From September 8-14, the 25th FAI Hot Air Balloon World Championship - the world’s largest hot air balloon competition - is taking place in Szeged, Hungary. More than 120 competitors have travelled to the event to put their skills to the test, so the FAI Ballooning Commission has put together a spectator's guide to help understand what challenges the pilots will have to face.

Follow the competition

• Organiser website
• Live tracking
• Results  
• Event Facebook page
• FAI Ballooning Facebook page
• FAI Ballooning Youtube videos
• Hashtags: #FAIBallooning #airsports #WHABC2024 #Worlds2024

Pilots from over 30 nations

Large, colourful hot air balloons have begun to appear in the sky over Szeged, as training for the Hot Air Balloon World Championship starts. Pilots have travelled from over 30 nations to compete at the prestigious event, which will be honoured by the presence of FAI President David Monks, and Mark Sullivan, President of the FAI Ballooning Commission.

The spectacular competitive sport captivates onlookers, but viewers may not be aware of the competition tasks and tough challenges the balloon pilots face to gain a coveted place on the podium.

• Meet the pilots

General Briefing and the Opening Ceremony 8 September

 

Controlling a hot air balloon

These magnificent aerial vehicles are powered solely by wind and air currents. During a competition, pilots must control their balloons by finding the altitude levels where the wind blows in the desired direction. For the set championship tasks, competitors maneouvre, ascend or descend between different altitudes to catch the right wind currents to travel in the required direction. 

In the early days of ballooning competitions, a pilot had to launch their hot air balloon and navigate it towards a target to land as closely as possible to it, with the deviation from the target measured, the closest being the winner. However, this method led to significant congestion around the target, jeopardising the safety of the balloons.

Nowadays, competitors drop a marker—a 70-gram weighted ribbon that is 170 cm long and 10 cm wide—onto the target, and the distance between the marker and the target noted by the scorers. While this may seem simple, it is not! Pilots have a selection of tasks to accomplish, determined by the weather, wind direction and strength, temperature, and expected changes in these conditions.

Daily championship tasks

The tasks for each competition day are set at dawn, following the meteorological assessments, so competitors only discover what they need to accomplish at that time.

One of the task groups in the competition involves precision flying to a predetermined target. This group consists of eight different tasks, depending on who defines the target. Another task group emphasises not only accurate targeting but also the importance of time, with up to eight tasks that require even more attention and knowledge from the competitors. Among the most challenging tasks are found in the third group: rerouting in flight, in which pilots are required to change direction during flight.

We hope this helps give spectators some insight into the amount of knowledge and practice behind the spectacular aerial displays taking place around Szeged during the 25th FAI Hot Air Balloon World Championship