Being a hot air balloon pilot takes some skill. Although the controls look simple enough, flying a hot air balloon can be a very tricky procedure. Depending on the weather and the passengers involved in the flight, the pilot needs to take a lot of factors into account.

To lift the hot air balloon, the pilot adjusts a control that opens the propane valve. As the lever is adjusted, so is the flame. The pilot can increase the vertical speed of the hot air balloon by creating a larger flame to heat the air more rapidly. In addition to this lever, most hot air balloons have a second lever. This lever burns the propane in liquid form rather than gas form and is used mostly over areas where noise levels are best to be kept at a minimum. Areas such as this would be game farms where you are flying over animals either at a drinking hole or on the hunt. At the top of the hot air balloon, there is a cord to open the parachute valve. When the pilot pulls the attached cord, some of the hot air escapes, decreasing the inner air temperature. This causes the hot air balloon to slowly descend.

Now that you understand how the pilot moves the hot air balloon up and down, your next question would be “how do you steer the balloon?”. With wind blowing in different directions at different altitudes, the pilot has to make use of this by adjusting the height of the hot air balloon. Consequently, when adjusting the height, the pilot can control which direction the balloon travels. Of course, this means that the pilot cannot have complete control over the direction of the balloon at all times, but an experienced pilot learns to deal with these wind changes and uses it to his advantage. Very rarely will you find that the pilot will be able to land the hot air balloon at the exact spot of where you took off and in some cases, ground crew are available to help the balloon land where needed.

As you have just found out, flying a hot air balloon is not as easy as you first thought. Eddie from Air to Air Africa has over 23 years and over 2000 hours of flying experience. Eddie is qualified as a balloon pilot in Austria and has flown extensively over Asia and Europe. To find out how Eddie can be your pilot and make your flight a memorable event, contact us on 084 602 3491 or send an email to fly@airtoairafrica.co.za

Air to Air Africa has a host of packages that cater for all hot air balloon enthusiasts. To find out more about these packages, click here

<< back to articles

Tags: air to air africa, balloon pilot, flying experience, hot air balloon, hot air balloon enthusiasts