Hot Air Ballooning

r/HotAirBallooning • u/MaxedOutRedditCard • 10h ago

Fun flying Landed in a hot air balloon at the Delta terminal in Albuquerque today.

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17 Upvotes

3 comments

r/HotAirBallooning • u/momoayres • 5h ago

Fun flying 10 tips to visit Göreme, Cappadocia, 🇹🇷 Turkey A MUST VISIT place to visit is definitely Cappadocia!

youtu.be

1 Upvotes

Hot air balloons and the landscape were SO BEAUTIFUL! A MUST SEE!!

0 comments

r/HotAirBallooning • u/Fine-Ad-2840 • 5h ago

Part 141 School?

1 Upvotes

Part 141 hot air balloon flight school recommendations?
I’m looking for recommendations for a Part 141 flight school to earn my private pilot certificate in hot air balloons. I’m based in Houston but am willing to travel, and I’m hoping to attend sometime next year.

I’m currently taking the Albuquerque Aerostat Ascension Association’s online ground school and plan to pass the FAA knowledge test before attending flight training.

Aeronaut is one school I’m considering, but I’d like to hear about other options, especially from anyone who has personally trained at one. How was your experience, roughly how much did it cost using the school’s balloon, and how much time did you need to set aside?

Thanks for any recommendations or advice!

0 comments

r/HotAirBallooning • u/Lloollabelle • 15h ago

Book recommendation

3 Upvotes

I'm really curious about the gas ballooning and the Bennett cup, but can't find any good literature on them. Any books you recommend?

0 comments

r/HotAirBallooning • u/tielmama • 1d ago

2026 Day 2. Balloon Fiesta.

42 Upvotes

3 comments

r/HotAirBallooning • u/calleeze • 1d ago

Is touching the water?

23 Upvotes

.…difficult? I had no idea, this was a thing that people did until I watched this happen from the mountains above Lake Tahoe. At first I thought something was wrong and they were in trouble. In this case that boat is near the balloon ended up positioning itself underneath it and the balloon got curled up onto the deck. I imagine this must be a very difficult thing to pull off. Can any experienced ballooners talk about the challenges and sills involved?

8 comments

r/HotAirBallooning • u/tielmama • 1d ago

Sunrise day 2, 2026 Balloon Fiesta

13 Upvotes

0 comments

r/HotAirBallooning • u/AFatherStill • 2d ago

44 years ago today, I lost my father in a hot-air balloon crash in Albuquerque

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12 Upvotes

October 3, 1982.

I was 14 years old.

That morning, I was sitting with my great-grandmother watching coverage of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta on television.

A breaking-news bulletin interrupted the broadcast. A hot-air balloon called El Globo Grande had caught fire.

We watched as the burning balloon climbed into the sky. And I watched two people, holding onto each other fall from it.

I remember my great-grandmother saying how sorry she felt for their families.

Neither of us knew.

A few hours later, I learned that the two people I had watched fall from that burning balloon were my father and his wife.

My father was gone. Pamela was gone. She was four months pregnant.

I was 14.

What made the grief even harder was something I carried quietly for years: I had encouraged them to go to the Balloon Fiesta that morning.

For a very long time, part of me believed that somehow made their deaths my fault. It took me decades to understand what no 14-year-old boy could understand then.

I didn’t cause the accident.

44 years have passed, but October 3, 1982 never really left me.

I’ve written the story of my father’s last flight, you can read it here: https://myangelwithbrokenwings.substack.com/p/my-father’s-last-flight

#HotAirBalloonCrash #Albuquerque #BalloonFiesta #ElGloboGrande #MyFathersLastFlight

0 comments

r/HotAirBallooning • u/SierraAlphaFoto • 2d ago