I’ve heard people say things like they choose a wind current or something, but that sounds so imprecise and doesn’t make a lot of sense… Like I’ve heard the wind moving in different directions at different elevations? But when you get close to whatever field you’re trying to land in what happens if the wind starts blowing you a different direction?
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The only steering is controlling your elevation.
Before hot air balloons launch they look at all the atmospheric winds. Big events will start studying patterns days in advance.
At higher altitudes the wind direction does not change much; prevailing winds are pretty predictable….So much of the worry is at lower altitudes: how fast to ascend or descend
If the wind starts blowing in a different direction close to the ground, the balloon goes in that direction. The pilot can try to increase their altitude to not hit the ground in that direction but that’s about it. The balloon goes where the wind goes.
The pilot doesn’t steer. They can choose to go up, or go down. That is it. They will drift wherever the wind takes them. The wind can blow in different directions at different heights so it might be possible to go in the general direction they want but precise steering is impossible.
This is why a balloon flight is not a solo activity. They need a ground crew with a truck to be able to drive to wherever they land. They might generally know which way they are going to go but they won’t know exactly where they will land until the pilot decides the field he is headed towards looks like a good choice.
A hot air balloon is controlled (exactly as the name implies) by hot air. You fill the entire balloon with hot air, so that it rises up into the colder air. You heat the air with gas burners, kind of like an overgrown version of a gas stove or a gas setup for BBQ:ing.
If you want to cool the balloon down, there is a valve at the top of the balloon. If you open it up, you let hot air out.
Hot balloon goes up. Cold balloon goes down.
This means that a hot air balloons means of navigation is to slowly heat itself up, so that it can slowly rise up. Or open the valve at the top to quite a lot quicker go down.
In it’s absolute basic sense, this means that you can rise the balloon up, fly in the direction the wind is blowing, and land somewhere in the general direction you are ending up in.
All balloon companies that offer rides for safaris or whatever kind of leisure riding, they have pre-arranged rights to go up in different locations so that they can choose to pass by their desired passing points and land somewhere on the other side.
Somewhat more complicating things, wind can also blow in different directions at different heights. You can check this by releasing a small helium-filled balloon, watch it rise and look for in which direction it takes off. This usually doesn’t mean that wind will take off in the entirely opposite direction, but it can be the difference between going north or going west.
Some balloons also have the capability to somewhat change their shape, so that the wind rotates the balloon and gently makes it fly in a different direction to where the wind is blowing. This is also not entirely bullet proof, but still a good idea.
Either way, this means that hot air balloons have their own special aviation rules. Everyone else, and I really mean *everyone* else in the skies have better navigational abilities and need to make way for the balloons. This, of course, means that balloons are often banned entirely, because of their lack of navigational ability.
> what happens if the wind starts blowing you a different direction?
Well, the balloon pilot has two options to choose from. Burn gas to slowly rise. Or release hot air, to swiftly go down. If rising slow means that you risk hitting an obstacle (which could be anything from a mountain to a building), the only option you have left is to quickly try to land before that happens.
For this reason, you prefer to have a bit of height, so that you actually HAVE two options.
But once you have committed to the idea of landing, it better play out exactly as you have planned.
Since landing also requires that a land crew catches up and helps with packing and transporting, you can make use of the landing crew. They too can send up a small helium balloon and check the wind directions right above the intended landing site, to eliminate undesired surprises.
A hot air balloon that misses its designated landing position is, legally speaking, a crash landing air craft without any casualties. The balloon operator has insurances that coves the loss of crop and what else the land owner gets upset about after the fact, but there is technically speaking nothing they can do about it except eat the fact that they had a balloon landing on their land and that they will be reimbursed for financial burden.
Landing in pastures can be complicated if all the cows are early in their pregnancies, because stress can make them refuse the foetus prematurely…so that is typically not a desired choice unless you absolutely have no other choice available.
The only thing you can do is change your altitude such that you move with the direction of the wind.
However because drag is the only force driving this change, you can’t really control your “turning radius”, so it is very limited control.
They basically wait for the wind conditions to be as favorable as possible for their intended course. They plan them out way in advance, it’s not like a dune buggy or something where you can just go for a rip whenever you feel like it
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