How to steer hot air balloon?

June 9, 2021

Very often before a hot air balloon flight, passengers ask: “So, where are we going to land?”. We jokingly reply: “We’ll tell you when we’ve landed.” Then, of course, questions arise—does the pilot have no control over the balloon at all, or how does it all work? They do, and then some.

Alright then, how do you steer a hot air balloon so it goes where you want it to? Technically, a balloon isn’t steered, but with good preparation for the flight and by reviewing enough weather forecast models, you can get a general idea of the wind direction and speed trends at different altitudes. Based on this, we choose launch sites so that the flight is as scenic as possible. For example, so that in Trakai we fly over Trakai Castle, and in Vilnius over the Old Town.

From the very first minutes of the flight, the pilot begins to decide where they might land. Even looking at one of our most recent flights: we took off, and high up at an altitude of 1500m, the direction was towards Vaidotai and Pagiriai (residents of Vilnius likely know those areas), while lower down, the wind was carrying us towards large forests and swamps. All the pilots, without even coordinating with each other, flew high for a long time to “carry themselves” over to the meadows around Pagiriai, then descended and landed safely and beautifully right where they planned.

Sometimes it happens that a pilot spots a beautiful meadow from afar—wild bushes and various colors reveal that it’s not a cultivated field, so we can land there peacefully. In such cases, you can focus on aiming for it. Sometimes even a 100-meter difference in altitude means the wind is a few degrees different—it might carry you more to the right at the top and more to the left at the bottom, or vice versa. By deciding to aim in time and working it well, you can land with meter-level precision.

So yes, a balloon only flies as the winds allow, but a good pilot must know how to make use of what Nature offers them today.

Visi įrašai

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