Hot air balloon

cococoady

I'm living in Kilcohan area and at 7am this morning i was woke up by a loud whooshing sound (at first i thought it was herself snoring ). It was sounding really close to the house so I got up and went out the front to see a hot air balloon flying maybe 20/30 meters above the house, coming from town side heading for the ORR. I kept watching it for a couple of minutes and it was getting closer and closer to rooftops of houses in St Herblain Pk. I got really curious then so i hopped in the car and went up to St Herblain pk to find the Balloon after landing on the green up there.
Now i'm no expert but i doubt that they planned to land a huge hot air balloon in the middle of a housing estate at 7 in the morning. They took it down and packed it away before heading off.
Did anyone hear if they got into difficulty up in it and had to do an emergency landing there?

Trotter

Balloons fly early because that's when some of the best flying conditions exist. They can't be steered in any direction. They just go with the wind. While I'm not up to speed on the details of this particular flight, I'm familiar with balloons in general and if the pilot was happy that it was a safe landing spot free of obstructions etc, there's no problem landing. Absolutely nothing to be concerned about.

johnnykilo

I saw it taking off this morning. Same as yourself heard a big whooshing sound and looked out my window. I think he took off from St Johns College in the Folly. There's a video of him from yesterday too on the WIT Facebook page. He took off from WIT and seemed to land in Superquinn.

https://www.facebook.com/waterfordit

Trotter

That video is from a few weeks ago. It's a good sign anyway.. Ballooning only really happens during the nicest of weather.

The balloon has its own Facebook page too.. Just search on Facebook for Discover Waterford Hot Air Balloon

bradknowell

I'd say that was Joe. My brother goes flying with him in the balloon a good bit. wouldnt go up in one of them meself

cococoady

Trotter wrote: »

Balloons fly early because that's when some of the best flying conditions exist. They can't be steered in any direction. They just go with the wind. While I'm not up to speed on the details of this particular flight, I'm familiar with balloons in general and if the pilot was happy that it was a safe landing spot free of obstructions etc, there's no problem landing. Absolutely nothing to be concerned about.

Just think its weird they would land in the middle of a housing estate at that hour of the morning. Another couple of hundred yards and they would be in open countryside.

mike65

I'd sooner land in a housing estate green than on the ORR.

cocoshovel

thats extremely dangerous. I understand that hot air baloons have no way of controlling them other than going up and down, but being over residential area let alone coming down to land in one is highly dangerous. Id say if the IAA knew about this he might be in a spot of bother. I wonder did Waterford Airport control tower even know.

cococoady

Maybe they had to make an emergency landing or something like that

Trotter

Ok I've checked out the details of the flight. Balloons by their nature are at the mercy of the wind so wherever the wind takes them, at whatever low speed, is where the balloon goes. It is not part of the plan to land in the environs of a housing estate. However if that's the way the wind takes you then so be it. In circumstances like that, the pilot chooses an open area along the line of flight and simply descends and lands. The flight in question didn't move on to more open areas along the path because the wind wasn't strong enough to make that happen and the pilot saw the landing site and made a perfectly safe, standard landing. At that time of the morning, Waterford city is not under ATC restriction and is free to fly within the zone. If the balloon was to stay hanging in the air with no directional travel, it would then be of interest to Waterford ATC. Given that the landing was made safely at that time, there was no issue. I trust that all covers the "spot of bother" that you mentioned.

We met a lot of boards members at recent ballooning events in Waterford so there's plenty of members here who can tell you it's all perfectly safe and normal.

Hopefully some of you will enjoy seeing EI-ECC flying in Waterford over the Summer and representing our city at balloon events around Europe this year. I'll be sure to post some photos.

Trotter
EI-ECC Discover Waterford Balloon Crew

ROCKMAN

Witness the event myself ,Was close enough to my upstair window that i could see that the pilot looked to be struggling,(well to my untrained eyes)
Was working it fairly hard using flame a hell of alot without gaining any great height . Barely clear the houses at the end of kilcohan to make it to St Herblains green,,
I'd have to agree with cococoady i thought it was a bit of an emergency landing

Trotter

It wasn't an emergency landing lads.

wellboytoo

ROCKMAN wrote: »

Witness the event myself ,Was close enough to my upstair window that i could see that the pilot looked to be struggling,(well to my untrained eyes)
Was working it fairly hard using flame a hell of alot without gaining any great height . Barely clear the houses at the end of kilcohan to make it to St Herblains green,,
I'd have to agree with cococoady i thought it was a bit of an emergency landing

I think that's called spreading rumors.

ROCKMAN

wellboytoo wrote: »

I think that's called spreading rumors.

How the hell is that ,I just stated what I saw.

bradknowell

Trotter wrote: »

It wasn't an emergency landing lads.

Sounds like it was just a landing that happened to be in a green.


Supposedly some of the farmers love seen the balloons land . Brother said he was in balloon one day and they where landing out mooncoin direction and the farmers wife brought himself and the pilot dude into her house for tea and some food. Think ill get me a balloon lol

Sully

ROCKMAN wrote: »

How the hell is that ,I just stated what I saw.

To be fair, you saw a landing in an estate. There was nothing to suggest it was an "emergency" especially when someone who was an expert(?) in the area clarified how it works. :P

Easy mistake to make though. I'd have said the same myself knowing nothing about em.

bradknowell

Sully wrote: »

Easy mistake to make though. I'd have said the same myself knowing nothing about em.

Thought you where full of hot air ?

Hehehe couldnt resist

ziedth

What I'm most happy about here is that I learned the word ballooning.......

cocoshovel

Are hot air baloons not restricted like most aircraft in that going lower than 500ft over a residential area isnt permitted? I know they're not controllable but you'd think they could avoid it somehow. What if you were to come down in the river suir? or strike power lines etc.
In regards to Waterford ATC. You're in the waterford zone, so I would have thought you would be in contact with ATC at least.

Sully

bradknowell wrote: »

Thought you where full of hot air ?

Hehehe couldnt resist

I'v cooled down a bit, wind changes and all that.

kensutz

I've flown quite a few times and can say that everything is safe in relation to the landings. The pilot knows the area needed for the balloon to land and also deflate so there's no chances taken when it comes to landing in a residential area. At 7am you'd hardly expect kids to be out playing on the green so if the green was quiet and wind was starting to change direction then it made sense to land at the earliest opportunity. From setting up to landing it's 100% safe with regular communications to Waterford Airport etc. I'm just hoping the weather picks up so we can get more flights in during the summer.

tankbarry

You're in the waterford zone, so I would have thought you would be in contact with ATC at least

ATC doesnt open on a saturday morning till about half 8 first flight at 9. It would only be open earlier if the Search & Rescue is out on a shout.

CardBordWindow

bradknowell wrote: »

Sounds like it was just a landing that happened to be in a green.


Supposedly some of the farmers love seen the balloons land . Brother said he was in balloon one day and they where landing out mooncoin direction and the farmers wife brought himself and the pilot dude into her house for tea and some food. Think ill get me a balloon lol

Sounds like a lot of effort for the sake of a cuppa!