The morning peak hour with just the right altitude

THERE'S little need to advertise when you sell hot-air balloon flights in Melbourne. Most commuters stuck in morning peak-hour traffic have glanced up longingly into the clouds and seen them pass by.

Tim Steiner once did that himself years ago before deciding on a career with altitude. Since 1992, he's clocked up 2000 flights as a pilot for Global Ballooning. Business is booming and, with the holidays looming and the recent collapse of rival company Peregrine, things look to get even busier.

"It's an amazing sensation flying above the buildings and seeing the joy it brings to people," he says. "The variety is what I love. The variety and the uncertainty and the adventure."

There is plenty of uncertainty in a hot-air balloon flight. If the weather's bad, you don't fly at all. And if it's good, an in-depth reading of the morning forecast determines where you take off and, hopefully, where you land.

On the morning The Age joins a flight, a north-westerly breeze makes Royal Park a good option for lift-off, and we soon float over the CBD and an Eastern Freeway jammed full of cars.

"The winds can be tricky some days," he says. "The lighter days are the hardest to fly because you don't have that consistency of direction."

Days like that can be challenging in Melbourne, where a north wind could push balloons out into the bay. A few have touched down on the beach or out on the water. Steiner points out they were from a different company.

"A pilot can line up for a landing target and the wind can change and float you off," he says. "The last choice is the beach and it's perfectly safe."

After an hour aloft, we land gently on an oval in Bulleen. For some, it's just another day's work floating above the rat race.