setting up an hot air balloon

In my post on last Tuesday I proposed to write a post on how to set up a balloon. And, here it is.

A balloon consists of the basket, that’s the passengers compartment of the balloon, and the balloon itself. The basket is usually woven from willow branches. The balloon is made from a lightweight fabric. Both parts are transported with a special trailer.

First you get the basket and the sack containing the balloon from the trailer and attach the basket to the car to fix it and hinder it from flying away. Next you unpack the fabric, spread it on the ground and attach it to the basket.

In case you got the OK to prepare your start, fill the balloon with (cold) air by using a ventilator. At last you put hot air in the balloon by using the gas torch. Now a dangerous phase begins, because the helper have to hold the balloon open and have to avoid any contact of the balloon fabric and the flame. While the air inside the balloon heats up, the balloon begins to become lighter than the surrounding air and takes slowly up. The basket is lift by the balloon and the passengers can enter the basket to start their flight.

The hotter the air inside the balloon, the lighter it becomes. So, the temperature regulates the height and the wind sets speed and direction. Gone with the wind!

The sun heats the air over the ground. And that’s one reason for wind. But, wind makes ballooning dangerous.  So, hot air balloons usually start  in the early morning before the wind starts or in the late afternoon, when the wind already has stopped. A flight is about 60 to 90 minutes, because of the limited amount of gas on board.

Only hot air

Even this is part of a German saying and describing what a bragger produces, the title fits perfectly for today’s post.

On Friday afternoon I attended another Ballooning Festival. This time I was in Kevelar, in the lower Rhine area. It was a small festival compared to the Warstein International Montgolfiade, I attended last September.  ‘Only’ 20 balloons and 8 model balloons were in Kevelar. But, it was a very relaxed atmosphere and it was easy to come in touch with the pilots. This time we were able to take photographs even while setting up the balloons. So, I have some very impressive photographs in the gallery. Enjoy!

I also recommend, paying attention on how big a balloon really is, compared to an adult human.

I split this post in 3 parts. This first part is for giving an overview. In the second part I’ll show the setting up of a balloon and the third part is for the night glow. That’s always the most impressive part of such a balloon festival. In case, there is one in your region, I’d definitely go and watch it.

We had a wonderful, sunny and warm day. Unfortunately we had a quite strong, choppy wind that cased the balloons to delay their start for about an hour. Finally the balloons were allowed to start. But not all of the balloons were able to start their flight. Suddenly heavy gusts came up again and pushed the remaining balloons back to the ground. One of the model balloons escaped from his owner and flew alone and unmanned over the next street. Fortunately the owner was able to catch it soon. The escape didn’t last long – pew! The other balloons in up in the  air were save.

No-one was hurt, so enjoy the colorful balloons. 🙂

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