Safety

Hot air ballooning is the oldest form of human flight and one of the safest, but it is real aviation and we treat it that way. Everything below is what we do every morning, not what we promise to do.

Every Masai Balloons flight is captained by a pilot holding a current KCAA Commercial Pilot Licence (Balloon), with a minimum of 500 hours in command and a current medical certificate.

Pilots fly a recurrent training cycle annually, including a check ride with a KCAA-approved examiner, and are weather-current on the specific zone they are flying that morning — Mara North, the Reserve, or the Triangle each behave differently at dawn.

Each balloon system — envelope, basket, burners, fuel cylinders, instruments — is inspected on a 100-hour or annual cycle, whichever comes first, by a licensed maintenance engineer. Envelopes are fabric-tested and re-certified at the manufacturer's published intervals. Fuel cylinders are pressure-tested and stamped. Nothing flies that is out of currency on its paperwork.

We will not launch above 8 knots of surface wind, with cloud base below 1,000 ft, with visibility under 5 km, or with any forecast of convective weather inside our operating area in the next two hours.

The Mara is gentle at dawn most of the year, which is exactly why we fly at dawn. When the conditions are not right, we stand the flight down — usually before sunrise, sometimes at the field.

Before you climb in, the pilot will brief you on three things: how to enter and exit the basket, the landing position, and what to do if the pilot asks you to stay put after landing. Please listen — it takes four minutes and it is the most useful four minutes of the morning. Ask anything. There are no awkward questions about flying.

Most balloon landings are gentle stand-up landings. Some are firmer and the basket comes to rest on its side — what pilots call a tip-over landing. This is normal, designed-for, and not a problem provided you are in the landing position: facing the direction of travel with your back against the padded wall, knees bent and braced, both hands gripping the rope handles inside the compartment, no cameras or loose objects in your hands.

Stay in that position until the pilot says you may stand up.

If the wind aloft strengthens or a cell builds in our direction, the pilot will land early at the nearest suitable site. This is a normal decision, not an emergency. The chase crew will reach you within minutes — they have been tracking the basket from the ground throughout the flight and are in radio contact with the pilot.

Two chase vehicles follow every flight. The ground crew are trained in basket handling, fire safety with the propane burner, and first response. Where a flight crosses or lands inside the National Reserve, we are in radio contact with Kenya Wildlife Service rangers, who will check the landing site for elephant, buffalo, or lion before we open the basket. We do not disembark guests until the site is cleared.

The burner produces an open flame of considerable noise and heat — this is expected. Please tie back long hair, remove flammable synthetic scarves, and do not bring lit cigarettes or vapes anywhere near the launch field. Fuel cylinders are handled exclusively by the crew.