I' m glad I'm wearing a hat. Tall people should do this to avoid scalps being toasted by the heat radiating from the propane burners. For a few seconds nothing happens, then the balloon begins to lift. The pilot explains that this is the time it takes for the hot air created the burners, to rise to the top of the balloon. Only then is real lift exerted.
Balloonists have no control over the direction of their craft.
They are able to control the height of the balloon to within a matter of inches, but the only way they can hope to alter direction is to find a layer of wind that is blowing in a different direction to the layer below it. As the basket is lifted from one layer into the next, the directional control is the stream of breeze that carries the huge upper canopy. That means that for a moment the basket is being dragged through a different-direction layer of breeze just below. It also explains how the bank of fog, traveling at a level other than that in which we were situated, could creep up on us. We go into, and then through the bank of fog.