The crew should carefully unload the basket, envelope and other equipment from the chase vehicle on the downwind side of it. The basket should be placed upright, about ten feet from the chase vehicle. The envelope bag should then be placed a short distance downwind of the basket. The pilot or crew chief will let you know about how far from the basket, but ten feet is a good start.
Some pilots/owners prefer that a large tarp or similar ground cover be placed on the ground under the envelope. This is to help prevent dirtying the envelope and damaging the delicate fabric. If a tarp is to be used, it should be laid out adjacent to and downwind of the envelope bag before removing the envelope.

While this is going on, the pilot will usually be attaching the burners and the propane lines to the basket. He will then test the burners for proper operation.

At this point, the basket assembly will be laid on its side with the burners towards the envelope. The wires that link the basket to the envelope are then attached. Each set of wires has a specific connection point and the pilot’s instructions should be closely followed in this regard.

The tether line should now be attached to the basket and to the chase vehicle. This is to prevent the balloon’s premature departure.

Although there are many ways to remove the envelope from its protective bag, the most common ways are to walk it out of the bag or to blow it out of the bag.

To blow it out of the bag, the cold inflation process is started and, as the cold air begins to enter the envelope, slowly walk the bag downwind, allowing the envelope to “inflate” itself out of the bag.

Walking it out involves picking up the bag and walking it downwind away from the basket. The envelope will trail out behind. This is the most-commonly used procedure and the remainder of this manual will assume that the envelope was “walked out” prior to commencing cold inflation.

If the pilot directs, the envelope should be pulled out to resemble a flattened version of its inflated self. (This step is often delayed until the cold inflation (see following) has begun and should only be done if the pilot directs.)

CAUTION: THE ENVELOPE SHOULD ONLY BE PULLED BY ITS LOAD TAPES.

The envelope material can easily be torn, thus disabling the balloon and ruining an otherwise lovely flight - - not to mention causing grown pilots to sob unmercifully.

The crown line should now be stretched out in the downwind direction.