Ballooning in controlled airspace

[George Tower]

On Saturday afternoon I noticed a hot-air balloon over south Manchester. Unfortunately I don't have a chart to hand but from memory they must have been very close to the CTR. Although it was VMC given that they are at the mercy of the wind surely there's something wrong flying a balloon into or near a busy piece of controlled airspace. Anyone care to comment.

[Jerricho]

During the summer months in the early morning, it isn't totally unusual to have hot air baloons in the London City (Class D) Zone. The wind has to be such that they aren't blown into the London Zone, and they have to be clear before the opening of London City airport, but it cetainly is allowed.

[chiglet]

George,
Pre-planned, also Sunday. Pilot is a BA Capt
watp, iktch

[Ripline]

The last thing a balloon pilot wants to do is infringe controlled airspace (being a bit visible, as you have noticed :O ). For most flights wind speeds are slow enough to have a decent flight by moving a few miles against the direction of travel before launch.

You always maintain the option of putting it down on the ground if the wind changes significantly (but you'd know about that possibility having done your met assessment earlier). There can't be many other air sports where the pilot has such an intimate knowledge of what the airstream is actually doing and as the direction is often selectable with height quite a large degree of steerage is often available.

Most controllers are happy (workload permitting) for transit through their zone if asked nicely and given sufficient warning. A slow moving object at an agreed height is easy to vector faster traffic around, with the major risk being to the balloon from wake turbulance.

That said, I'd rather drive well clear of controlled zones while flying for pleasure. There is a ballooning competion called the Long Jump which takes place in October - IIRC one such flight last year started near Mull and ended in the midlands, being vectored through many control zones (OVER Manchester!). 8 hours plus, way out of my league! :sad:

Ripline
--------------------
I don't think that the sky *is* the limit, you know. It's more likely to be the ground.

[Burns the Bread]

Whats the problem???

Class D airspace isn't exclusive airspace - and how often in a year might commercial aeroplanes be slightly inconvenienced by "huge, visible, slow moving" aircraft? We regularly see hot air balloons flying in Class D airspace around Bristol - flown by commercial pilots trying to earn a living.

[Spitoon]

It's no problem to mix balloons and big airplanes. As Burns says, if you want to see the experts at it, go and speak to the controllers at Bristol.