Hot Air Balloon Weather Conditions

Weather is the most important aspect in Hot Air Ballooning in th UK. The minimum requirements for a flight in the UK is as follows.

Visibility:- In the UK Hot Air Balloon rides are carried using vidual flight rules. This requires the predicted visibility for any UK planned to be as follows:

 Height Below 3000ft

• Clear of Cloud
• In Sight of Ground
• 1nm horizontal flight visibility (private flights)
• 3nm horizontal flight visibility (comercial flights) 

Hights Above 3000ft

• 1.5 nm horizontal clearance to cloud level
• 1000ft vertical clearance to cloud level
• 5 nm horizontal flight visibility (commercial flight)

In addition to the above rules it must be possible for the pilot to maintain a 500ft clearance to any person, vessel, vehicle or structure for safety purposes.

Wind Speed

The Hot Air Balloon Flight Manual supplied with the type of Hot Air Balloon design will stipulate the maximum wind conditions that the Balloon design can operate within.