[ELI5] how do hot air balloons even work? How do they know where they’re going without steering?

Question

[ELI5] how do hot air balloons even work? How do they know where they’re going without steering?

In: 846

Answer 1

A couple things

-Hot air balloon pilots are actual licensed pilots. There’s quite a bit of training and certification to earn and maintain these quals.

-Sticking to take-off locations where the weather patterns are consistent

-real-time weather analysis in the wind column. There are actual apps available that tell you real time info of the weather at altitude. With this knowledge, one can calculate approximations based on probabilities and steer in the weather column as others have elluded to.