Landing a hot air balloon is both an art and a science. The science is getting the balloon to the ground with a soft landing, the art is having happy land owners and spot with easy access for balloon retrieval.
The Flight
Last weekend we had a flight where we flew over the White River in Auburn, Washington and used a steep decent in order to quickly descend through multiple wind layers to get to our landing spot. We came down at 700ft per minute and put some heat into the balloon about 120ft above the ground. The balloon decent evened out 10 ft above the ground allowing the trees to block all the wind around us.
Chatting With The Property Owner
The property owner came out of his house enamored by the hot air balloon. Although he said we could land on his property, the wind moved us to a perfect spot on the road right next to his fenced in yard.
We came right over the fence and landed the balloon softly on the side of the road. Whenever you land a hot air balloon, people show up. Over ten people came out of their homes to see the balloon up close.
How we see it is the more people show up, the more help we have! Over the next 10 minutes, we deflated the balloon, packed it up, and put everything away in the trailer.
The Last thing we needed to do was open a delicious bottle of champagne and toast to a perfect hot air balloon ride adventure.
