Cappadocia ballon tour

A bit about hot air balloons

A hot air balloon or so-called ‘gentle giant’ is an aircraft that flies with the help of hot air (hence the name).

A gas heater is used to heat the air inside the balloon, making the whole balloon rise since the hot air is lighter and less dense than the cold air around the balloon. Once the air inside the balloon cools down or the air is let out, the balloon slowly goes down.

There are no steers on a hot air balloon, and therefore, you can’t operate it as efficiently as, let’s say, a car. The balloon goes wherever the wind takes it. By heating and cooling the air inside the balloon, professional pilots navigate it in a suitable direction. Today, advanced technology helps a lot with that, and it’s much easier to know in which direction and at what speed the balloon will fly.

Hot air balloons can fly super low, which often happens in Cappadocia, or they can go high up to 1000 meters. And experienced pilots are already so good and precise at flying that they can go just centimeters away from trees or rocks, especially in Cappadocia.

The whole time the hot air balloon is flying, the “chase crew” follows its flight path, ready to rush to the landing spot once the pilot announces it, as you can’t know the exact landing spot that fast, as it depends on the wind direction.

In Cappadocia, there are several common landing spots, and pilots there know the area very well, so by analyzing the wind, they can approximately predict the landing spot.

Ballooning is an exciting sport, and Arijana once even had the chance to be a part of a balloon team in Croatia.