So long as the air is ramming up into the envelope as you descend, once you start spiraling, you won’t go any faster. Terminal velocity as described in my previous post is on the order of 30-35 mph, which is rough but survivable.
Lose that ram effect, or lose integrity at the top, and terminal velocity approaches 90 MPH. Bend over and kiss your ass goodbye…
FWIW, I had 2 accidents in the short time I flew. One time I hit a power line on landing, and the other time I came down in high wind into a field of tall grass, and hit a stump which punctured the basket and broke my instructor’s ankle. Ouch. I quit flying not long after that, not because of the personal accidents, but because a different accident in Florida killed 5 people and caused the insurance to be more than I could afford.
Okay, I’ve been around balloons since 1981 as a crew member, pilot, son of a very accomplished pilot, and son of a balloon manufacturer.
3 things will get you into trouble:
Power lines
Trees, or any other tall stationary object
Something piercing one of the propane tanks (bullet).
That’s about it. Occasionally you’ll hear about freak accidents that are a result of mid air collisions with other aircraft, or a massive tear in the fabric, but they don’t keep pilots up at night.
Other things:
Hot air balloons don’t really have mooring lines. I’ve never heard of someone in a balloon carrying off a person who was holding on to a rope. Also, you don’t just land by “shutting your burner down”. All modern balloons have parachute tops that can be used to quickly descend.
Burners almost never malfunction in mid flight. They are so conceptually simple that it’s hard to break one. Plus, they have backup systems.
Balloons always launch upwind from tall objects. Why a reporter would ask such a stupid question is beyond me. The real problem with the guy hitting the tower (happened to an acquaintance in the 80s) was that he didn’t fly over the damn thing.
This may be a really silly question coming from a professional flight instructor, but here goes…
I’ve always heard “lift” defined as a fluid (air) moving over a surface and creating a force perpendicular to it. That’s not what’s really happening to a hot air balloon. Wouldn’t it be more correct to describe it as a type of buoyancy?
I took care of a handful of folks a few years back who took a 30 foot tumble out of the basket of a hot air balloon which had struck some high power lines. They were banged up pretty good; as I recall, at least one of the conscious ones told me they sort of jumped out b/c the burner was turned sideways with the basket and burning through the ropes as well as threatening to burn them. Since I thought the activation of the burner was manual, I was never sure exactly what he meant, but eventually the whole basket did fall, and the balloon soared off for about ten miles still tethered to the burner.
Their injuries were severe and permanantly disabling. The only reason any of them lived was that they landed on fairly soft ground.
Per the newspaper, anyway (the pilot had severe head injuries and was not conscious) it was an unexpected gust of wind that blew them into the lines. It was a windy day, and in fact I also took care of another patient from a second balloon accident from the same launch that gave another guy a fracture/dislocation of the ankle. In that one, the basket tilted suddenly right before launch.
The paper probably got it wrong. Balloonists don’t take off in windy weather. Not to say that the wind could have increased in the hour they were aloft, as that has been known to happen. However, it certainly wouldn’t have been gusty enough to cause a basket to tip over prior to take off. In weather like that, you just don’t fly.
My wife is a professionally licensed hot-air balloon pilot.
Hot air ballon accidents and fatalities are not all that rare. I’m pretty sure there was a fatality in Albequerque this past year. I believe a passenger fell out of the basket or something. . . google.
A sudden thunderstorm would be serious pilot error. Winds would likely be too high top launch if there was the potential for something like that. The wind has to be just right. Just off hand, I would say that over half of the trips we schedule are postponed due to weather concerns. Primarily winds two fast or gusty and rain/fog.
Also, balloonists only fly towards dawn and dusk. Balloonist rarely, if ever, fly in mid-day.
If the balloon was pierced or something. . . it might not be a big problem. All balloons are vented to some extent already. Controlling the venting and the blower are the only controls a balloonist has, there is no steering but due to alterations of altitude in order to catch “cross-winds” and such. So, unless it was a massive hole it might not be much of a problem.
Just wanted to say, I’ve seen people take off with entire panels missing from their envelope. Makes for a shorter flight, bit it’s do-able, especially if the panel in question is relatively low.
No one has mentioned ballast yet. Is any extra ballast carried in case you need to soften a landing in the event of a loss of the burner (by jettisoning ballast on the way down)?
In mid-day, thermal activity can be a problem for large non-rigid objects. At dawn and dusk, the atmosphere tends to be relatively calm, especially near the ground.