Thank you for highlighting our amazing sport. As a commercial balloon pilot we share our passion with our passengers often but our competitive side is usually unseen..
My father was a hot air balloon pilot in southern Ontario Canada. Great memories growing up! The festivals were magical ❤ I especially loved being part of the chase crew and chasing after Dad after getting him airbourne. ❤ Thanks for sharing this amazing sport in detail with the world ❤
Ah I am looking forward to watching this. My wife and I saw all these balloons driving back from Budapest to Belgrade. Had to look up what it was when we got home. Incredible to see so many!! 😁
It's a great surprise to see Downie Live on a Wednesday! I've been to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta so I know what you mean when you say it's surreal being around a lot of them. Your experience was even better because it wasn't overcrowded and you got to be part of a crew.
That was such a treat. A real visual spectacle. And interesting facts too. Going to watch it with my husband and Dad too-they’ve always been fascinated with aviation and my husband used to fly planes. Thanks for sharing the experience with us.
I love all of the random adventures you go on and the different places you visit Mike! I didn't even know that hot air balloon competitions were a thing before this video! So cool! And so beautiful too, all of the balloons across the sky!
I love hot air balloons. I never knew of a competition like this. Crazy that it was done in Hungary. The dance at the beginning of the competition was neat. Funny statement about going to fish a balloon.
This seems like the absolutely COOLEST thing to witness. Learning about niche competitive sports is not something I thought I would love so much, but here we are. 😄
Here is something that you might want to consider planning and making a trip to. You will be amazed at how many hot air balloons there are and the different shapes there are. I was blown away at how many balloons there were. The 2025 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta will take place from October 4-12: Thursday, October 9 The day begins with the Dawn Patrol Show and Morning Glow, a choreographed inflation and launch set to music. The Mass Ascension Special Shape Rodeo is the most popular event of the day. Friday, October 10 You can spend the morning as you like, perhaps by taking a hot air balloon ride or visiting the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. Saturday, October 11 You can schedule a hot air balloon ride in the morning, and you can watch the ascension from a different vantage point. Sunday, October 12 You can spend the morning and early afternoon as you like, and you can take a hot air balloon ride in the late afternoon. The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is the world's largest balloon event, featuring about 600 balloons and 700 pilots. Some recommend visiting North Domingo Baca Park to see the morning mass ascension, and Vista Del Norte Park to see the balloons land
Beautiful to watch. Scary to contemplate... Scary thoughts: Pilot error / pylons and electrical cabling... In-flight devastation, loss of life, traumatised onlookers, grieving families, friends, connections... Take Care. Good Luck. I haven't even ever been in a _plane_ let alone a _balloon_ or an _airship_ !! 🤔🥺 Being on _horses_ is _quite high enough_ off the ground for _me_ ...and horseriding was always _far more enjoyable_ an exercise, in my mind. 💕🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴💕
Great video, spotlighting this competitive world of ballooning, takes floating around the countryside wondering where your going (what I mostly do), to a whole different level (yeah excuse the pun)
I just checked and there isn't an extra/new video on your nebula channel right now. I already subscribe to nebula because I love the Jet Lag crew. I usually watch your videos early there too. Love the content. Thought you would want to know.
Altitude not elevation, which is for terrestrial features. Great video. I grew up doing ballooning events as a kid in Alberta. We flew our family balloon all over Western Canada and the US
Hey Mike if you want to learn more about sondes. I'm one of the many sonde hunters down here in the states that tracks sondes released by National Weather Service.
Very interesting to watch. Who knew that hot air balloon was a sport. I will say it is not on my bucket list as it is higher than a coffee table. Thank you, Donnie.
Love this channel. Liked Canal boats. Is there also River boating? Or a new favorite private trains, pet airplanes. Cargo ships, research boats, etc. GoneWithTheWynns is in canal, eu. Are there canals in US/CA? There are rivers. CA has polar cruises.... Lovel. BTW: I mix watching backlog and new, and i thought I had a hair timeline .. but nope! TG youtube dates are easy to find on long videos...
I worked on the ground crew for a hot air balloon ride company for nearly a year. It was kind of a brutal job for me. I don't fall asleep easily and we would usually be notified at 10PM that we would be needed at 5AM the next morning. I hated that, but everything else about the job was pretty fun. Oh, except being the single person on the crown line. When standing up the balloon, you have someone pulling a rope that leads away from the basket and is attached to the top, or crown, of the envelope (balloon). Your job when pulling that line is to not let everything stand up so quickly that it goes past vertical and ends up swaying back and forth a bunch. You want it to stand straight up and sit there. My boss, the aeronaut (pilot), who was the one using the burners during the stand up procedure, thought that meant standing the balloon up really slowly was the best way to do it. That is not actually true. He would stretch it out for at least 5 minutes if not 10 and the whole time I'm trying to hold down all of that force that wants to pull up, my hands being crushed by the rope I've wrapped around them in order to maintain my grip for as long as I needed, all of my muscles burning and starting to give up, unable to maintain the traction I need on the wet, dewey grass. And he would berate me if I couldn't manage to keep it from swaying because I was utterly exhausted by the time he finally got it up. Eventually, the envelope needed to go into the shop for some repairs, which his instructor would do. This instructor could tell by inspecting the envelope that my boss was taking way too long to stand the thing up and chewed him out pretty hard in front of me. I loved it, even if it was a little bit awkward. When my boss would berate me, he would throw all kinds of stupid misoginy into the mix, calling into question my manliness. I felt so justified watching him have to cower in front of his pissed off teacher.
Sir downie, how many hours does it take to fall a ballon with styrofoam cup with gps tracker? What is the distance of the balloon release to the place where you find the styrofoam cup? Thank you!
In my small city we have one guy with a balloon. But (of course) he flies in the mornings, so I never see him. But he post beautiful pictures on Facebook, and that is good enough.
I love Hot air ballooning and if you ever get a chance come to Lancaster Pennsylvania in September and see the the hot air balloons. You can search Lancaster county hot air balloon festival and there you can see when the next hot air balloon festival is like maybe next year is the festival and I want you to see the hot air balloons in the early morning
I see they track down their expensive GPS Wind gauge. But what about all the litter with all the balloons that they’re releasing in the air. I guess those are just scattered around the field somewhere now. 😡
Then explain what it’s called when one of them hoists a trophy above their head and is crowned World Champion for a year? Just a recreational champion?
Thank you for highlighting our amazing sport. As a commercial balloon pilot we share our passion with our passengers often but our competitive side is usually unseen..
It is such a fun sport! Thank you for spreading the good vibes!!
Missed opportunity to have 99 red balloons instead of 120.
This is insane. What a huge spectacle, so beutiful. Thank you for showing us that.
My father was a hot air balloon pilot in southern Ontario Canada. Great memories growing up! The festivals were magical ❤ I especially loved being part of the chase crew and chasing after Dad after getting him airbourne. ❤ Thanks for sharing this amazing sport in detail with the world ❤
I love watching hot air balloons. Brings back chasing bubbles or balloons when you were a kid....pure joy.
Ah I am looking forward to watching this. My wife and I saw all these balloons driving back from Budapest to Belgrade. Had to look up what it was when we got home. Incredible to see so many!! 😁
This was super cool to watch. Thanks Mike 🎈
Finally you are in my home country Hungary! You should check out Budapest and its trams and trains!
Igen! Yes!
You have the most unique videos. Good on ya!
Thanks! I try to keep them interesting.
It's a great surprise to see Downie Live on a Wednesday! I've been to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta so I know what you mean when you say it's surreal being around a lot of them. Your experience was even better because it wasn't overcrowded and you got to be part of a crew.
I think hot air balloons are magical, so jealous! This would have been spectacular to see in person, thanks for showing us!
This was truly an amazing video! The competition looked almost as if they made a version of the Olympics that's themed after Hot Air Balloons!
again somewhere I could have never imagined I would be, but here I am again with you.
That was such a treat. A real visual spectacle. And interesting facts too. Going to watch it with my husband and Dad too-they’ve always been fascinated with aviation and my husband used to fly planes. Thanks for sharing the experience with us.
So cool that your husband used to fly! Hope they enjoy the video.
How do you come up with your video ideas? You do a lot of great things that’s no one else is really doing combined with great production.
This was amazing thanks for sharing
So beautiful, I'm surprised that the balloons didn't bump to each other more often.
I love all of the random adventures you go on and the different places you visit Mike! I didn't even know that hot air balloon competitions were a thing before this video! So cool! And so beautiful too, all of the balloons across the sky!
Great video! I watched it even earlier on Nebula!
Awesome Josh! Thanks again for the support. It means I get to keep making videos like this. ❤️
This was amazing!!!! what an incredible sight!
I love hot air balloons. I never knew of a competition like this. Crazy that it was done in Hungary. The dance at the beginning of the competition was neat. Funny statement about going to fish a balloon.
Really fun video! Quite the sport. Thanks
Thank you for sharing. That was real cool!
I love Hot Air Balloons! Also, seeing them dot the sky? Wow 🤩
5:05 Yes! Exactly! I do see it.
I started ballooning in 76 and bought my balloon in 78. I crewed in Albuquerque once and flew twice. I called my balloon Northern Lights
Im from ABQ it was a fantastic festival in October
Well, this was a simply awesome video!
Interesting but more so, absolutely stunning visually.
Very cool. I went on one for fun with my wife in Langley, BC 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
This seems like the absolutely COOLEST thing to witness. Learning about niche competitive sports is not something I thought I would love so much, but here we are. 😄
I've done many dangerous things for work and play but have to admit those aggressive air releases scared me😳
Thank you for sharing!
Heyy I am one of the dancers! Great to have you here!
Oh cool! Thanks for putting on such a great dance in the opening ceremony
Amazing!!!
The first music played in this video is the Brazilian national anthem and it's sooo coool you chose it to start it! Saudações do Brasil 🇧🇷
Here is something that you might want to consider planning and making a trip to. You will be amazed at how many hot air balloons there are and the different shapes there are. I was blown away at how many balloons there were.
The 2025 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta will take place from October 4-12:
Thursday, October 9
The day begins with the Dawn Patrol Show and Morning Glow, a choreographed inflation and launch set to music. The Mass Ascension Special Shape Rodeo is the most popular event of the day.
Friday, October 10
You can spend the morning as you like, perhaps by taking a hot air balloon ride or visiting the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.
Saturday, October 11
You can schedule a hot air balloon ride in the morning, and you can watch the ascension from a different vantage point.
Sunday, October 12
You can spend the morning and early afternoon as you like, and you can take a hot air balloon ride in the late afternoon.
The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is the world's largest balloon event, featuring about 600 balloons and 700 pilots.
Some recommend visiting North Domingo Baca Park to see the morning mass ascension, and Vista Del Norte Park to see the balloons land
That's awesome! I'm going to try to make it out there.
Awesome video...was looking forward to see what this was gonna be following the insta post. Awesome!
A really interesting sport!
Beautiful to watch.
Scary to contemplate... Scary thoughts:
Pilot error / pylons and electrical cabling... In-flight devastation, loss of life, traumatised onlookers, grieving families, friends, connections...
Take Care. Good Luck.
I haven't even ever been in a _plane_ let alone a _balloon_ or an _airship_ !! 🤔🥺
Being on _horses_ is _quite high enough_ off the ground for _me_ ...and horseriding was always _far more enjoyable_ an exercise, in my mind.
💕🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴💕
high tension electric cables! and bad weather would sacre me a lot in a balloon !
Great video, spotlighting this competitive world of ballooning, takes floating around the countryside wondering where your going (what I mostly do), to a whole different level (yeah excuse the pun)
Canadian championships held in High River AB every September.
Not since 2019 it’s in saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu Qc
I really need a hot air balloon trip, over the pyramids, northern India or the Grand Canyon preferred. Another great video to wake up to.
That was surprisingly fascinating. 🎈🎈🎈
I want 7.16 to 7.30 as a screensaver !!! AWESOME !
I just checked and there isn't an extra/new video on your nebula channel right now. I already subscribe to nebula because I love the Jet Lag crew. I usually watch your videos early there too. Love the content. Thought you would want to know.
Thanks Rebecca! Jet Lag is so fun to watch.
Altitude not elevation, which is for terrestrial features. Great video. I grew up doing ballooning events as a kid in Alberta. We flew our family balloon all over Western Canada and the US
I like that there's Electronics in the sport!
This geocacher approves of your geocaching reference! Another great episode, Mike!
Haha Yes! Thanks!
Hot air ballooning was a sport in the 1924 Paris Olympics
I live in a town that does hot air balloon classic every end of the july. I've also crew for balloons for the last 12 years
wow.
That would be awesome having a few beers and a bbq watching that 💯👌🏽
Sounds like a perfect day!
Hey Mike if you want to learn more about sondes. I'm one of the many sonde hunters down here in the states that tracks sondes released by National Weather Service.
What sonde models are common over there?
Love the videos
I've made a lot of videos focusing on ballooning, but I have yet to make one in another country. Hoping to change that next year!
Very interesting to watch. Who knew that hot air balloon was a sport. I will say it is not on my bucket list as it is higher than a coffee table. Thank you, Donnie.
Love this channel. Liked Canal boats. Is there also River boating? Or a new favorite private trains, pet airplanes. Cargo ships, research boats, etc. GoneWithTheWynns is in canal, eu. Are there canals in US/CA? There are rivers. CA has polar cruises.... Lovel.
BTW: I mix watching backlog and new, and i thought I had a hair timeline .. but nope! TG youtube dates are easy to find on long videos...
Next video: Macau
Other than Space X what ways haven't you traveled yet Downie?
when is the bathurst 1000 vid coming out so keen to watch it
Those definitely looked light alien spacecrafts in mystic fog.
I worked on the ground crew for a hot air balloon ride company for nearly a year. It was kind of a brutal job for me. I don't fall asleep easily and we would usually be notified at 10PM that we would be needed at 5AM the next morning. I hated that, but everything else about the job was pretty fun. Oh, except being the single person on the crown line. When standing up the balloon, you have someone pulling a rope that leads away from the basket and is attached to the top, or crown, of the envelope (balloon). Your job when pulling that line is to not let everything stand up so quickly that it goes past vertical and ends up swaying back and forth a bunch. You want it to stand straight up and sit there. My boss, the aeronaut (pilot), who was the one using the burners during the stand up procedure, thought that meant standing the balloon up really slowly was the best way to do it. That is not actually true. He would stretch it out for at least 5 minutes if not 10 and the whole time I'm trying to hold down all of that force that wants to pull up, my hands being crushed by the rope I've wrapped around them in order to maintain my grip for as long as I needed, all of my muscles burning and starting to give up, unable to maintain the traction I need on the wet, dewey grass. And he would berate me if I couldn't manage to keep it from swaying because I was utterly exhausted by the time he finally got it up. Eventually, the envelope needed to go into the shop for some repairs, which his instructor would do. This instructor could tell by inspecting the envelope that my boss was taking way too long to stand the thing up and chewed him out pretty hard in front of me. I loved it, even if it was a little bit awkward. When my boss would berate me, he would throw all kinds of stupid misoginy into the mix, calling into question my manliness. I felt so justified watching him have to cower in front of his pissed off teacher.
Holy yap
Sir downie, how many hours does it take to fall a ballon with styrofoam cup with gps tracker? What is the distance of the balloon release to the place where you find the styrofoam cup? Thank you!
In my small city we have one guy with a balloon. But (of course) he flies in the mornings, so I never see him. But he post beautiful pictures on Facebook, and that is good enough.
Can we have a Canadian series of jet lag with you as the guest, please
I’d love that!
Next year, you need to go to the European Tram Operators Competition. Tim Traveler did a good job snapshotting this years events.
Where was this competition held? I am from Hungary and did not hear about this. Would have been good to meet with you!
That's so cool!
Great video! Really interesting!
Very interesting
This is a cool video
Nobody does it like you
This is so new to me , hot air balloon sports lol interesting. Another good video
Glad you liked it!
nice i love it
Thought you might get a ride
where is the hotel video on nebula?
I love Hot air ballooning and if you ever get a chance come to Lancaster Pennsylvania in September and see the the hot air balloons. You can search Lancaster county hot air balloon festival and there you can see when the next hot air balloon festival is like maybe next year is the festival and I want you to see the hot air balloons in the early morning
You need to go the Albuquerque for Balloonfest. THAT IS AMAZING
Why do you have the Brazilian national anthem in the background??? 😂
Move over badminton
Right?! Tossing bean bags and all! haha
that was awesome!
Thanks! It was pretty crazy.
SO fucking beautiful idea :D
I don't get why did you choose the Brazilian anthem at the beginning of the video....
You have an amazing life! Are you sick of hotel rooms yet? They do take their toll. Stay safe, enjoy life.
I am lifetime member on Nebula
Glad to have you there, Julian!
I used to fly my plane alot. That was risky. Ballooning scares the pants off me. I couldnt😬🤭😅
Fun!
So they are the same people that’s releasing balloons into the air when they are modern technologies available for weather.
What modern technology can get you an instant reading on the wind direction at your exact location at all elevations?
Really wish you'd go back to doing videos about trains--
--Wait. This IS pretty cool. Carry on! :)
Awesome
....hear me out....
bottle? OR just over the edge???
WHAT? i have never heard of it O.o
I guess I’m so early that his next video on Nebula hasn’t been posted yet
I'm uploading it now. Hang tight!
It is a pity they littered all of those balloons.
"They just put the yellow flag up..." Silence 😅
❤👌🏼
❤
Sonde...german for probe
Anyone who doesn't give this video a thumbs up can go fish a balloon!
Hahaha! I see what you did there ;)
If only more people knew how unregulated and how utterly dangerous hot air balloon flying was, there’d be no industry for it
I see they track down their expensive GPS Wind gauge. But what about all the litter with all the balloons that they’re releasing in the air. I guess those are just scattered around the field somewhere now. 😡
this is NOT a sport, its a recreation
I think the competitive aspect makes it a sport.
Doing it for fun without competition would make it recreation.
Ballooning can be done recreationally, commercially and competitively. This in fact is a sport.
Its not for anything competitively. There's rarely anything you can do to control the balloon for fast maneuvers. It's just used for fun or recreation
Then explain what it’s called when one of them hoists a trophy above their head and is crowned World Champion for a year? Just a recreational champion?
That's just for bragging rights as a fun thing to do. Building your own model plane and flying it. You just do it for fun.