The Nylon Telegraph is the communication HUB of the HotAirBalloonist.com site.  New members are automatically subscribed to each of three Forums and two sub-forums in The Nylon Telegraph category.

The three main forums within The Nylon Telegraph are,

• The Balloonetin Board

The Balloonetin Board is for members only.  It is for any general topic about ballooning.  You can ask questions and even start a poll!  This forum is viewable by members only.  You must be a logged in member to view and post topics on The Balloonetin Board.

• Equipment Transport

Many pilots travel across this country and often times we have space in our trucks or trailers to help a fellow balloonist.  This forum is used to help make the connection between someone who may have spare room to transport a piece of equipment or someone who is looking to get a piece of equipment from one location to another.  As with the other forums in The Nylon Telegraph when you post a topic here the HAB system will send out hundreds of emails to fellow Balloonists to help you make that connection.

• Wanted

The wanted forum can be used to find that odd item that you just can not locate anywhere else or to ask if someone might want to sell an item they have and had forgotten about.  Inside this forum there are two sub-forums for Pilots and Crew who are available or looking for work.  Here again when you post a topic the HAB system will send out hundreds of emails in hopes of helping make the connection you are looking for.

There are two sub-forums within the Wanted forum. 

• Pilots Available/Wanted
• Crew Available/Wanted

Here are the rules for posting.

ONLY A "Logged in Member" of the site is able to post in any of the forums.

The rules for posting for all three main forums and both sub-fourms are the same.  They are as follows,

The viewing rules are as follows:

ONLY LOGGED IN MEMBERS can view the Balloonetin Board forum.

Any visitor can view the Equipment Transport and Wanted forums

HOW DOES THE NYLON TELEGRAPH WORK?

When a member creates a topic in any of the forums within "The Nylon Telegraph" the HAB system sends out hundreds of emails to members with the topic information that a member has posted.  Each email has a link were members can click and go directly to the new posted topic.  This system allows any member of the site to communicate with hundreds of fellow balloonists in just minutes by creating a single topic in the appropriate forum.

What do I do as a member when I get one of these emails?

When you receive an email from the HAB system notifying you that a fellow Balloonist has created a new topic you have a couple of options. 

First if the new topic is of no interest to you, simply delete the email

If the topic is something that you would like to learn more about or would like to see what others may post in response you click the link at the bottom of the email, log in and select the "FOLLOW" button and the HAB system will notify you any time additional replies are made to that topic.  When you no longer wish to be informed simply go to that topic and select "UNFollow"

What if I do not want to get emails from The Nylon Telegraph?

Log into the site and navigate to the forum that you do not want to receive emails from.  Up in the right hand corner of the forum you will see the "Following" button.  Scroll your mouse over that button and a pop up window will show.  The pop up window will say "Change Follow Preference". Simply Click on the button and you will be able to change your follow preferences.  You can check "UNFollow" at the bottom right corner of that window.  While we would prefer you stay connected to the site we do understand that you may have gotten out of ballooning or wish to reduce your email volume.  But please keep in mind that once the system sends you an email about a newly posted topic the HAB system will not send any further emails about that specific topic unless you choose to follow it.

We hope that this explains for you what "The Nylon Telegraph" is and how it works. 

This is only one of dozens and dozens of features available for our members on the HotAirBalloonist.com site. For more information about what this site can do please read "What this site can do"

Hot Air Balloonist Membership.

WELCOME !

The Hot Air Balloonist Membership is a great value.  As a member you will now be able to see areas of the site a guest cannot see.  You will also be able to post topics and replies in many areas of the site.  You are now connected and participating with pilots around the country and the world!

To give you a great head start, here are a few videos you may want to watch.

The HOW TO video.

Create your custom Signature. 

Personalize your Profile.

Start a new Topic.

Areas and Features you can now access!

Full use of the Download Center.  As a Member, you have full use of the download center. Download applications to events, Insurance Forms, FAA Forms, and many other items instantly available to you with a click of a mouse.  You can also upload any forms you want available for others.  The download center can be a very useful tool that allows all your forms to be downloaded by the user who needs those files.  No more emailing attachments.  Just send them a LINK.  They can simply click the link and download your file! 

Create a photo gallery all about your Ballooning Adventures.  Link your photo gallery to your Balloon event topic in the events category!  Add descriptions of the photos about where and when they were taken. 

Create a blog about your ballooning or favorite event!  Our Blog center is quite complex and will allow you to be quite creative in sharing your adventures and event.

Use the Online Chat Rooms.  Stop in and see who is there.  Join or start a conversation with other balloon enthusiasts.

Write an article about any aspect of ballooning.  Share your past experiences with others.  Help explain something you have experienced firsthand.  Write a short story about one of your balloon adventures.  The Current News page is the perfect place to share stories with the entire balloon world.  You can also find current balloon events that hit the headlines in the Ballooning in the Headlines section of the Current Events page.

Stick a pin in the Member Map.  The Member Map is a Bing powered map with pins from members all over the country.  Have a look around and see where other pilots and events are around the country. 

Browse the Equipment 4Sale category.  Look for things you may need.  Respond to topics started by others and ask any questions you would like from those who have equipment for sale.

Start a poll in the Polling forum.  Have a question that you want honest answers.  Go to the Polling Forum on the topics page and start a topic about your question.  Add a poll to your topic for others to choose any of multiple answers you have given.  See the results in a real time format and get an honest opinion since the voting is done anonymously.

Check on current news on the Current News page.  See new articles written by other balloonists.  See what ballooning events have hit the news from all over the world with our continuous news feed called “Balloon News”.  The Balloon News is located below the articles section.

Have a look around the online STORE.  Find items you may not find elsewhere.  There are many items in our store that have been purchased at special pricing for our members.

Load a link to your favorite online balloon video in our Media section on the Current Events page. Insert a YouTube Video

Status Updates.  Turn on and post your status updates so everyone will hear from you.  It is a shout out to others right on the front page of the site.  Video Here

Look on the calendar and find upcoming balloon events, festivals, safety seminars and many other things listed on several calendars available on the site. The Calendars are now connected to the MEMBER MAP so when you post an event, the calendar will automatically post a pin on the map for you!   How to create an event.

And there is still more!  We are adding more and more each day. Let us know if you need help or have questions. 

HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART….

PARTICIPATE..  Use the site and participate.  The entire site is designed for BALLOONIST’S.  We created this site so YOU can share with your fellow LTA Aeronuts.  Log in and USE the site.

Once again, WELCOME and thank you for being a part of HotAirBalloonist.com

Everywhere on this site there are little buttons for Following.  When you click on one of these buttons the website will send you an email notification any time another member makes a post  or reply to something you are following.

You can follow this topic

You can follow a blog

You can follow Gallery's

You can follow whole forums

You can follow an entire calendar

You can follow a specific event.

THINK ABOUT THIS! 

Lets say you are looking at a balloon for sale and you want to know if anyone else is interested!  Click Follow and you get notified if someone else makes a post or reply. 

Lets Say you are looking for a specific size balloon to purchase.  Click Follow this forum on the size balloon you are looking for and each time a new listing comes up in that size you get an email.

There are so many great uses for this feature we have installed it all over the site.  You can stay informed on or about anything you want everywhere. 

What a great feature!

We have tried real hard to structure the navigation to make it as easy as we can.  That Said, there is just so much stuff on this site however, there are ways of cleaning up the clutter.  First did you know you can open and close each category!  Each Category is represented bya Brown Category Bar.  This bar goes across the page.  Over on the right hand side of that bar is a small up and down arrow.  Click on that Arrow to open or fold up that entire category!  See this photo.

Next is the Follow This feature.  ON almost every Topic, Post, Reply, Photo Gallery & Calendar Event there is a "Follow This" button.  When you select the Follow option you will get an email anytime someone posts a topic or makes a reply in that forum or that item.  There is also a small number next to the Follow button that shows you the number of other members that are also following that item.

A fantastic use for this would be if you were looking at a balloon for sale and the price was too high you could select follow this item and when something is changed you are notified or if someone else asks a question about that piece of equipment you hear about it too!  This is a very handy feature to our site. 

All new members are automatically signed up to follow the HAB Walkie Talkie.  This forum works exactly how it sounds.  Someone posts a topic and everyone gets an email.  Like everyone being on the same radio frequency at the same time! 

Bread Crumb Trails.  Just like the storybook fable our site has bread crumb trails.  At the top of the page just under the main navigation bar are links of where you have been.  You can click on any of those links and jump back to a previous page you were on.  Handy when searching many different topics in one or more categories or sub-categories.

Search Bar.

Our search system is real good.  It allows you to search separate areas of the site or the whole site.  Search for whole strings of words or separate words.  Up at the top of every page you will find the search bar.  Give it a try when you are looking for something specific.

So as you can see we have tried to create a site where you can find just about anything you could want to know about and still keep it relatively easy to navigate.  Keep in mind that when you have this much information in one spot it can still be a challenge even with the best of organization.

This site has so much more than just what a guest can see.  If you are not a member there is about 25% of this site you are not even seeing.  There are entire forums and entire calendars and sections of the site you don't even know exist!.  WE have many areas of the site you must be logged in to even SEE. 

There are also another 25% of the site you can see but can not use unless you are a member and logged in.

Tired of seeing this screen.

Become a member and then you can begin to USE the site to its fullest.  Start topics about your ballooning.  Share stories with others.  Most of all pass on your experience and wisdom to others.

Click here to be taken to the topic that explains many of the things this site can do!  And Remember if you need any help we are online most of the day and available to help.  Send us an email and we promise we will jump right on it!

What is this place and what can it do?

HotAirBalloonist.com is a built from scratch depository for all things balloon, not only for the balloonist's who are members but the public looking for balloon related services or products.  This is a Facebook meets an Ebay meets Amazon.com meets Craig's List all rolled into one for the balloon world. 

This is a not so brief explanation of what HotAirBalloonist.com can do.

First off

There is an area on this site for every aspect of the balloon world.  Pilots, Manufacturers, Dealers, Equipment for sale, Students, Clubs, DE’s, Insurance, Festivals, Crew, Ride Operators and more.  There are different membership levels for everyone.  Each membership has a set of permissions customized for that membership. 

The permissions are as follows.

View a topic,   Respond to a topic,   Start a topic,   Upload a file,   Download a file.

These 5 permissions have been set for each Category and Sub-Category on the site and for every membership.  To give you a little feel for the scope of this.  There are currently 35 main Categories, 250 Sub-Categories, 12 Modules, and 22 Member Groups.  That is a bunch of settings and there are 5 permission settings for each set.

How the site works

When a visitor (anyone) comes to the site you are a guest.  A guest can see about 50% of the site.  A guest has no other permissions except to view the information on the site.  This allows the general public to use the site for information and to contact someone in the balloon world for whatever their need is whether it be finding a festival,  to learning to fly,  to just taking a ride.  The site is a window for the general public into the balloon world.

The next level of membership is called the Registered Guest.

This is where the guest has taken the time to give us a little information about who they are.  This is a FREE membership for the first month and $1.75 a month after the 30 trial. . The "Registered Guest" is able to respond to a few topics in limited areas of the site.  The Registered Guest can also see more areas of the site than a visitor (Guest).  The Registered Guest can also post items for sale in the Equipment 4Sale category as well as in the Wanted Category for Available Pilots & Ground Crew. 

The Registered Guest Membership was designed for the Pilot or Ground Crew who is looking for work.  If you are looking for work you are most likely watching the pennies, so we made it possible for you to go on the site and register as a guest then list yourself in the Wanted and Ground Crew categories.  In hopes that when they do get a pilot or crew job they will come back and become a full Pilot or Crew member.  As a Registered Guest you can also place a Wanted Topic in the Equipment 4Sale area so if you are looking for a specific piece of equipment you can let everyone know for FREE!

Next is the Paid Memberships

There are about 11 different types of paid memberships. Paid memberships have permissions to interact in areas that are associated with those types of memberships.   REMEMBER A guest can see the topics a member posts but may not be able to reply, so always remember to include your contact information in every post or create a signature in your personal settings to automatically post that information at the bottom of each topic or reply you create.

 

There are many areas inside the site.  The navigation bar at the top allows you to go quickly to many of the more popular pages in the site.  Here are some of the different areas inside the site and some of the things you can do in/or with these areas of the site.

New Downloads

At the top of the page on the main page "The Forums Page' there is a section called "New Downloads".   This section displays the 25 of the most recently added Downloads. This is an easy way for you to see what has been posted recently.  Many of the Downloads are free and some are for a fee.  Members can download ALL files from HotAirBalloonist.com for free.  The Free Downloads alone can pay for your membership.

Forums Page

The Forums page has all the different Categories of discussions.  You will find over 30 different Categories and there can be many Sub-Categories inside them.  For Example there is a Category for Equipment for sale.  Inside that there are many Sub-Categories.  Sub-Categories like baskets and burners and envelopes and so on.  The topics page is where there are over 35 different categories about all sorts of different balloon related discussions.

Best of all if you want to see a new category just send us an email and we will start a new one for you!

Here is a link to a page that explains how the navigation of categories works.

"Follow this feature"

There are many many balloonists who are part of the "Reflector" email system.  On HotAirBalloonist you can use the Follow this topic or Follow this Forum feature to do the same thing.  Any topic or any forum you are interested in you can simply check the box at the top of the first entry.  Once you have checked this box anytime someone adds a new topic or a new reply, you get an instant email notice with the actual comments that were posted in the forum or topic you are following.  Better yet you can follow as much or as little as you want!  Choose the items you want to hear about and if you get tired of a subject or you have found the answer you were looking for you just select UNFOLLOW and poof no more emails.  Taylor your incoming email information in any manor you wish.  Say on top of what you want without getting tons of emails about stuff you don't what to hear about.  This feature has all the benefit of the reflector with YOU in the drivers seat!

The HAB "Walkie Talkie"

This forum can be found in the Hot Topics category on the topics page. All new members are encouraged to go to this forum and check the "Follow this Forum" button.  This is the information hub of the website.  Any member who starts a topic in the Walkie Talkie forum will trigger a system wide email!  This means if you start a topic hundreds of members will get an email letting them know you have started a topic.  If they have an answer or want to respond they can simply reply to your topic.  If you start a topic in the Walkie Talkie forum don't forget to check the Follow this Topic button so you are notified if another member reply's to your topic.

WHO READ THIS

There is a very unique feature installed in the topics on the site.  It is called "Who Read This?"  The site keeps track of the members who have read your topic while they were logged in.  This feature can be used in cases where you have posted something you want a specific set of people to read.  If you have a committee and you send an email out to ten members you can see if they all read your topic.  You can see the WHO READ THIS at the bottom of any topic on the site.  Better yet if you mouse over a members name in the "Who Read This" area a pop up will open that tells you when the member read the topic.

Current Events

This page was designed to have two main sections.  The first section is to showcase stories written by our members.  It displays the 10 or 15 most current posted stories from our members.  The next section on the page is for ballooning in the headlines.  We have created a news feed, that scours the internet for any story about ballooning that has hit the headlines.  If there is a news story (Good or bad) it will get posted here.  There are also many other links down the right hand side of this page for more balloon related stuff.  This is a great page to go and find out what is currently going on with ballooning and on the HAB Site.  There is a link on the side bar that many overlook.  The link says “View Other Media” This is a link to the videos page.  Many pilots and crews my already have video up on YouTube and Vimeo and other video sites.  On the Media page you can link your video onto HotAirBalloonist.com.  No uploading over again just copy and paste the link and the site does the work!  Go try that out!

The Store

The store is exactly that.  An online shopping area where you can purchase items.  As time goes by the store will grow and grow. The store is where you would go to begin a banner advertising campaign or purchase a membership or get a gift coupon to give your crew a free membership.  There are Key Fobs and T-Shirts and Compass's and all sorts of stuff in the store and were adding more.  There is no limit to the number of Categories we can have in the store and to the number of products we can list in those Categories.  Recently we made an offer to several balloon festivals.  We offered to list their left over balloon event  T-Shirts for sale in our store at no cost to the event.  Just another way they can get rid of their leftover shirts.   Any member can have stuff listed in the store. If you produce something that other balloonists can use just let us know what the item is and what you want to sell it for and we will list it.

4 Sale

Most likely the largest section on the site.  This Category has more Sub-Categories than any other.  It is designed for the person who is selling equipment, whether it is a dealer or an individual or a manufacturer.  An Equipment Seller can post a topic all about their equipment including photos, Text, Links, Emails, Phone numbers and any information they want to have listed about their stuff.

Now here is where it gets fun.  Any member can ask questions about the equipment.  Once an equipment seller has posted their topic about the equipment the other members can respond with questions about that equipment.  So let’s just say that you posted an ad for a balloon for sale and you forgot to list what type of burner it has.  Members will start to post replies asking about the burner. 

YOU can go back and EDIT your topic to include the information you forgot!  Since this is your topic you can add, edit, change, or even DELETE the topic at any time!  No waiting for someone else to change it for you!!!!  O and remember anyone can view the topic!  Even NON-Members “Guests” can see the equipment for sale topic.  So even a balloon pilot from Minnesota who is not a member can see your balloon for sale!  So when you create a topic to sell something EVERYONE gets to see it!

Rides

Here again a HUGE Category.  We have scoured the web to try to find every REAL balloon ride operation in the United States.  In this category the balloon ride operator can get a membership that will allow them to create their own advertisement about their operation.  The Ride Operator Member can create a topic all about their balloon rides complete with photos, links, emails, phone numbers, and specials and just about anything they want to post.  The best part is they also can change, add, edit or alter the topic any time.  It is a mini advertisement for their business that everyone can see.  So Guests, (the general public) who are looking for a balloon ride can find an operator in their state and make contact directly.  If the ride operator gets only one booking from this it has paid for their membership for a YEAR!

The Exchange.

This is a fantastic area of the site.  The Exchange was developed to be an electronic bulletin board for areas were there is a great deal of balloon activity.  Members in an area can use the "Follow This" feature of the site to stay informed about ballooning related information in their flying area.  The Exchange has 4 sub-forums inside each area.  The Pilots Forum, Crew Forum, Passenger Exchange and Landowner Relations.  These 4 areas are where the most communication happens.  Members check the "Follow This" box in each of the sub-forums and then are notified by email when another member has posted a new topic.  For example, You have two extra passengers for Saturday.  You do not want to fly an entire balloon for just two people but someone else in your area may have two empty spots available.  You post a topic that you need someone to fly two passengers for you and all the members in your area get an email about your topic!  Instant communication to all the members in your area.  Another example would be that you are short ground crew for Friday.  Post a topic in the Crew Forum and all the crew members get an email from the system letting them know you are looking for crew.  If a ground crew gets paid for crewing just once it will pay for their crew membership to the site for an entire year!  The Exchange is super convenient for the pilots and for the crews.  Landowner relations can be posted in one spot for your entire area and anyone can log on and review it at any time.  Great to inform others about a problem area or for new launch and landing spots.  The Exchange can also help keep problems from getting worse by letting all the members in your area know about a sensitive spot. The Exchange also keeps a record of all topics posted so you can go back and review the information at any time and new pilots and crews to the area can also learn from the posted topics of others in the area.

This feature of the site is worth your entire years membership alone! 

The Exchange is not a public page.  The Exchange can only be found on the Balloon Rides page and only seen when you are logged in.

BREAD CRUMB.

On every page of the site just under the main navigation bar is what we call a Bread Crumb Trail.  This is a trail of the steps you have taken to get to the page you are on.  Many times we want to take a step back or two.  On many sites this requires the user to more or less start over at the main page.  On HotAirBalloonist.com you can take just one step or two steps back just by using convenient links in the Bread Crumb trail.

Pin me!

This feature was created by the suggestion of a ride operator.  We had a ride operator who said " I'll give you $100 if you don't list any other ride operations within 100 miles of me.  Our response was that we could not do that since we are trying to create a resource that has ALL the balloonists listed on this site.  But that idea floated around in my head for a few weeks and I came up with Pin Me!  The way each forum works is by having topics in each forum.  In the case of the Balloon Ride Operators forum the topics are the actual operators themselves.  Each time a ride operator creates a new topic, the topic appears at the top of the list and moves all the other topics down a space.  If someone wants their topic to remain at the top of the list they can go to the store and purchase the Pin me package.  Then we Pin their topic at the top of the list.  The pin me package can be used in other areas of the site as well, for example if you are selling a balloon and you want your ad to stay at the top so your balloon for sale is the first ad someone sees when visiting your category or forum.  Pin Me is a first come first served package.  The first person who purchases the Pin Me package gets to be on top!  If more than one person in a forum or category purchased the pin me package they would be second on the list and so on.  So if you think this is something you may consider then do it right away!

Topics inside a Category or Sub-Category.

The Topics on the site are started by our members. These are posts created by members about something they want to know about or to tell about their services or items for sale or just about anything a member wants to say. Inside each Topic you can include, hyperlinks, emails, photos, unlimited text, your contact information, mailing address and even create a poll.  We can also create categories that the general public can not even see.  Imagine Custom categories that you must be a logged in member to see.  The possibilities are endless.  If you are not logged in right now you can not see the Hot Topics Category but if you use your Facebook credentials or register as a Registered Guest you will see a category on the Topics Page called Hot Topics.  This is an open topic that you can use right now to get an idea of what you can do on this site.

Poll's

Yes you can even create a poll.  Have something you want to ask for someones opinion?  Create a poll.  Want to do a vote for Club President? Do a Poll.  Want help choosing a new balloon name? Conduct a poll!  As a member you can create any topics you want.  Inside that topic you can also create a poll.  Ask a question and then create up to five answers.  A poll can have as many as 20 questions.  You can imagine the dozens of great uses for this feature of the site.

The Calendar

Actually there is no limit to the calendars we can have on the site.  We have several on the site right now.  The cool part is that the calendars can be set with different permissions so we can choose who can see them.  For example if you have a balloon club and you want only your club members to see YOUR calendar we can do that.  If you want a calendar that only members can see but not the general public “we can do that”.  We can also control who has permission to add, edit or delete items from the calendar!  The Default calendar on the site is the Balloon Events Calendar and we have over 130 events listed on it right now.  If you want to see an example of how the private calendar system works go to the site as a guest.  (Not logged in) and then click on the drop down arrow of calendars.  You will see several calendars but you will not see the BFA Board calendar.  Now log in and go back to the calendar page and click on the drop down arrow and you will now see the BFA Board Calendar.  We can control who sees the calendars as well as who can add and delete items from the calendars.

The Member Map 

Ok, this was my favorite module on the site.  Took me almost three weeks to install and get functioning and then another two weeks to get all the information on it..  The member map is a scalable map with marked locations of hundreds of balloon related items.  From Festivals to Ride Operations to Repair Stations to DE’s to Balloon Clubs.  There are over 700 pins on the map.  You can zoom in on any part of the country and then click on a pin and a small window will open displaying the information about that pin.  The pins are colored by item.  A yellow pin is a balloon ride.  A green pin is an event.  Red pin is repair station and so on.  So no matter what you are looking for you can find the nearest one to you anywhere in the US.  A guest can find the nearest balloon ride operation.  A student can find the nearest DE.  A pilot can find nearby festivals or events or even a repair station.  This module is not only cool but has great usefulness.

Are you still with me?  Bless your heart if you still are.

Balloon Clubs

On HotAirBalloonist.com we have the ability to create entire categories and forums customized for your club.  We can create a category that is password protected so only your club members can gain access.  Once inside your custom category you can use all of the other features of the site. Your club president can have a moderators membership allowing them access to the bulk mail feature of the site and you can even have club meetings in the chat room on the site.  Many balloon clubs fail because running your own website is time consuming and costly.  Needing to rely on a webmaster to make changes to the site is also a pain.  On HotAirBalloonist.com you have complete and easy control over your space. If you are even a little bit curious about how a balloon club can be run withing the site give us a call and we will show you how.

Gallery

The photo and video galleries.  Here members can share their photos.  The favorite flight or event or just cool shots they have collected over the years.  Split up into several categories and we will be adding more, the member can create their own gallery and then go back and make more or add more to their existing gallery.

CLUBS

The Clubs feature allows you to start your own club.  The Club feature gives you all the same features of the main HAB site in your own site within a site. 

• Clubs can have a topics area. 
• Your club can have its own calendar.
• You club can have a download center where you can share files with other club members. 
• Your club can have a blog area.
• Your club can have a photo gallery.

ALL the areas in your club can be followed by your club members.  This means that when your members join your club they can use the FOLLOW feature on all your club areas to be instantly informed about new items that have been added.  For Example.  If you members follow the calendar: each time a new calendar event is added each member is sent an email by the system.  This way you know that all your members are notified instantly when you post a new event.  This also works when any of your club members post an event on the calendar all the other members will be notified.  The follow feature can be used in all areas of your club.

When creating a new club you have several club types to choose from.

• A PUBLIC Club,  A public club is an open club.  Anyone can see the club and the contents of the club.  Anyone can participate in the club without having to join the club.
• An Open Club,  Everyone can see the club and the contents but only members can participate.  Anyone can join.
• A CLOSED CLUB:  Everyone can see the club and who's in it but.  Only members can see the contents of the club and only members can participate in the club.  Members must ask a club leader to join.
• A PRIVATE CLUB. Only a member can find the club and see its posts.  Members must be invited by a club leader to join.

Blogs

Online web logs, here you can write a continuing story about your ballooning or any other item you feel is of interest.  I should have done a blog about building this site and all the hassles I went thru to get it to work.  You can tell the story about building your first balloon or tell the day by day story about going to the national championships or any item that takes time.  It is a great way to tell your story and open to all members to use and everyone to view.

Still more!

Download section

Here members can upload files to share.  Let’s say you are a balloon festival, you can upload your pilot application or your vendor application or even the competition map for anyone to download.  Say you have files you want to share about basket specifications or even balloon gore drawings, all these things can be uploaded for others to download at their leisure.  I have even found it is a great way to load large files that you would not send via email.  We can create as many categories for the download page as we want and upload as many files as you need.  We have just added a new category in the Download section for FAA Forms.  Currently you can download the PTS for private and commercial balloon students.  You can download a bill of sale form and we are adding more all the time. 

Feel free to upload a file you think a fellow balloonist can use or may need.

Paid Downloads

You can now CHARGE money for a file you have that others could use.  A tether contract, Check list, Photograph, Book, any electronic file can now be uploaded in the HotAirBalloonist.com download center and then be purchased by anyone!

RIDE OPERATIONS

You can sell your photos of your passengers in the Download section!  Take a photo durring the flight then upload it for purchase by your passengers.  Give them a link to your category and the passengers can purchase and download the photo with no effort from you.  Name your own price for your photos.

ATTENTION professional PHOTOGRAPHERS!  Do you want to sell your photos?  Did you know you can do that in our download section!  Get an Equipment Sellers membership and we will create your own category in the Download section.  Then you can create entire galleries from any event you photograph and sell the photos here online in the Download center.  Call or email for more information.

Members

The member’s page is only viewable to members who are logged in.  Here you can find our members.  Look up and find out how to contact or more about a member of the site.  With an easy access alphabetical location system you can find a member quickly even if we have thousands of members.  Find out how to get a hold of an old friend you have not seen in years.  Search the members and send a note to someone you have not seen in a while.  Connect with friends.  The member’s page allows you to find people fast and has links to their personal page where you can find their current contact information.

Here is the scary part

I have only scratched the surface of what this site can do.  This is actually a quick walk around of the different areas of the site and a short overview of what they can do.  The actual capabilities of this site are tenfold what I have touched on in this extremely long entry.  Each member has a complete back room area where all of their personal stuff is available and MORE! 

TWO MORE FEATURES!

First is the area called Hot Topics.  Inside this category are a few Sub-Categories.  One of them is called the "HAB Walkie Talkie"  Each new member is automatically signed up to follow this Forum.  Each time a member posts a new topic all the members will get an email!  Then it is up to you to choose if you want to follow this new topic or not.

The next great feature is the Video Tutorials.

There is a Sub-Category inside the Download Center called Video Tutorials.  This section is filled with video explanations of how to do many of the more popular tasks on the site.  There is a full written explanation as well as a downloadable movie.  These Video Tutorials can also be found in the Download Center of the site.  This makes everyone an expert in minutes. If there is a task you would like to see a video made for please let us know and we will make one.

Honestly bless your heart for reading this!

Hopefully I have created a little excitement for you about the HUGE POTENTIAL and BENEFIT of this online balloon community.  As I mentioned, I have tried to create something that will benefit all aspects of the balloon world.  The site is huge and you honestly should go on and play around with it to get a feel for all the stuff it is capable of doing.  If you can think of something that should be on the site let me know because I can create stuff real quick.

Tell your friends to become a member and YOU as a member, log on and contribute, play, experiment then let me know how we make this even better!

Help me create the best online resource the balloon world has ever seen.

Question, Comments, Concerns, and Advice are more than welcome.

Jeff

Hi,

My name is Jeff Thompson. I am the creator of  www.HotAirBalloonist.com.

I became interested in Hot Air Balloons at the age of 13 back in 1973 at the National Championships in Indianola Iowa. I began building tissue paper balloons and flying them. At one time I actually built a 17’ tall tissue paper balloon and flew my 10 speed bicycle with it. (Go on and try to duplicate that sometime)

I began my student pilot training in 1975 at the age of 15. By the time I was 16.  I had my pilot’s certificate before I had a driver’s license. At age 17, I purchased my first balloon, Joined the BFA (1977) and flew in that same event in Indianola Iowa, that I had watched from behind the fence just a few years earlier. At age 18 I won the Regional Championships in Pershing MO. I also finished in 3^rdplace in the National Championships in Indianola Iowa.

Many of you are more familiar with my parents Jim and Connie Thompson or my brother Jon Thompson than you are with me.

Believe it or not, I took my Mother (Connie)  and Father (Jim)  for their first flight when I was 17. Not long after my Father Jim Thompson decided to get his pilots certificate!  I had no idea the path I had begun for our whole family.  Never realizing the 4+ decade commitment I was involving my poor parents in.

     

I have been a member of the BFA for more than 40 years!  I am also a BFA Corporate Member as well as a BFA Competition card holder and A BFA, HACD Official. I am a BFA level DA8 (Distinguished Aeronaut) I have over 7 thousand flights and flew more than 200 flights per year. I was the #10 ranked pilot in the U.S. in 2011 and slipped a little to #17 in 2012. (On the BFA pilot ranking system) I have been the Florida State Champion for 9 of the last 13 years. I am very passionate about our sport. Now that you know who I am let me tell you about the site.

I no longer fly commercially (As of Feb, 2020)  Click here to read why.

In my OVER 4 decade involvement with the wonderful world of ballooning I have seen more than my share of ups and downs. (No real pun intended) Our industry is dying a slow death and I just cannot sit by and watch. Last year I made 1,643 competition markers and DONATED them to the Indianola National Balloon Classic. Yes, One Thousand Six Hundred Forty Three! This number of markers would have cost the event thousands of dollars, but I did it because it was needed. You can be guaranteed my intent with this site is a pure one.

I am trying to tie our industry back together and give us an online resource that we can all use and contribute to, so we can work as a team to promote, grow, share our knowledge and resources and expand our world. If you are in the Ride Industry look at what the movie “Bucket List” did for us. I was unfamiliar with even the term and now I hear it every day.


Please go on the site and read the welcome letter. It does a good job of explaining what we are trying to do. Please become a member and tell your CREW and any other pilots you know to get involved also. This is Important! We need a national resource like this. If you do rides, you know how the middle men sell tickets and take the profit out of our pocket. The profit they take from ONE PASSENGER FLIGHT can nearly pay your membership for a YEAR! That alone should be enough to become a member!

I am trying to get the BFA to become part of this. This is why I have extended a free membership to every BFA board member.  This membership allows them to use the site to the fullest as a moderator on the site.  There is no area on the site that a BFA board member can not use.  There are even private areas on the site that ONLY A BFA BOARD member can see and use.  I am offering all of  the benefits of this site to the BFA as a useful tool, in any capacity they may see fit to use.  I AM HONESTLY TRYING TO DO A GOOD THING FOR THE BALLOON WORLD.

If you are a Balloon Ride Operator you may already be listed in the Balloon Ride Operations Forum.  If you get a membership as a Ride Operator you can create your own listing like I have Thompson Aire  or like High5ballooning has for his site.  They can be customized by YOU any way YOU would like.  You can also change, delete, add or modify any way you want at any time since they are completely your topic.

It will take some time for you to get used to all the features this site has and we are adding more and more all the time.  Once you become a member you will be able to use all of the features this site has to offer.  Here is a link where you can find out more about how the site works.

Well, there are so many features to this site you will just have to go on and look around. We have spent a large amount of effort and money developing this site for the balloon world. Please give the site a chance. I honestly think it will be a great for the entire balloon community.

BFA MEMBER?  If you are you can receive a discount on your membership to HotAirBalloonist.com.  At checkout there is a little link on the credit card page that says "I have a coupon to use"  Click on this link and type in BFA and you will receive a $3 per month discount on your membership.  *This can not be used on the basic membership or the Crew membership.

http://www.HotAirBalloonist.com/forum

Suggestions or comments are extremely encouraged.

Thanks for taking the time to read my novel.

Respectfully

Jeff

Interview at the National Balloon Classic Indianola Iowa 08/2016

http://cpa.ds.npr.org/ipr/audio/2016/08/rtr160804_b_1.mp3

BFA Directors Award.

Please join as a paid member and have your fellow pilots and ground crew sign up as well.  Help me create a fantastic online community for our fellow balloonists.  Jeff.

The MAIN (or Forums) page is where you will find all the Category's

Here is a description of the different levels in the Forum

We have Category’s > Sub-Category's > Forums > Topics.

Category:

A "Category" is a basic area of conversation or information. 

For Example “Equipment Sales”.  Equipment Sales would be a Category.

Sub-Category:

There are lots of types of "Equipment" for sale in the Balloon world so inside the Category “Equipment Sales” you may have several other “Sub Categories” like Baskets or Burners or Full Systems and so on. So "Full Systems" would be the "Sub Category" inside the category Equipment Sales. 

For example. “Equipment Sales > Full Systems

This would be  "Category > Sub Category

Forums:

Forums are found inside the Sub Category’s like “69K or less or 70K to 90K and so on.  These would be specific forums that members would create topics of disscussion inside. The "69K or less" is the "Forum."

For example. “Equipment Sales > Full Systems > 69k or less. 

This would be  "Category > Sub Category > Forum"

Topics:

 Inside the “Forum” is where you find the “Topics.”  There is no limit on how many “Topics” can be inside a Forum.  If you had a balloon for sale and it was an Aerostar Aurora 54 you might create a topic called Aerostar 54 Mint.

The “Aerostar 54 Mint” would be the “Topic.”

“Equipment Sales > Full Systems > 69Kor less > Aerostar 54 Mint”

      This would be  "Category > Sub Category > Forum > Topic"

Topics are written by the Members of HotAirBalloonist.com.

In this case the ”Topic” would be the actual balloons the members would have for sale.  Each “Topic” can be replied to by other members asking questions or making offers to purchase. 

All “Topics” are created and controlled by the member who made the topic in the first place.  So when you list a balloon for sale you have the ability to alter the topic or add content to the topic or even remove the topic when the balloon is sold.

Please keep in mind that anyone who visits HotAirBalloonist.com can see your topic.

The general public who are not members of HotAirBalloonist.com can view all of your information.  Only Members can Reply or ask questions about your topic.  So include your contact information like phone or email in the topic you create so everyone can get in touch with you.

Also remember the FOLLOW THIS feature!

Any time you post a topic or make a reply to a topic you can click the little box FOLLOW and when someone else posts a topic or a reply you will get an instant email telling you there is new information about the topic you are interested in.  You can follow entire categories, topics, events, reply's, files, just about anything on the site.

Honestly, Sign up and make a difference!

Please be safe, have fun and always keep looking up!

The HotAirBalloonist team.