If you have any fears or questions, find the answers on this page, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you still have questions – we’ll be happy to answer them!
Contrary to popular belief, you won’t experience vertigo on a hot-air balloon flight. In fact, with no connection to the ground, even the most vertigo-sensitive passengers enjoy their balloon flight.
There are no particular medical contraindications to ballooning, with the exception of pregnant women and people with prosthetic knees, hips or heart problems. All you need is to be in good health!
There is no maximum age for ballooning, but you must be able to climb into the basket with ease. For reasons of safety and comfort, young children under 9 years and 1.25 m tall are not allowed to fly. Children over 9 and 1.25 m tall must be accompanied by an adult to fly.
Dress should be appropriate for the season. We advise you to wear the same clothes as for a walk in the countryside or forest, and good shoes (no heels or flip-flops). Pants are preferable to shorts, as we sometimes land in fields with tall grass or nettles, and you may also feel cold after landing if you fly at the end of the day.
It’s not cold on board the gondola. The air in the balloon is heated to enable us to fly. It cancels out the temperature drop associated with altitude. So you’ll have the same temperature in flight as on the ground.
We have 2 hot-air balloons, one for up to 4 passengers, the other for up to 6. Depending on the size of your group, we can arrange for you to fly together.
A hot-air balloon flight lasts about 1 hour, but then there’s the preparation for take-off and the packing up of the balloon after the flight, and of course the return to the departure point and the drink to share the highlights of the flight. So you’re looking at around 3 hours in all.
The wind dictates the route taken and the landscapes discovered. The balloon’s landing site is therefore different from the take-off site. But don’t worry, our ground crew follows us and picks us up at the landing site.
Vol en Ballon has declared its activity as a passenger air carrier to the DSAC (Direction de la Sécurité Aérienne Civile), in accordance with current regulations. As such, it holds an insurance policy guaranteeing the risk of professional civil liability and compensation for any damage suffered by passengers transported by its care, with the exception of damage to objects, clothing, cameras, internal or external prostheses.
Flights take place at dawn or dusk to avoid dangerous wind turbulence. In the morning, take-off is 1 hour after sunrise, and in the evening: 2 hours before sunset.
Here are the approximate flight times:
- April: 7:30 a.m. or 6:00 p.m.
- May: 6:45 a.m. or 6:30 p.m.
- June: 6:30 a.m. or 7:00 p.m.
- July: 6:45 a.m. or 7:00 p.m.
- August: 7:15 a.m. or 6:15 p.m.
- September: 7:45 a.m. or 5:00 p.m.
- October: 8:30 a.m. or 4:30 p.m.
He holds a hot-air balloon pilot’s license, renewed every 2 years by the DGAC, and is subject to an annual skills maintenance check and medical examination.
Calm air conditions are essential for flying: light winds, no risk of rain or thunderstorms. To confirm his flight, the pilot consults several specialized weather sites, and is the only one authorized to make the decision to fly.
There are several reasons for this: either the wind is too strong, or strong gusts are forecast, which would generate too much turbulence. The flight and landing would be too risky.
Or it’s too hot (over 30°c at take-off), in which case there’s a risk of the balloon overheating, which could damage the aerostat and affect the comfort of the passengers on board.
We ask you to contact us 48 hours before the flight, to confirm whether or not it will be maintained. It’s the pilot who makes the decision, and he can sometimes wait until the same day, depending on changing weather conditions.
If the scheduled slot is cancelled, we try to reschedule the flight whenever possible. For this reason, no deposit is taken at the time of booking.
