STEERING from A to B

If an experienced pilot wanted to go from one point A to another point B with unpowered balloon. What hope would they have?

Or do you need to send a truck to pick them up.

Very little, unless point B is defined VERY fuzzily. There are exceptions: If you have steering conditions like we had on the morning of Oct. 9th at the Albuquerque Fiesta, and if you're a skilled steerer, you stand a good chance of going where you want. But that's usually difficult to arrange ahead of time.

That's the standard procedure. (Although I've seen Russian chase crews in Europe driving Ladas towing a trailer.)

I know a guy who has flown (twice) without ground crew. He strapped his bicycle to his basket, cut the gas to the fan, fired up, pulled his quick- release and flew. The plan was to ride his bike from where he landed back to his takeoff point, then drive the truck to the landing point. He set up and packed up by himself (he has a build like a Sumo wrestler which allows him to do that). However both times he tried it, the landowner at his landing point took pity on him, drove him back to his truck, and in one case even helped him pack up.

Don't try this at home.

That would be fun trying to bicycle ridding though the bush.

Although they don't always exactly follow the balloon flight, we _do_ have some roads in Mississippi...

In serious competitive events (which the Albuquerque Fiësta is not) many pilots often manage to get within a few metres or even centimetres from a designated target. They do not land there, but drop a marker, fly on to a suitable landing site where they are then picked up by their chase crew (usually driving a 4WD or ordinary car with a trailer, or a van). Of course the target has to be set within the limits of the wind variations at different altitudes, as you cannot fly against the wind in a balloon. So in the general sense, there is very little chance of arriving at point B if you launch from point A if both are always fixed. You typically adapt point B depending on the wind. World Championship-style tasks involve all sorts of steering tasks, including flying angles, arriving at a specific goal during a specific time slot, etc. Competition flying is all about steering a balloon which is, in fact, basically unsteerable. Competing a lot helps to improve one's piloting skills, which comes in handy during any flight if you need to get yourself out of a pinch when you are, for instance, drifting over an inhospitable forest area (or water, or a town...) with a limited choice in landing sites that each require some dedicated 'steering' to get to them. I know some champion pilots who seem to have an uncanny ability to find thin layers of air that magically move them where they want to go... and then, sometimes it just does not work. Zen. Let go. No steering. Retrieving a balloon after landing often is an adventure in itself...

Frank