Hot air balloon and powered paraglider

[aviate1138]

How close would you consider a curious powerchute should get to a hot air balloon?

Still frame from my videophone



In the video the shadow of the canopy crosses the sunlit side of the balloon.

Three balloons got the same treatment over a 15 minute period.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

But if the pilots were fully aware of what was happening there was no problem at all. Also, as usual, you cannot be sure of the distance between them from the ground, irrespective of shadows. I had the shadow of a 747 cross me once as I was sitting in the garden but it was 10,000 ft above me!

[usedtofly]

The balloon has no forward airspeed so can not alter his flight path horizontally, therefore only the powerchute dude need concern himself with direction.

In reality the chances are that both pilots knew each other and this was a planned event.

[deltayankee]

Balloons don't make sudden moves so this is much safer than it looks.

How close can they get? I've seen a videoclip of a jumper actually land on the top of a balloon, climb down to the basket, slip on a new chute and jump again. I expect it'll be somewhere on YouTube.

Obviously you only do this with balloonists you know.

[aviate1138]

Ok I can see I was being too snicketty. Three separate balloons in 15 minutes may have biased my view, somewhat.

Will post the video when I can press the right buttons......