You will find below the answer to your most frequently asked questions about ballooning:

I'm afraid of vertigo or travel sickness:

In ballooning vertigo does not exist. Even those who are unable to climb a ladder do net feel dizzy on board. They will not be sick either because the balloon does not sway at all. You may be impressed by height or by take-off, but in our experience, you'll find that this fear disappears within minutes (this is a promise and you can read about it in the visitors book).

 

Principle of the hot air balloon:

An air-filled envelope with a basket, propane and burners below. The burners are powered by propane and the combustion produced heats the air in the envelope. This hot air is lighter than the air outside the balloon, and thus creates an upward traction force called aerostatic force. Continued heating results in the force becoming greater than the load to be transported and the balloon rises.

 

Why does it have several burner ? 

More burners, more power. It is sometimes necessary to rapidely gain altitude.
We can fly with one burner only, but a hot air balloon is a lot more reactive if you are using two or three at the same time.. 
And, more important, if one burner stops working, you still have 2 or 3 to finish the flight safely.

 

What is the volume ? 

The volume of a hot air balloon can vary from 550 m3 for a single person to 25000 m3 for over 25 passagers. Touraine montgolfière has a fleet of 6 balloons( 2200, 3000, 4000, 6500, 8000 et 10.000 m3) with a carrying capacity from 2 to 16 passengers. Baskets are devided into compartments for 2, 3 or 4 people. Each balloon is limited by a minimum and a maximum load. It is useful for a company to have balloons of different volumes in order to be able to fly regardless of the number of passengers or their weight.

What is the weight of a hot air balloon ?

A hot air balloon is one of the aircraft known as "lighter than the air", but obviously a balloon is not that light.
In fact a balloon of 8000m3 consists of an enveloppe weighing 300 kg, a basket weighing 650kg and 1100kg weight of passengers. A total of 2 tons in flight.
Adding 8000m3 of air trapped in the envelope (around 8 tons) to this mass, means a total of 10 tons. As a result, the balloon's inertia requires a lot of anticipation in manoeuvring.

 

Why are we flying only in the morning or in the evening ?

During the day the sun heats the ground making the lower layers of the atmosphere unstable and turbulent. The wind is too strong often with violent vertical currents.
However in the morning or in the evening, the wind is calm and laminar, and conditions correct for comfort and safety.

In addition, the law angle lights at sunrise and sunset results in fantastic shade of colour while accentuating the relief of the landscape..

 

Why do you release small balloons ?

Prior to take-off, we need to check the wind force and that it hasn't changed direction. It strength and direction will determine the choice of take-off site. These small balloons are inflated with helium and allows us to measure speed and wind direction at different altitudes.

 

Where are we going ?

Approximately over there ! A balloon moves with the wind, it is not exactly steerable. The only possibility for the pilot is to climb or descend to find favourable air streams. The pilot must adapt to the ever-changing air mass. Sometimes the ground wind is totally different from the wind at altitude, contributing to manoeuvrability and precision, and sometimes it has the same speed and direction which allows for the adventure to be completed.

 

How high ?

A hot air balloon flight is usually at lower levels to make the most of every detail of the landscape. The sense of speed increases, you graze the tops of trees, fly low over river beds and then a few minutes later you touch the coulds at over 1000m of altitude. All this in silence... between two blasts of the burners, of course.

 

Is it cold up there ?

The temperature decreases by 6.5° for every 1000m of altitude, but the whole point of a balloon is to fly quite low. A balloon does not have "air speed", it is immobile within an air mass which is moving relative to the ground. So there is no wind on board. Moreover each burner produces a flame of 5m, that is power of about 6 megawatts
In short, it is warmer in the basket than on the ground.

 

How are we coming back ?

No, we do not turn around, the adventure is straight ahead. The sun is sinking closer to the horizon, it will be time to land. Here is a meadow, everyone stands, we land. Now some vehicles arrive (most of the time...), with the ground crew. We fold the balloon away with the help of the passengers, then drink a toast to the flight, each passenger receives his or her certificate and we finally come back to the starting point by car.

 

Their is some sun but no flight, why ?

Because the wind is too strong: air is a mass that moves like water. Over 20km/h on the ground the air mass becomes turbulent and there is a risk of downdrafts behind each obstacle, just like behind a rock in a stream. The flight will be turbulent and very risky

Am I insured?

Touraine Montgolfière is a company approved by the DGAC and a member of the  Nationall Councill of Professionals of Aerostation. Aviation insurance is underwritten for each passenger. You are insured with civil liability related to transport at a high cost with maximum limit consistent with applied regulations.