No flight if the balloon is not checked by an approved workshop. Every year, all the components of a hot-air balloon are seriously checked by an official organization. The envelope, the basket, the burner, the gas cylinders and the fuel lines. What is monitored in particular is the ageing of the envelope which can result in porosity or risks of tearing. Everything depends on how the balloon is stored and how it is used. In general it is said that an envelope can last at least five hundred hours. The basket is said to age better. We know of some that are over 30 years old. We usually carry out these controls at the end of the winter and in the beginning of the spring.
