Story by Jonathan Perron-Clow of the FAI Ballooning Commission's Public & Media Relations Sub-Committee

There’s nothing like a nicely timed high pressure ridge to get balloon pilots excited. In Austria, this week, it coincides with the 23rd FAI European Hot Air Balloon Championship which gives the gathered competitors lots of opportunities to be in the air and collect those all-important points. Day three - Tuesday 19 August - saw another two flights completed with eight tasks in which pilots focused on the targets to rack up their points.

Flight Four: Tasks 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

There were no shortage of tough tasks during the first three flights on days one and two. The third flight day was no different. Five tasks were presented to pilots on arrival at the briefing on Tuesday morning. In some ways, it was a bit more traditional of a set of tasks than the previous days, testing once again a different skill set from pilots.

If the previous day saw very light winds, pilots could expect a bit more on day three. After finding their own launch sites, the launching balloons lined up for one of the most spectacular views in all airsports (according to this author’s humble opinion): the line, the train, the dragon. Whatever it may be called, seeing over 80 balloons follow each other from target to target through the sky never gets old, but it only happens at this scale at a few events in the world.

Credit: Agata Dominguez

The first task of the day, the 12th overall, was a Fly In (FIN). This was the first of four consecutive targets that required the gravity drop method (where pilots must not throw their marker, but must let it drop on the cross below). On this day, the competitors were too good, playing with all of their steerage potential to squeeze themselves as close as possible to their targets. Eighteen pilots were within 10 metres, including Dominic Bareford (UK) who quietly rose into the top three on the second day and topped the scoring on this task with a 1.41 m result.

Next was a Judge Declared Goal (JDG) which saw 59 competitors score within the marking area (MMA), including three pilots who successfully dropped their target within one metre. Jan Suchy (CZE) grabbed 1000 points with an impressive 0.23m result, and Uwe Schneider (GER)’s 0.79m and David Strassman (SUI)’s 0.85m drops also deserve to be mentioned.

Up next were two consecutive Hesitation Waltzs (HWZ). These have been a constant during this event, but this time, the structure was different. Four targets were set out and pilots could drop at any two with different coloured markers so long as the yellow one came out first. Again, the performances made by these skilled pilots were excellent: Stefan Zeberli (SUI) and David Strassman (SUI) both had results under 1m on the first, and Benjamin Cleyet Marrel (FRA) and Pavel Merinsky (CZE) managed it on the second. There were a combined 69 scores under 10m over the two tasks, demonstrating the level of expertise among the 82 competitors participating at this championship event.

A pilot drops a marker down to the target

The last goal of the morning was a Land Run which calls on competitors to create the biggest possible triangle in the sky. In this case, they only had 25 minutes to start their triangle, log their turn and finish it off. It requires a solid plan, skilled execution and meticulous clock watching. One score stood out above the rest: Adrien de Sade (FRA)’s 10.20 km2, garnering him 1000 points.

At the end of the flight, "Mr. Consistent" Stefan Zeberli of Switzerland had taken the lead. He is a five time winner at this event and the 2022 FAI World Champion. The 2018 FAI World Champion Dominic Bareford (GBR) sat in second. Ignas Kazlauskas (LIT) made his first appearance in the top three, remarking that, "Pilots' results are very close to each other... What precision is being dictated this year!"

Benjamin Cleyet Marrel (FRA) won two of the day's tasks: “Since a really big mistake on the first flight, we’ve been climbing the ladder,” he explained. “We missed one of the tasks but the other four we got good results. It’s a really nice place to fly and it’s a really well organised event.” 

Flight Five: Tasks 17, 18, 19

After refueling the balloons (and the teams!), competitors gathered again to find out which tasks faced them during the evening flight.

Preparing to launch 

They were called to find their own launch site and fly into what had served as the main launch site. Once there, a Gordon Bennett Memorial task (GBM) awaited them. See video of the task on Facebook.

In this case, the area around the cross is not valid for a score. Instead, there is a limited area of scoring - represented this time with two triangles on the ground on either side of the cross. Pilots could throw their marker, but it had to land in that area. A large and adoring crowd greeted the pilots as they flew over a tree line and down towards the target. While the Austrian pilots, who flew mere centimetres over the crowd after their throws, may have got the loudest cheers, it was a trio of visitors who got the best scores: two got 1000 points as Oscar Portillo Feliu (ESP) got 6.36m and Sven Goehler (GER) 6.37m. Eliav Cohen (ISR) was next at 7.31m.

From there, they went on to another HWZ where again pilots understood the assignment: 43 scored from their gravity drops and most others were close by. Arkadiusz Iwanski (POL)’s 0.63m managed the most precise drop.

The third task was a Minimum Distance (MDT) where pilots had to travel the shortest distance possible in the following 25 minutes, passing a line on the map. With some speedier winds at altitude and slower winds both close to the surface and potentially about 3000 feet in the air, pilots had to make a plan to slow themselves up. At press time, the results of this task hadn’t yet been published.

The competition continues on Wednesday with good weather expected before a possible change in weather system. Best to get the flights in when possible!

Elisabeth Kindermann-Schoen (AUT) focuses on her next destination

Follow the action

Top skills will be on display all week in Wieselburg. FAI will provide extensive coverage of the Championship with regular updates on its website, Facebook, and Instagram.

• Tracking and results
• FAI Facebook
• FAI Instagram
• FAI event minisite
• Organiser's website
• FAI Flickr album

Be an International Ballooning Ambassador and share news, reels and posts for this event. Here's how:

1. Follow, Like & Share posts and reels from Facebook and Instagram
2. Use the hashtags: 
   #airsports #FAIballooning
   #ballooningeuropeans2025
    #ehabc2025
   #hotairballooning

Images: Raphael Wimmer