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It is a beautiful sensation! One soars through the air as free as the breeze--and quite certain to go only where the "wind bloweth where it listeth!"
I have gone ballooning in several rather unique environments, but probably the best would be almost next door. I have a neighbor about three blocks over who has the "Serenity" balloon you see here, each with distinctive colors and their own teams of support and chase vehicles. When you call his phone (the number is "926--2FLY", of course) you will be greeted by the stirring strains of Pachelbel Canon D--the theme of the first of the IMAX movies for the Air and Space Museum--which Michael had seen a record two dozen times. We have made several reservations, many more than we have taken, since a big balloon is very sensitive to weather and wind, and a wind of ten miles per hour--hardly a dawn breeze--is too dangerous to launch. The launches are almost always in the chill of dawn, not only when the air is still, but also when the cool air will be dense relative to the hot air blasted by the propane within the balloon, giving tremendous lift.
The envelope--the Montgolfier balloon is a large (this one is 156,000 cubic feet) cylinder of double ripstop polymer--which is blown open by a large fan. Only after the walls of the cylinder rise enough to get out of the way of the jet of the propane burners does the flame thrower come on, heating the air, and forcing the cylinder upright, with a large parachute that rises to occlude the open top of the envelope. Pulling the shrouds of the chute allows escaping hot air to rush out with some control, allowing descent. Passengers are loaded into the gondola basket, and with a final castoff of the tether and the propane hissing into the sunrise sky, it is "Up, Up and Away!"
Here you see Michael and me waving at the launch as we ascend into the March dawn over the Maryland countryside.
Now what may not be apparent until one is aloft, is that the balloon travels WITH the breeze, so that there is no sensation of wind with which you are traveling. In fact, a match held in your fingers does not flicker, despite the fact that you are moving rather silently but swiftly along with the air, not through it. When one encounters a static air column--as in flying low over trees--sailing THROUGH this static air gives the sensation of a relative breeze. It is eerily magnificent!
What one would not like to do with any other form of aircraft (don't try this with your 747) is come down low enough and actually brush the treetops with the gondola--very carefully--to slow the speed, or to "hop" over obstructions like mountain ridges, in riding thermals.
In the early spring in Maryland, there were two wonderful anecdotes about wildlife watching from this balloon I will relate. One ballooning site that may be even more spectacular as a perch for viewing wildlife is over the Serengeti or Masai Mara in East Africa (but, remember, you do not "steer" this craft to see something "over there", but resign yourself to going, once again, with the flow!) We had come down over the trees as dawn had flared behind us, and the trees were in bud without any major leaf cover to obstruct our view. We came over a large nest, and as we silently swooped over it, four little owl chicks gaped up at us with mouths wide open hoping we would be dropping in to feed them!
The second relates to a group of deer in the corner of a field near a woodlot. The sun had come up now, and the deer were coming back from their nocturnal foray into the woodland cover. As we floated over them, it appeared to them that the sun had suddenly set again, and they looked startled. But deer have no natural predators that come at them from the sky so they do not characteristically look UP (why else would hunters set up in treestands?) As they were puzzled--and as we were drifting closer to the woods--we turned on the gas jets to gain altitude, and the "Whoosh" of the propane burners alarmed them. They began to run, but could not determine where the sound was coming from, and never did look up, but began running around in circles! As we gained altitude, the sun "came up again" for them, and they went back to browsing again, never quite figuring out who pulled down the shades.
After sailing along in majestic silence, with only occasional radio contact with the chase crew (who need a four-wheel drive vehicle and good county road maps!) we can rendezvous with other balloonists or play "hare and hounds" using different vectors and speeds of air currents at different altitudes, but eventually we have to think about going down. Every landing with a balloon is a trespass. The Montgolfier brothers discovered this as they came down in their hot air balloon, and were set upon as devilish sprites by an irate crowd of French peasantry armed with pitchforks. "How do we convince you that we are Frenchmen, just like yourselves? Ah, voila!" and they pulled out their picnic lunch and pulled the cork on a bottle of champagne. "See? We are French, too!" It eased the embarrassment of aerial invasion for the Montgolfier brothers and continues as a tradition today for the same purpose, with most balloonists having their own champagne label with the colorful balloon pictured as a souvenir for the farmer, so that when he tells the story of his heavenly guests who dropped in, he will have something tangible to prove his sobriety at the time of the incident.
One more point about landing--quite apart from the obvious avoiding pastures with a large and irritable bull or their plentiful leavings--that may not be so obvious. When the balloon touches down, it often hops several times, as the gondola may be down, but the balloon above it is still moving in the air. If the passengers think to themselves "Well, now, we have landed, and here is where I get out!" and hop out, just what do you expect would happen to the balloon which is trying to negotiate a delicate landing at that point? Anyone who jettisons will have ample opportunity to hear about it from the fellow passengers or crew who are now floating far over head!
Ah, "Champagne and Propane, Breakfast of Balloonists!"