NOBPA COMPETITION
Results from the 2010 Competition Season and prior year's results will soon be posted on http://www.nobpacompetition.blogspot.com. Link to this blog is located on the Links page under "other clubs".
Balloon Racing
What is competition flying?
As in most sports there is a way that you can compete against other balloons in a test of skill. Ballooning is a little different in that it does not rely on speed like most other aircraft. Balloons travel at the same speed as the wind, therefore all balloons travel at approximately the same speed. If there was to be a competition based on airspeed alone, it would be a draw between all competitors.
It is still, however, not that simple. The target is usually identified by a large cross with 30 feet arms. Balloons are approximately 50 feet tall, 35 feet in diameter, and there can be up to 100 in a competition. Now basic math says it is impossible to fit that many balloons at a single target. Because of this, weighted streamers (markers) are used as a substitute for landing. These markers are thrown at the target from any height and the closest marker to the target wins that task. One flight can have up to 4 tasks, which means the pilots and their teams are working overtime to complete the flight with a good point score.
How do balloons compete?
Balloon pilots compete against each other based on accuracy. The object is to get the closest to a target set by a third party, in this case, the competition director. The closest to the target gets the most points and over several flights this leads to an overall winner.
If you can't steer a balloon, how accurate can you be? Balloons are amazingly agile aircraft for their size. Although you can't steer them in the conventional manner, you can "steer" them by using different wind directions at different altitudes. Wind direction in not exactly the same as you go up, sometimes there can be minor deviations in direction, at other times there is considerable "steerage" available for the pilot to use. Pilots ascertain this direction through a device called a "windreader" which uses a theodolite hooked to a computer to track the climb rate and direction change of a small helium filled balloon.
By using the different directions, top level pilots are amazingly accurate and it is not uncommon to have 20-30 pilots closer than 3 feet from the center of the target from distances as far as 5 miles away.