# Hot air balloon launch site recommendations

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-air-balloon-launch-site-recommendations/755851>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 27, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-air-balloon-launch-site-recommendations/755851 "2016-05-27T19:25:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![AmeliaEarhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@AmeliaEarhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmeliaEarhart)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-air-balloon-launch-site-recommendations/755851/1 "2016-05-27T19:25:36Z")

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Hello! I’m trying to launch my first hot air balloon. I live in the NYC area. Does any one know any good launch sites? I need the balloon to land on flat land and I’m not looking to go more than three hours away to retrieve it.

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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2016, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-air-balloon-launch-site-recommendations/755851/2 "2016-05-27T19:46:31Z")

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You may do better starting a new thread to ask that question. Unless you head to Kansas I don’t think there’s any way to guarantee your balloon will land on flat land within 3 hours of NYC.

Do you have any more details about this balloon?

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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2016, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-air-balloon-launch-site-recommendations/755851/3 "2016-05-27T20:19:55Z")

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**Moderator Note**

The OP and **TriPolar** ’s response were originally posted to this thread:

> **[High altitude balloon project](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=789464)**
>
> I’ve been itching to do something fun, interesting, and crazy but lack of time and circumstances keep getting in the way. I think I found something doable though. I want to send a balloon up to high altitude with a cell phone to take pictures and...

I split them out into a separate thread and have moved this to IMHO so that people can give advice about launch sites and anything else related to the balloon launch.

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**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2016, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-air-balloon-launch-site-recommendations/755851/4 "2016-05-28T11:20:57Z")

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Where did you launch when you got your training? And what do you mean, “retrieve it”? Hot air balloons have a chase vehicle that follows the balloon and picks it and the passengers up. 3 hours is a pretty long flight for a normal hot air balloon.