{"id":45304,"date":"2021-08-07T21:24:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-08T03:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-to-launch-a-hot-air-balloon\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:24:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:24:40","slug":"how-to-launch-a-hot-air-balloon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-to-launch-a-hot-air-balloon\/","title":{"rendered":"How to launch a hot air balloon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Balloons
Balloons began taking off on Friday morning during the Cortez Rendezvous Hot Air Balloon Rally in Parque de Vida. Seventeen balloons are participating in this year\u2019s rally. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The annual Cortez Rendezvous Hot Air Balloon Rally kicked off Friday morning, and is still going strong.<\/p>\n

With a group of flying enthusiasts eager yet again to soar above the ground, one crew took The Journal<\/em> through the process of assembling, riding in, and taking apart a hot air balloon.<\/p>\n

The Journal<\/em> can confirm it\u2019s more work than you might think.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a race to see who can get up first,\u201d said Candy Stevens, a balloon crew member.<\/p>\n\n

\u2207 Preparing a balloon for flight<\/div>\n

Flip through this morning\u2019s journey with the timeline above, or keep scrolling for an overview of the process.<\/p>\n

\"Balloons
Balloons began taking off on Friday morning during the Cortez Rendezvous Hot Air Balloon Rally in Parque de Vida. Seventeen balloons are participating in this year\u2019s rally. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Kala Parkinson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
\u0394 Step 1: Unpacking <\/strong><\/div>\n

First, the basket is unpacked from the crew\u2019s truck. It\u2019s turned on its side, and then the envelope (what is commonly known as the balloon) is unpacked and tethered to the basket.<\/p>\n

\"Balloons
Balloons began taking off on Friday morning during the Cortez Rendezvous Hot Air Balloon Rally in Parque de Vida. Seventeen balloons are participating in this year\u2019s rally. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Kala Parkinson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
\u0394 Step 2: Expanding<\/div>\n

The envelope begins to swell as it is filled with cold air from a fan.<\/p>\n

\"Balloons
Balloons began taking off on Friday morning during the Cortez Rendezvous Hot Air Balloon Rally in Parque de Vida. Seventeen balloons are participating in this year\u2019s rally. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Kala Parkinson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
\u0394 Step 3: Securing<\/div>\n

The envelope continues to fill with air as the crew makes sure everything is secure, fastening the top of the balloon on with Velcro. A crew member holds the balloon down with a rope from a distance, and another cord links the balloon to the truck.<\/p>\n

\"Balloons
Balloons began taking off on Friday morning during the Cortez Rendezvous Hot Air Balloon Rally in Parque de Vida. Seventeen balloons are participating in this year\u2019s rally. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Kala Parkinson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
\u0394 Step 4: Warming<\/div>\n

It is soon time to fill the balloon with hot air from the burner, helping it to rise as the less dense hot air mixes with the denser cool air inside.<\/p>\n

\"A
A hot air balloon floats southwest of Cortez on Friday morning with Sleeping Ute Mountain in the background during the Cortez Rendezvous Hot Air Balloon Rally. Seventeen balloons are participating in this year\u2019s rally.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
\u0394 Step 5: Flying<\/div>\n

The balloon is then flipped right side up. Before you know it, you\u2019ll be overlooking the city. All that\u2019s left to do is to keep in touch with your chase crew so that they can meet you when you land!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cortez Rendezvous Hot Air Balloon Rally continues through the weekend, here\u2019s a beginner\u2019s guide to becoming airborne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,167],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-local-news-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86438,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45304\/revisions\/86438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45304"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}