The field is wet and cold, and the balloon is lying on its side in the grass like something asleep. A fan pushes air into the open mouth of it, and the tall colored panels of the envelope start to fill and lift and breathe. Every flight starts here, long before anyone leaves the ground.
A hot air balloon is one of the calmest big machines a kid will ever meet. No engine to race away with, no wheels, no speed. It rises because warm air wants to go up, and it sinks again when that air cools. The whole trip is slow on purpose. These pages follow one flight, from the first cold minute on the grass to the soft bump of landing.
On the ground, before the sun
Balloons launch early, usually right after dawn, when the wind is gentle and the air still cool. The crew unrolls the envelope flat across the field. A big fan blows cold air in first to give it shape, a pale half-moon of fabric spreading over the grass. Then the burner breathes a long flame into the mouth, the air inside warms, and the balloon stands itself up. A heap of cloth becomes a tower taller than a house in a few minutes, and it is the part most people never get to see.
The burner roars, and you lift
There is one loud moment in an otherwise quiet morning, and it is the burner. The pilot pulls a lever, propane rushes up, and a flame several feet tall pours heat into the envelope. The roar is sudden and warm on the back of your neck. Then the ropes go slack, the basket leans, and the ground simply drops away. No lurch, no countdown. One second you stand in a field, the next the field is below you.
It works because hot air is lighter than the cool air around it. Heat the air inside the envelope and the whole balloon becomes lighter than the sky it sits in, so it floats upward the way a bubble rises through water. To come down, the pilot lets the air cool or opens a vent at the top. There is no steering wheel. A balloon travels wherever the wind travels, and the pilot finds new directions only by rising or sinking into winds that move different ways.
Up where it goes quiet
Once you are up, the burner fires only now and then, and between those bursts it is wonderfully quiet. No wind in your face, because you move with the wind instead of against it. Below you the world turns into a map: fields stitched into squares of green and gold, a river bending through them, rooftops the size of stamps, a dog the size of a comma crossing a yard. People look up and wave. From up there you can take in the curve of a whole valley at once, with only the clouds keeping pace beside you.
Coloring fun for kids — anywhere.
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Coloring fun for kids — anywhere.
Free coloring app for kids. iOS and Android, phones and tablets. No ads, no sign-up, even offline.
Every shape you can imagine
Not every balloon is the round teardrop shape. At festivals the sky fills with special shapes: a giant elephant, a flying cottage, an owl with enormous eyes, and sometimes dozens of balloons lifting off together at first light in what pilots call a mass ascension. The envelope is really one huge blank canvas, so there is no wrong way to color it. Bold stripes, fat polka dots, a zigzag of every color you own, your own face if you like. This is where the topic hands the whole decision to you.
Coming back down
Landing is the gentlest part when it goes well. The pilot picks an open field, lets the air cool, and the basket sinks toward the grass until it touches with a small bump and a slide. The crew pulls the envelope down sideways, and the bright tower folds back into a heap of cloth, ready to roll up and carry home. The flight is over, and somehow it felt like ten minutes and a whole morning at the same time.
What else could you color?
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Print your own flight
Ready to color the whole trip? Here is the full set, from the launch field to the soft landing, with the festival shapes in between. Print the ones you like, reach for any colors at all, and remember that on a balloon every single panel is yours to decide.
