On 2004-03-31 16:50, wrote:
I flew hot air balloons for 12 years and never had a scary landing, but some
were quite interesting! I've landed in open fields, peoples back yards,
golf courses, tops of trees, even on a boat once, but I never felt there was
any real danger of serious injury.


-snip-

Try it sometime, you might like it.

Rick
Commercial Pilot, ASMEL, Instrument


A now retired workmate told me about when he got a balloon ride
ticket, and had a nice flight; only when they were to land in a small
field, the pilot had to keep away from some wires & set the balloon down
a bit harder than intended.

As the pilot had climbed up to pull the ripcord to open the balloon,
he didn't have a secure footing and fell out of the ballon on touchdown.
The balloon then bounced and plonked down the basket with a all
passengers still inside, right onto the pilot, knocking him out.

The pilot was unconcious, but the pax & balloon were all ok.
Someone called paramedics but forgot to find out their landing
location so the SOS switchboard was thinking it was a hoax...
` -What do you mean, you don't know where you are???'

The balloon-recovery cars appeared soon enough to help out.
(Pilot recovered OK, if slightly worse for wear.)
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I wouldn't hesitate taking a ride, seems safe enough unless you climb
out of the sardine box...

/Rolf