Narrative:

This was a hot air balloon advertising flight with passengers on board launched near a sports event. Launch was approximately 1/4 mile away from the event site to the north of the event site. Prior permission to launch from that site had been secured. Upon launch; maintained a slow; steady ascent to altitude; moving from a wind stream that was carrying us southwest past the event site into a wind stream that carried us in a more westerly direction. Continued ascent to altitude. At no time did we overfly the event itself. Crossing over a golf course to the west of the event; I lowered altitude to pick up the more southerly flow in an attempt to steer towards an unoccupied football practice field with the intent of landing. The southerly flow carried me to the left of the field; so I executed a missed approached and climbed back to altitude to find another landing location. I flew downwind till I found a large field adjacent to an extended care facility; performed an approach and landed at that field. A second advertising balloon launched from the same location; followed a similar; but not identical flight path; and landed in a field across the street from the field I landed in. After landing; I was notified via radio by the pilot of the second balloon that an individual identifying himself as being with the FAA was on site and asking why the balloons were 'flying low over the sports event' and were 'flying low' I was not approached or contacted by this individual or anyone else claiming to be with the FAA. While I admit that I dropped down from altitude at least once and possibly more than once prior to my final landing; I did so as part of my initial approach to a landing. Other than climbout from launch and both attempted and final approaches; I flew at altitude. Regarding perception; I have to question whether the FAA person realized we had launched in proximity to the event and therefore failed to recognize that we were climbing out from a launch; not flying in level flight. I also have to question what he used as a guideline to determine that we were 'flying low.' the top line of this section asks for an opinion as to what I believe caused this problem and what can be done to correct prevent the problem from happening in the future. It is my opinion that this problem can be alleviated not only in this situation; but in all cases of 'low flying' balloons; in a very simple manner. I believe the solution lies in the inclusion of the words 'and balloons' immediately following the word 'helicopter(south)' in 14 crash fire rescue equipment 91.119(d). Balloons need access to winds near ground level for steering purposes. Studies have been conducted that demonstrate that allowing balloons this flexibility in altitude does not negatively impact flight safety. I believe it would enhance flight safety. The current regulation; which forces balloons to adhere to a fixed wing flight profile; is indicative of a regulating body that both fails to understand and fails to regulate for the flight characteristics of differing aircraft types. This failure of regulation negatively impacts flight safety and needs to be corrected.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Two hot air balloon pilots and passengers in two balloons with advertising; launch near a tennis tournament with permission. One pilot is later questioned by an individual claiming to be with the FAA; about flying low over the town and the tournament.

Narrative: This was a hot air balloon advertising flight with passengers on board launched near a sports event. Launch was approximately 1/4 mile away from the event site to the north of the event site. Prior permission to launch from that site had been secured. Upon launch; maintained a slow; steady ascent to altitude; moving from a wind stream that was carrying us Southwest past the event site into a wind stream that carried us in a more westerly direction. Continued ascent to altitude. At no time did we overfly the event itself. Crossing over a golf course to the west of the event; I lowered altitude to pick up the more southerly flow in an attempt to steer towards an unoccupied football practice field with the intent of landing. The southerly flow carried me to the left of the field; so I executed a missed approached and climbed back to altitude to find another landing location. I flew downwind till I found a large field adjacent to an extended care facility; performed an approach and landed at that field. A second advertising balloon launched from the same location; followed a similar; but not identical flight path; and landed in a field across the street from the field I landed in. After landing; I was notified via radio by the pilot of the second balloon that an individual identifying himself as being with the FAA was on site and asking why the balloons were 'flying low over the sports event' and were 'flying low' I was not approached or contacted by this individual or anyone else claiming to be with the FAA. While I admit that I dropped down from altitude at least once and possibly more than once prior to my final landing; I did so as part of my initial approach to a landing. Other than climbout from launch and both attempted and final approaches; I flew at altitude. Regarding perception; I have to question whether the FAA person realized we had launched in proximity to the event and therefore failed to recognize that we were climbing out from a launch; not flying in level flight. I also have to question what he used as a guideline to determine that we were 'flying low.' The top line of this section asks for an opinion as to what I believe caused this problem and what can be done to correct prevent the problem from happening in the future. It is my opinion that this problem can be alleviated not only in this situation; but in all cases of 'low flying' balloons; in a very simple manner. I believe the solution lies in the inclusion of the words 'AND BALLOONS' immediately following the word 'HELICOPTER(S)' in 14 CFR 91.119(d). Balloons need access to winds near ground level for steering purposes. Studies have been conducted that demonstrate that allowing balloons this flexibility in altitude does not negatively impact flight safety. I believe it would enhance flight safety. The current regulation; which forces balloons to adhere to a fixed wing flight profile; is indicative of a regulating body that both fails to understand and fails to regulate for the flight characteristics of differing aircraft types. This failure of regulation negatively impacts flight safety and needs to be corrected.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.