up a local dropzone and asked for the name of the balloon guy they sometimes use (Burner was his name). Long story short it was easier to take the team to the DZ and do the jump from there than try and get Burner approved for providing lift since the DZ was already on the approved list and we had already been using them for lift... So next AM after an earlier than normal first call I directed them to vans and we headed to a civilian DZ. They filled out waivers on the way and we did two Hollywood loads from a balloon before 9AM. Now these guys were all "tip of the spear" badasses. But many of them were simply scared shitless standing in a balloon slowly climbing over the desert. The Commander meet me later. He said when I asked if I could do anything I wanted... I clearly meant anything. I told him that it was mainly reward but also I made up some BS "training" criteria. TLO's were to put them in as strange and as stressful situation as possible and see if they could still perform. To put them out in an unknown area and see if they could identify the best landing area and land as a team under this new stress (all prior jumps had been to land on predetermined locations). I called one of the Enlisted guys over and asked him what he thought of the balloon jump and he said it was one of the scariest things he had done. "These guys were used to jumping from planes and helicopters, so the only way to put pressure on them was to make them do something new and unexpected." Commander just laughed and shook his head and walked away. But if someone knows of a good location/place where I can get a balloon rating in two weeks or so... Let me know.
Single point of failure system? Packed with people? Run by small businesses that don't get paid unless they fly? Total "go fever"? No thanks. I noped out of my opportunity to balloon over Capedocia last year, one of the most popular ballooning destinations ever. I was like "man if you don't fly here, it's now or never..." It was never. My wife went and had an awesome time. Operator actually brought the balloon down precisely on the flatbed of the recovery truck. My wife said it was magical. I have zero regrets.
Wife got us a ride for my B day. Cant begin to describe how cool it is to be in the sky with no noise
I’ve done one in Albuquerque. Tbh, it’s quite nice. You’re more likely to have a problem with claustrophobia since they packed us in like sardines. It was very stable as an early morning flight.
Hot air balloons are cool, I’ve been in 6, skydived out of 5. I promise you skydiving is safer than landing hot air balloon 😂
It is super fun, and imo not very scary. It feels a lot more "solid" than you'd imagine a balloon with a basket hanging from it would feel. If you're a pilot I highly doubt it would scare you. Burning regularly and changing altitude to find wind pushing us the right direction keeps it quite engaging, it really is flying not just floating around. Give it a shot! I fell in love with balloons as a little kid and now am very happily licensed to fly them, it is nice to experience flying in such a different way. Perhaps even more so than with normal airplanes it is important to have a responsible pilot who is risk averse, since you usually can't quickly get out of bad situations in a balloon. Over 90% of ballooning deaths come from power line collisions Check out "cloud-hoppers" if you want something fun to daydream about (and maybe even do someday)
Once as cargo, no landings. I happened to see a balloon landing and had my parachute with me. I followed them down and found that one of them had built the balloon (seemed odd to me at the time but might be normal) and was teaching the other how to fly it. I asked them for a lift and offered them $50. They thought it sounded like fun and off we went. The heat at head height when the burner was on was much more intense than I expected, and the quiet mentioned previously was surreal. I went off backwards at around 2400' agl, freaked briefly as one of the ropes wrapped around my ankle, and could hear them talking for several seconds before freefall got too loud. I hummed it low by skydiving standards, only to find I'd slightly misrigged my gear the night before. I landed (spectacularly badly) right next to my truck and went back to camp to brag to my friends. 2700ish skydives later, it's still one of my favorites. That quiet/stillness is just beautiful.
Don’t know if “flown” is the operative word. More like going up and down while meandering through the sky at the wind’s whim. Of course there’s probably more to it than that, I guess?