[ELI5] how do hot air balloons even work? How do they know where they’re going without steering?
In: 846
Wie and I did a ride a while ago and it’s kinda wild. They just follow the currents and have a vague idea of where they’ll end up. But it’s all a crapshoot. There’s a ground crew in a van that tracks them in real time and keeps them in sight.
Landing is the other fun part. They’ll fly until they get to a good landing spot. Ours was not a planned landing spot and I assume that’s very common. So we landed in a random school’s soccer field while some kids were practicing.
It made their day and I’m sure they’re still telling the story of the time they were playing and a hot air balloon crash landed in front of them.
oh, that’s the other thing. There’s no real “landing”, you essentially crash land. It wasn’t like jarring and horrifying. Just a rougher landing than you’d expect.
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