German hot air balloonists took to the skies over the town of Tegernsee for the country’s championships 2021.
The best 25 balloon pilots in Germany compete in different tasks over five days.
The organizers announced that at the end of the championship, 400 hot-air balloons will be lifted into the air at a time.
Friday saw the so-called Fly-in. The balloonists have to place a fabric attached to a sand bag as close as possible to a mark, in this case a cross. Each balloonist will have to find their ideal height in order to get as close to the cross as possible, says organiser and president of the German association of hot-air balloons, Andreas Baus. “And I believe that it will be centimetres only which decided the winner.”
Baus said that beside the large, commercial enterprises, there are also the serious sports balloonists like himself who who are passionate about ballooning. And as like in any other big sporting, it is all about the material and the skill of the pilot, serious money can be involved in the sport.
The competition lasts until Sunday.