Some of the best hot air balloon pilots have dropped in on High River for the annual competition.

Jason Adams from Kirkfield Ontario is back and says a win would go a long ways toward sending him on to Japan for the Worlds.

"You have to qualify to get into any of the major competitions around the world like the world championships," he says. "The world championships are held every two years so the top two pilots from Canada over the last two years qualify to go."

He came to love flying from an early age.

"I had my first flight at the age of two, my father was the third balloon pilot in Canada, so he had me up way back then and then I finally got licensed in March of 1993,"  Adams says. "When I was in public school I used to get sent to the office for making burner noises in grades three and four, and the principal didn't believe that my father actually flew balloons so I had him come set it up for the school and, I've tried other jobs but like my office with a view."

Adams pilots a balloon year-round.

The last four years he's been in Tanzania sailing over the Serengeti and he just lined up a job for this winter in Myanmar, formerly Burma, where he'll be flying tourists over Buddhist temples.