Most balloonists say that morning flights are their absolute favourite. Rising with the sun offers unlimited possibilities. So here in Szeged, having the first morning flight four days into the air meant pilots had to wait for that special early morning feeling... And then they needed to wait longer still, as fog blanketed the region on Thursday morning at the 25th FAI World Hot Air Balloon Championship.

In this already iconic picture taken by competitor Matthew Scaife of Australia,
the field is still completely surrounded by fog as pilots lift off. Credit: Matthew Scaife

Pilots arrived at the briefing to find an imposing 6 flight task sheet, which became a not-much-easier 5 tasks to account for the fog delay. Again, with a high degree of difficulty in flight planning, adapting to the conditions and executing with finesse required exceptional piloting skills.

In competitive golf, the third day is often called ‘Moving Day’ as the players move up and down the leaderboard ahead of the grand finale. Likewise, the third flight at the 25th FAI World Hot Air Balloon Championship saw movement everywhere but at the top as France's Clement Seigeot grew his lead with another impressive flight.

The amended task sheet gave the pilots a Pilot Declared Goal (PDG) to start, followed by a third Hesitation Waltz (HWZ) of the week. From there, they went to a Minimum Distance Double Drop (MDD) and then set their own Fly On (FON) at altitude and then completed a Land Run (LRN). Simple enough?

Consistency is key

The previous article highlighted the importance of consistency and the fact that none of the leaders had won a task. That changed on the PDG where first place Clement Seigeot flew to 5m of the virtual mark he set in the sky. While many others performed well, he grew his lead on the first task of the day.

Pilots then made a bee-line into the HWZ where incredible displays of skill meant massive scores highlighted by Matthew Scaife’s winning 0.20 m and six others within a meter. Over 100 of the 118 pilots threw in the marker measurement area (MMA) which lent to more stunning visuals.

Next, they went to the MDD. It is usually split into four quadrants and pilots must throw their markers into two opposing pieces of the pie. On task 9, they instead had eight slices and had to make sure the markers fell into two non-adjacent ones. It was tricky work but nearly half the group was able to get a result with Satoshi Ueda of Japan scoring an excellent 3.62 m, the combined distance of both markers from the centre of the target.

Pilots fly over the MDD with its clearly defined slices. Nearly half of the pilots scored.
Photo: Daniel Gregory.

Pilots then had to pick another spot in the sky and fly to it, with the catch that it had to be at least 500’ higher or lower than their altitude at declaration and at least 1km from their current location. This requires knowing the wind directions you’ll encounter as you change heights and making that calculation in flight. Once again, Clement Seigeot shone, with an 8m result gaining him 1000 points.

Finally, the point declared as the FON became the start of a LRN where pilots were given thirty minutes to make the biggest possible triangle in the sky. The British pilots stood out from the crowd here with three of the top four results: reigning World Junior Champion Daniel Gregory getting a 16.20km result. Seigeot was not far behind with 15.80km. 

After landing and point calculations, Clement Seigeot was in a dominating position with 10,247 out of 11,000 possible points. His two closest chasers had changed: Poland's Tomasz Filus was in second with 8,808 and former World Champion Joe Heartsill of USA was in third with 8,282.

Pilots jostle for positioning on the fourth flight. In high level competition ballooning, envelope to envelope
contact is generally not punished but for basket to envelope, there are penalties.
There are also penalties for excessive vertical speed for safety reasons.
Credit: WHABC2024

More tasks = more points

Propane, food, rest and repeat: refuelling for humans and their balloons. 

Pilots returned for more work in the afternoon with four more tasks. Flying out from the Szeged Airport, the competitors started with their favourite: a Hesitation Waltz (HWZ) which has been giving pilots grief through indecision all week. From there, they needed to set a virtual goal for themselves at least 1km away and at least 2000’ in the air as a Fly On (FON) before coming back down to ground where a target was laid out for them as a Judge Declared Goal (JDG). They ended the evening with a climb to another FON of their choice, this time at least 1 km away and over 1000’.

Once again, the HWZ proved an elusive challenge with only a few getting to the target. The young Belgium Marten Deleersnyder’s 22 m mark was close enough to give him 1000 points.

From there, Australia's Daniel Kusternigg bested the field with a 7 m FON with four Americans among the top 6 on the task. Almost needless to say that virtual dot-in-the-sky specialist and overall leader Clement Seigeot was also in that top 6.

A different set of Americans did well back down at the JDG with Bruce Wood winning the gravity drop with 39.45 m. Few competitors were able to get into the Marker Measurement Area (MMA) and had to settle for electronic marks.

As the wind picked up - not a usual situation on an evening flight - competitors quickly got to their FON before landing. It was another Belgian, David Spildooren who won that task only 6 m away from a spot he could not see in the sky but had picked out earlier.

Standings after Thursday

After the provisional scoring of the fourth flight, the podium remained the same as Clement Seigeot leads with 13,523 points. Tomasz Filus is next with 12,114 and Joe Heartsill rounds out the podium with 11,558.

It all comes down to Friday, the final day of competition. More exciting flying to come from Szeged...

There will never be enough amazing pictures of the foggy launch
of the third flight of the 25th FAI World Hot Air Balloon Championship! 
Photo: Thomas Hook

Follow the competition

Throughout the week, make sure to follow along the FAI Ballooning coverage of the event and view the images from the competition via the FAI Flickr album.

Be an International Ballooning Ambassador by joining in:

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3. FAI Ballooning YouTube Channel

Header image credit: WHABC24