Flight Crew Lighter-Than-Air
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 12; Flight Crew Total 860; Flight Crew Type 269
Situational Awareness
Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; General Declared Emergency
Human Factors; Weather
Flight planning was done obtaining info from flight svc; as well as talking with another pilot prior to the   flight; collaborating on a strategy. -use of people at meeting site and launch site. Surface winds were north and beyond 3000 ft was a south direction-approx; 30 minutes prior to launch. Launched and initially climbed to 1000 ft.  Winds were in a north direction sharper than what was seen; at 3000 ft winds did shift to south but quite slow...very slow began a westerly direction about 25 minutes into the flight. Seems what ever favorable winds seen at flight time had broken up. Higher the winds were stalled. At this time was approaching the lagoon;  I  began a descent  but only got more unfavorable direction and I could see this might require emergency assistance and contacted my ground crew to place a call to beach lifeguard and or 911. I briefed the passengers; that the landing could be an unfavorable situation with onshore winds that are common in the evening. As we descended to less that 1000 ft over the beach; the west direction shifted to a north easterly -over a 20 minute period. Now  over the ocean surf at about 700 ft still drifting in a westerly direction. At approx 100 feet the direction turned to a north east direction we were easily 300 yards over the surf with a SLOW drift to the shore. Once about 25 yards approx we were surrounded with surfers and lifeguard personnel; the balloon basket is 10-15 ft  off the water and descended into the surf a few times -passengers are getting scared at this point as 15 ft   surf boards are around us...still slowly moving to the shore point and yelling for help as a drop line is dropped to the emergency team there. The lead response commander-surfer; insisted the passengers jump to their surf boards approx 30 yards from shore as I might have a greater chance of not getting towed under as the waves are just beginning to make contact with the basket; I insisted they stay - however fear of the situation had each  passenger jump into the surf and the attention of the emergency lifeguard team the balloon reacting without the   weight of the passengers drifted up about 25 yards approx..as the east northeast direction prevailed I put the basket into the surf and the waves assisted in pushing the basket to the shore with the assistance of those  surfers that had the drop line...using the burners and the assistance of the surfers moved the balloon to the cliff wall and tore down immediately; once spectators were out of the way.  Immediately made contact with the   passengers and the emergency staff. FAA was notified by the Sheriff; I gave my brief and FAA Pilot Certificate to the site commander and was returned my FAA pilot cert. I was informed by the sheriff this is considered a surf landing aided by lifeguard team - FAA was not sending a rep so I was instructed to direct the team on removing  the equipment off the beach and the passengers insisted they were fine but wet. I apologized this was not the plan but given the circumstances things could have been much worse. They thanked me and were driven back and   cleared by site staff/lifeguard commander. In reviewing the situation -the 'mild winds' were a contributing factor however the winds forecasted...and actual in the air were not anywhere near accurate. My perception of being able to descend to a favorable area before  the coastline was far from adequate; as the west winds only increased till actually 300 yards from the coast-surf. NOT TO FLY this evening would have been ideal. I have limited experience in west  winds-offshore  winds- and the ability to recover without increasing the risk of a tragedy...of running out of daylight-fuel exhaustion  and no onshore winds even on the surface.
Hot air balloon pilot reports encountering unforecasted winds after launching near the coast. Winds at altitude push the balloon over the water and the forecast onshore wind at the surface does not materialize. A line is dropped and the balloon is towed to shore by Lifeguard personnel.