[ELI5] how do hot air balloons even work? How do they know where they’re going without steering?
In: 846
Basically they don’t steer, they just follow air currents. Funny enough, for this reason, the US Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) spell out that balloons have the right of way over all other aircraft categories because they are the least maneuverable. Only aircraft in distress have the right of way over balloons. That’s pretty meaningless though to a balloon pilot that can’t get out of the way anyway.
Source: 14 CFR § 91.113
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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