This handbook was produced as a combined Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), industry, and individual contributor  effort. The FAA wishes to acknowledge the following individual and corporate contributors: Aerostar International, Inc. for the performance planning chart in Chapter 3 and the burner ratings sidebar on page 7-2 FireFly Balloons for imagery provided in Chapter 2 Lindstrand Balloons Ltd for the imagery in Chapter 2 J. Neils Enterprises, Inc. for imagery provided in Chapter 2 Lindan Hot Air Service Center for imagery provided in Chapter 2 Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, for many images used in Chapter 4 Art Rangno, Sky Guide, for many of the cloud illustrations used in Chapter 4 Gordon Schwontkowski, author of Hot Air Balloon Crewing Essentials, for editorial content and contribution of material  relating to the role of the ground crew in ballooning Mike Bauwens, of Balloon the Rockies, for many of the maneuver descriptions and original graphics used in Chapters 6  and 7 Chapter 11, The Gas Balloon, was a collaborative effort of Peter Cuneo and Barbara Fricke, Andy Cayton, and Kevin  Knapp. Individual content and editorial contributions by: Raymond Bair, Philip Bryant, Stephen Turner, Jim Barnett, Kay West,  Marian Deeney, Laura Hoeve, Tom Hamilton (for the False Lift discussion, originally printed in Balloon Life Magazine,  and reprinted here in Chapter 6), Pat Cannon (for the pibal plotting procedure originally printed in Ballooning Magazine,  and reprinted here in Chapter 3), Andrew and Barbara Ziolo, Chris Krowchuck, and Stuart Enloe Individual photographic contributions have been made by Jane English (multiple lenticular cloud in Figure 4-23), Candy  Ecker (Figure 3-15), and C. Tina Orvin (Figure 8-7). The FAA acknowledges with appreciation the contributions of the Balloon Federation of America for technical support  and input.  v Acknowledgements