FAQ

Monticello Country Ballooning offers the only all inclusive package in the area. Our rates already include your digital photographs, celebratory toast, and flight certificates (additional memorabilia can be purchased upon request) as well as transportation to and from the launch site if you are staying locally.

Monticello Country Ballooning adheres to the highest standards of safety and quality for your flight. For added safety and passenger comfort, we offer special features that you may not find with other companies such as padded floors and tanks in our baskets for soft, cushioned landings, turning vents on the balloon to better position our passengers for landings and photographs, and enough seating and seatbelts for all passengers in the chase vehicle. We also employ some of the most experienced pilots and crew in the area.

In addition to having a perfect safety record, we want our passengers to know that if the conditions are not ideal, we won’t force you to go. We can’t control the weather, but we want our passengers to have the best flight possible, and we take visibility into consideration when making our flight decision. Monticello Country Ballooning focuses on the quality and enhancement of your flight, we are out to provide the best experience possible!

Hot air ballooning is a year-round sport. Weather conditions for ballooning are best just after sunrise and 2-3 hours before sunset. Light, ideal winds (0-8 mph) often occur during these times. During the day, when the sun is high, thermals (large bubbles of hot air that rise from the sun-heated earth) and stronger winds make ballooning more difficult and unsafe. We fly seven days a week, weather permitting, but our busiest seasons are spring and fall due to the foliage.

View monthly meeting times on our Schedule page. Please note that all times are approximations and subject to change due to weather conditions and sunrise and sunset time changes.

The air temperature during the flight is about the same as on the ground, so don’t overdress. We don’t go high enough to create a temperature difference. Wear casual outdoor attire, like jeans and sneakers, not your best clothes. Dresses, skirts, sandals or high heels are not recommended. We suggest waterproof footwear for morning flights since grass can be wet with dew, a baseball cap and sunglasses for the summer flights (the burner puts off quite a bit of radiant heat), and a jacket or sweater for all flights during cooler times of the year.

Flights in hot air balloons have been recorded at over 35,000 feet. However, the sport of ballooning is most enjoyable when flying at lower altitudes. We will spend most of our flight between 500-1,000 feet, with an occasional dip down to the surface to pick some leaves from the tops of the trees. We may reach a maximum altitude of anywhere between 1,500-2,000 feet. When balloons fly over populated areas, they maintain an altitude of at least 1,000 feet excluding the launch and landing.

We have many launch sites in and around the Charlottesville area depending on our passengers location or direction of travel. Several of our Bed & Breakfasts have suitable launch sites, but if you are staying in the Charlottesville area there is a launch site within 10-15 minutes from where you are staying. We also launch from private residences providing the prevailing winds and launch site are suitable.

Since a balloon travels with the wind, it is not possible to determine an exact landing site prior to launch. However, a pilot is able, through the study of wind currents, to determine the general direction of the flight. We have been flying in the Charlottesville area for many years (we are the only pilots local to the area) and are quite famliar with the flying territory.

Balloon pilots must have an aircraft pilot’s license especially for balloons. This license is issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and is earned after taking hours of instruction with a balloon pilot instructor, passing an FAA written test, making a solo flight, and passing a flight test with an FAA examiner. This whole process must be repeated in order to earn a Commercial pilot’s license.

Generally speaking, we don’t. A balloon drifts in the same direction and at the same speed as the wind. The skill is for the pilot to pick the altitude that has the most desired wind direction. We can control the balloon’s vertical height to within inches, but the horizontal “steerage” comes from the wind. Surface winds sometimes blow in a very different direction from the winds aloft. Altitude control is achieved with the on-board burner. Longer “burns” will achieve lift. Shorter “burns”, or none at all will allow the air to cool, and the balloon to descend.

The sport of ballooning is a wonderful group or family activity. To safely launch and fly a balloon requires a minimum crew of two people- the crew chief and the pilot. Duties of the crew typically include launch preparation, following the balloon flight in the chase vehicle, obtaining permission of the landowner for the balloon landing and retrieval, keeping spectators out of the landing area, and insuring that gates are left as they are found and that property is not damaged.

Hot air rises. The envelope traps a large bubble of hot air. If the air in the envelope is heated by a burner, the balloon will rise. If the air in the envelope is allowed to cool or if the hot air is “vented” (allowed to escape) from the top or the side of the envelope, the balloon will descend. An altimeter (to measure altitude), a rate-of-climb meter, and an envelope temperature gauge are the only instruments used in the balloon. Amazingly, the pilot can control the altitude of the balloon within a matter of inches!

The balloon bag or “envelope” is made of reinforced nylon fabric. It is very light (1.3 ounces per square yard) but very strong (25 pounds per square inch). The envelope is treated with a polyurethane coating to make it airtight and to help the fabric withstand the ultraviolet rays of the sun. The pilot and passengers ride in a gondola (or basket) that is made of woven wicker, which is both strong and flexible. The gondola is connected to the envelope by stainless steel or Kevlar suspension cables.

The balloon envelope is spread on the ground and the gondola laid on its side and attached to the envelope cables. A portable (gasoline powered) fan pushes cold air into the envelope. When the envelope is about half inflated with outside (ambient) air, a propane burner is ignited until the air inside is heated enough for the balloon to rise to an upright position. With a small amount of additional heat, the balloon becomes buoyant. Typically, the inflation takes about 20 minutes.

A typical balloon system – envelope, gondola, fuel tanks, and 30 gallons of fuel – will weigh about 500 pounds, deflated on the ground. In the air, the complete system, including the weight of the air inside the envelope, will weigh about 2 1/2 tons. Our envelope weighs 267 pounds with 475 approximately loaded basket weight.

Common Liquid propane gas (LPG) is used to heat hot air balloons. Some balloons carry 40 gallons of propane in two 20-gallon stainless steel tanks; others carry three 10-gallon tanks. Propane is a stable and predictable fuel, but highly volatile (burns easily). It is carried in liquid form, under pressure in the tanks, and supplied to the burners through flexible hoses. The burner flame may shoot out 6 to 8 feet in the blast that the pilot controls. A typical flight lasting 1 hour, with 3 people aloft, will consume about 20 gallons of propane. Some balloons systems such as ours have two independent burner and fuel systems for added safety.

As fast as the wind blows. But if the wind is over 8 miles per hour at ground level, balloons are not normally going to be inflated because of the increased possibility of burning the fabric and because landing would likely be rough and require a large field.

Most balloons can fly for about 1 hour depending on the outside temperature and the weight carried. On a cold day with only the pilot flying, a 2-3 hour flight would be possible.

The average balloon cost may range from $20,000 to well over $40,000. This price includes the envelope, gondola, burner, fuel tanks, and instruments, but does not include any ground support equipment.

After the balloon is launched, the “chase crew” follows in a chase vehicle. Using maps of the area and radios, as well as visual contact, they try to be close by when the balloon lands. The crew helps the pilot deflate and disassemble the balloon and return passengers and equipment back home.