hotairballoonist

Downloading KML Map files for HotAir View File This video tutorial is about how to download a KML map file for the National Balloon Classic. This video will show how to delete old files and download new files as well as how to download the targets for the event. Map updates will be sent via email using the "Follow Feature" on the site. Members can sign in and select "Follow" for any file on the site and be instantly notified of any updates or new files uploaded. CLICK HERE to download and watch that video. Submitter hotairballoonist Submitted 07/22/2022 Category Video Tutorials  

Here is a video of two balloons flown by a Husband and Wife team inflating side by side. The inflation's are done very well using a short blast technique to warm the balloon gently up to flight temperature. This method reduces the amount of "Blow Back" from the expanding air in the balloon. This also lowers the risk of burning the mouth or throat of the balloon. So very nice to watch such a masterful inflation.

Can you believe it's July! Happy Independence Day everyone. I hope your plans for the Fourth of July are with Family and Friends and doing activities you enjoy! If you are attending a balloon event please be safe. We hope the weather is perfect for you and you have the best time ever! Drone Winds As many of you know I have been working on the Drone Winds Project. Last fall we uploaded a presentation on how to use a drone to get your winds aloft. Drone Winds (Download is FREE for logged in members). We are now working on a presentation for the FAA and for Pilots to procure a waiver for using a drone to go above the 400 foot limit. Currently the presentation is nearly 60 pages and growing. When finished we expect we can duplicate the waiver process just about anywhere in the country. We will soon have the entire presentation online for members to use. In the meantime here are a few apps we have discovered while doing our drone research that can be useful for Ballooning. Finding the Airspace around you. DJIFly app. This is an app for drone pilots but it is actually pretty cool. When you open up the app you see a pretty picture and a bunch of option links at the top and bottom of the image. Look up at the top left corner of the image and find “Fly Spots” Tap on that and watch what happens. You can tap on the Maps Overlay button over on the top right to get a satellite view if you wish. Now scroll around and zoom in and out and you will see all of the airspace around you. Pretty cool. The next app we found is also another pretty cool app. It is called ALOFT. This app shows you the Airspace around you plus it has a pretty nifty weather bar at the bottom. When you have time, download these two apps and check them out. Log in to HotAirBalloonist.com and go to the Hot Topics category and leave a review of the apps. The National Balloon Classic Soon there will be pilots from all over the country heading to a little town in Iowa called Indianola. This small town has a history in ballooning that stretches back more than 50 years! For me Indianola is Balloon Heaven! The event has a dedicated facility with a huge pilot compound, Spectator area capable of holding 10’s of thousands of fans and families. The launch field is hundreds of acers of green grass and large enough to launch a few hundred balloons. The flying area is beautiful country side with friendly land owners and smiling faces with kids waiving at you as you fly by.I learned to fly on the Simpson College soccer field back in the 1970’s. The same soccer field where they held the National Balloon Championships back in those days. This event is still run by many of the same people and families that have run it for all these years. If you have never been to the National Balloon Classic you NEED to put it on the list of events to go to. It truly has something for everyone. From the family pilot who loves to have fun Ballooning with their friends and family to the serious competitor who is honing their skills, this event is the one! Here is a tribute video we produced shortly after last year’s event concluded. It will give you a little idea of the “Feel” of this event. https://www.hotairballoonist.com/Video/priceless.mp4 For those of you who are flying in the National Balloon Classic and are using the HotAir.app I will again this year try to have map downloads available for the PZ map, 3DPZ map, Targets GPX file, TARGETS KML file, and PZ GPX files. We will also try to keep them updated as often as changes are made. Make sure you are following the files so you receive instant email notifications. For those of you who are heading to the “Classic” Be Safe, Fly Well, Have Fun. Hidden Jewels Sometimes I forget all the stuff that is on the HAB site. There are literally thousands of files, articles, videos, downloads, presentations and so much more. Much of this is on the Members Side of the site. The other day I was on Facebook and saw a post where someone was asking questions about standing a balloon up. Should you hit the burner and stay on it all the way up or should you do short blasts on the burner. I thought to myself, there is an article about that on HAB. So I looked around and sure enough there was! But it was on the Members side of the site. So I went in and “Unlocked” that forum so that others could see it and read about it. Here is the link to that article. I guess I would like to remind everyone that the entire HAB site was built so “WE” the balloon community could share our collective experiences and knowledge with each other. Learn from our mistakes and share our ideas. When was the last time you logged on and read a post and then replied to it? Do you have a different way? Do you have a better idea? Do you have a question about something? GET INVOLVED. You can help us and help others! When I was a kid I was super cocky. (I think it was a rumor) I was very good at flying and I knew it and that is a dangerous combination. One of the things my father used to say and it stuck with me forever. “Even that guy who does 9 out of 10 things wrong, can teach you something. The one thing he does right you may not have thought of.” That is so true! We can all TEACH each other. So please dive in and participate. To those who have donated THANK YOU. Many of you may know that we had a donation campaign for the Drone Winds project. Many have donated to the project and we are happy to say that we are now equipped to finish the project. We will be doing some inflight documentations for the FAA and finishing our presentation in just a few weeks. Those of you who still wish to donate, you can. There is a donation box on the main page of the HAB site. Another way you can support the site is with a paid membership. If you currently have a Guest Membership or a free membership you can get a General Membership on the site for only $20 a year. This helps us keep the site up and running and allows you to have access to all the membership forums on the site as well as FREE downloads in the Download Center. Just go to the store and hit memberships to find a membership that suits your needs. There is a Video Tutorial about how to get a membership in the “Download Center”. The Balloonetin Board We mentioned this in the last newsletter but it deserves another mention. We have a forum on the HAB site called “The Balloonetin Board” It acts very much like the Balloon Reflector with one major upgrade. You can insert links and images into your post (topic) There is a video tutorial you can watch about how to create a topic in the Download Center. You are required to be a logged in member on the site to use the Balloonetin Board. You can even add a link to a YouTube Video and have it play right in your topic on HAB! The abilities are pretty spectacular. Plus when you create a topic in the Balloonetin Board, the HAB site sends out over 700 emails to pilots and crews all over! So, Log in and have a look at the Balloonetin Board. Speaking of hidden Jewels Do you take videos of your flights? Do you make movies? Do you remember the program Movie Maker from Microsoft? We have it! It was a program offered back in 2011 and they quit supporting it in 2013. The latest version of Movie Maker is nearly unusable. But we have a copy of the old version on our server. If you have never used the program it is fantastic. You can easily make all kinds of great videos with sound and voice overs and music and fade effects and more. I cannot even tell you how many videos I have made with it over the years. Here is the LINK. HOWEVER, there is a catch. You must have a membership on the HAB site of at least a General Membership or higher. A Registered Guest membership will not be able to download the file. If you want to know what type of membership you have go to the top right hand corner of the page and log in. Then click on your name at the top. When the Drop Down opens click on Profile. Right next to your name you will see the type of membership you have. If it is a Registered Guest you may consider upgrading it to a general membership for only $20 per year. Many of the FREE downloads alone will pay for the yearly membership. Thank you everyone for your continued support. I love hearing about your flights and keeping up with balloon adventures anyway I can. Be safe please; enjoy your time with family and friends this Independence Day weekend and… Thank you for all you do for the Balloon World

HI Ben, Sorry it took so long to answer this question. The issue is Force. A balloon or even a blimp has a huge surface area. Aera X pressure = Force. So if you have a large area the force needed to move it against any pressure is huge. Here is an example. If you have a kite and it is a normal size kite. 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide and the wind is blowing 10 - 12 MPH you can fly that kite with about 3 or 4 pounds of pulling force on the string to hold the kite in place against the wind. Now make that kite 10 times larger. Lets say 30 feet tall and 20 feet wide. You just made the force on the string 10 times more too! So now you need to hold 30 pounds of force on the string to hold that kite in place. So lets then apply that same idea to a balloon. A typical balloon is about 75 feet tall and about 50 feet wide. That is 25 times larger than your small kite. so in a gentle wind (10-12 mph) that balloon will need 75 to 100 pounds of force applied to hold it in place. So, Using a treadmill to create the energy to power a balloon or an airship is unlikely. You would need to create more energy than is possible. Never mind the loss in energy from converting it from mechanical energy to electrical energy and then back to mechanical energy because each time you make a transfer you loose some efficiency. Over the years I have had situations where I have actually drug a car when a wind gust hit the balloon and we had the balloon tied with a rope to a car to hold the balloon in place. A balloon can generate huge amounts of force in very little wind. Here is a video that will show some of the RAW power of a balloon. Then you can evaluate if someone on a Treadmill could produce this much power.

Welcome to SUMMER Ask a Pilot We have a new section on the site for both Pilots and crews. The new category is called “Ask HAB”. There are two new forums inside the Ask HAB category where the general public (and members) can ask questions. The “Ask a Pilot”, and “Balloon Crew Questions”, are forums that have been created for, not only members to use, but the general public as well. Hopefully over time this category will create a great section on the site were anyone can come into the site and see questions and answers from previous visitors. This will be a Ballooning FAQ for everyone and encourage participation from our membership and the public. We want to encourage visitors to ask questions from our membership. Our membership are undoubtedly the most qualified to answer those types of questions. Feel free to post something if you wish. You do not need to be logged in to use the new forums. YouTube We now have an account on YouTube. Currently we are positing many of our “How To” videos here but will be adding more and more videos including presentation and other helpful ballooning files and videos. Become a subscriber on the HAB channel today. HAB on YouTube Map Creation More and more of you are using navigation programs to fly with. The HotAir.app is one of the most popular apps out there. Many of these flying apps are capable of using KML files for uploading custom made map files of your area. KML files are also heavily used for balloon events and competition. With the airspace regulations in some cases they are almost required to fly with like in the Albuquerque area. HAB has many of these files available for download in the Download Center. The HotAirBalloonist.com site actually has a tutorial on how to use Google Earth to create your own KML map files. The video tutorials on how to create custom map files are FREE to members and we hope you will take advantage of this. If you have created a map of your flying area and you would like to make that file available for others in your area please send it to us. We will create a folder for your area and send you a link that you can share with other pilots in your area where they can download your file directly into their application on their device. If you have an event or a flying area and you would like us to make a map for you please feel free to contact us and talk to us. We have years of experience making maps and flying with maps and would love to help you! Missing events I was looking at our Events Calendar for the month of June. There are a bunch of events in June, Hudsonville, Bluff City, Galena, GTBR, Temecula, Carson City, Helen GA just to name a few, but I found an oddity that maybe you can help with. I found NO EVENTS on the weekend of June 11th and 12th. I cannot believe that there are NO events happening on that weekend so if you have an event or know of an event please let us know so we can put you on the calendar! Every year we try out best to search the web to find as many events as we can and post as much information as we can but we are not perfect and can always use your help. Helium Shortage Looks like Helium may be in short supply again soon (if not already) there have been some serious issues that may lead to shortages, or complete lack of supply and if you can get helium it may be at a premium price. Just do a search for Helium Shortage and you will find a bunch of articles about it. This would be a very good time for you to have a second look at our Drone Winds project. Using a drone to read the winds aloft prior to a flight is an exigent alternative to a pi-bal. The costs for a drone vs. helium may soon favor the drone and once you have your drone setup you will never again need to search for a supply of helium or latex balloons. Go to the HAB site and log in and download the Drone Winds. You can find the Drone Winds presentation in the Tutorials Presentations section of the Download Center. Remember (as always) downloads are FREE for members. Balloons-andBeyond.com Well the Balloons-andBeyond.com site has been expanded. The site started off as a place where you could purchase the new “Balloon Cups” for your after flight champagne ceremonies. There is now a new page on the site called Gondola Gear. Here you will find the beginnings of items for your basket. We will be adding more items as time goes by but for now there are Document pouches, Radio Holders, Tank Covers, Droplines, and Zippered upright covers. Bookmark the site so you will be able to return in the future and see the new items that have been added and order a couple of sleeves of the “Balloon Cups’ to take with you to your next balloon event. Balloons-andBeyond.com/Gondola-Gear #HASHTAG I am no longer flying commercially but miss it so very much. I am up most mornings well before dawn and working at the computer. I have enjoyed (very much) watching live feeds on Facebook of some of your flights. I would like to ask those of you who use the hot air app a favor. Next time you start the app for a flight. If you are using Glympse and the Glympse screen comes up, type in #hotairapp. Then for those of us who want to watch along we can go to any browser and type in www.glympse.com/!hotairapp and be able to track your flight in real time! I have done this on many occasions and even had my crew use it to track me in flight when they can not see me when I am down low. You can add that hashtag to your send list and then each time you fire up the HotAir.app it will automatically log you into the system for others to see. Hot Air Notables Once again I would like to point out a category on the HotAirBalloonist.com site that is worth your time to have a look around. The Hall of Fame committee has spent a tremendous amount of time creating a section FULL of biographies on Notable Balloonists. There are over 270 biographies with tons of photos and volumes of information and history about our sport. I wish to make a personal shout out to my father Jim Thompson who has posted a majority of the bios on file. His efforts will serve as a historical record for all of us going forward. When you have a moment please take the time to visit the Notable Balloonist’s section and have a look around. If you know someone who you believe should be included, send us an email at Info@HotAirBalloonist.com or Jim@ThompsonAire.com with your email and we will get in contact with you for more information. Drone Waiver I am re-submitting my waiver to the FAA for a waiver for using a drone to read the winds above the current 400 ft limit. I have learned many valuable lessons from my first attempt and I have begun to create a framework that I believe will be repeatable anywhere. As more and more pilots begin to use drones for weather information it is my hope that we can, soon be able to get our winds aloft on our own in real time pre-launch without the need for latex balloons, helium and the guess work involved with the traditional method we all have used for so long. I will keep you informed in future newsletters. In the meantime please be safe, stay healthy, have fund and Thank you for all you do for the Balloon World. Jeff A Thompson

Cancel a Membership View File How to cancel a membership. Please understand that this site is run by the membership dues our members pay and we sure do not want to see you leave, we understand that things change in our personal lives. Unlike many sites and some other programs we do not HIDE or make things super difficult to get out of a membership on the HotAirBalloonist.com site. However, we understand that the site is very large and you may not know where to go or what to look for when you need to cancel a membership so we have made this video to make it even more simple for you to do so. We do not want you to leave but if you need to we understand. Thank you for all you do for the Balloon World. Jeff A. Thompson Submitter hotairballoonist Submitted 04/20/2022 Category Video Tutorials  

APRIL FLOWERS Why am I getting this? Some of you have never received one of our monthly newsletters. Some of you may be receiving this when you may have unsubscribed from our newsletter. Please forgive me if you have unsubscribed and I have sent this to you unsolicited. You may send me a nasty email if you wish at Info@HotairBalloonist.com However; there is a reason for this. We found a glitch in the system that we are trying to fix. The HAB system was set up so that when you made a purchase you would receive a membership for a temporary period of time. What membership and how long a time period depended on the item you purchased. At some point during one of the installations of the many features on the site, the code for the membership timeframe became corrupt. This means that some members were assigned membership privileges that never ended. While researching this issue we have found members who have allowed their memberships to expire and are unable to renew. Over the next few weeks (if you are not an active member) you will be receiving a membership invoice by email. You may have never received an invoice in the past and that is our error. We will send out the “Registered Guest” membership to most. This membership is the least expensive and is only $5 for an entire year! We sincerely ask that you support the HotAirBalloonist.com site with a small once a year fee of $5. This is a good time to upgrade your membership if you wish. There are many different levels available. Here is a link were you can compare memberships and costs. Should you get an invoice via email you have a 7 day grace period. During this time you can visit the online store and choose a different membership should you wish. When you select a specific membership package in the HAB Store you will have the option of a monthly or yearly term. We value your support and participation on HotAirBalloonist.com. If you have forgotten your password you can use the password recovery system on the site. Just click the Sign link at the top right corner of the page and then click Forgot password. If you choose to ignore the invoice your account will revert to a visitor status. This is the reason we included everyone on this newsletter. Please enjoy the rest of Aprils Newsletter. It’s beginning to look like flying season! As the winter fades away and spring begins to bloom there are many things to think about before going out on your first balloon adventure of the year. Many of you may not have flown for a few months or rarely. This is a good time to review EVERYTHING! From launch procedures to equipment to passenger management and more. In this newsletter we will talk about some of the stuff we always like to review in the spring before we go out and have issues in the fields Trailers: If you use a trailer for your rig it needs a good looking over. How are the tires? Check the air pressure, Tread wear. Look at the leaf springs! I mean crawl under there and have a good look. You could have broken springs that may not show on the outside. How is the clearance on the tires? If you hit a few bumps on the road are the tires going to rub on the frame and have an issue? How are your bearings? It only takes a few moments to grease them up or stop at your local oil change place and ask them if they can squirt a little grease in there for you. How are your lights? Do they all work? Is the wiring worn or have issues? Door hinges? Interior lights? Jack Stand? Hitch Latch? What about the spare? Does it have air? A couple of hours of your time spent in the beginning of the summer season may save you some serious heartache or even potential injury or costs later. Pouches, pockets, and your bedroom What does your basket look like? Would it take a moving van to get your stuff out if you had to sell it? Now, we are not suggesting that you sell your basket but, when was the last time you took all the junk out of all those pocket an pouches and nooks and crannies? This is another good exercise to start your flying season, (or at least once a year) dump out all of those pouches, pocket and junk holders in your basket. In fact I even suggest you remove them all together. At the very least, empty them out and even vacuum them out. Heck you may be carrying 2 extra pounds of sand and dirt in there! This is a great chance for you to take inventory of what you have on board and where it all is. Nothing worse than desperately looking for something you thought was there only to find it has gone missing. (Harlan Iowa “78” went down from 400 ft, very few will remember) Landowners and quicksand Walk it first! Every year in the spring we always manage to get a truck horribly stuck. Many times in a field that we used all summer last year and we just forgot that in the spring the ground is like quicksand. Over the winter it has been frozen and the snow and ice has built up a high level of water in the soil. What was good hard ground all year last year is now muck and mud! Many times what looks great to just drive in or on suddenly becomes a trap. Any time you leave a road for the open field it is a good idea that someone walks out first. Who knows how soft that ground may be or even if a huge storm may have come thru two nights ago and dropped a few inches of rain on that field. O Damn that was a hard one…. I remember flying passenger flights up in Michigan each year in the spring. We would hardly fly all winter and then all of a sudden the weather would break and BAM we were flying a bunch. We were rusty, out of practice and flying passengers. Not the greatest of situations! Remember there are reasons for the currency regulations and even more reasons for YOU as the PIC to know your limits. Do not be afraid to look at your potential passengers and say NO. I remember a flight where it was going to be a little on the aggressive side. One of the pilots that day had only been out three times in the last month. I was in a tough spot. Let the pilot with the fewer hours fly the larger balloon with more passengers in those conditions and me fly the family with the 87 year old grandparents or…. Let the pilot whom only had three flights recently, take them. I chose option #3. I took them aside and explained the truth. Today was not for them. I told them that the conditions were rough and the potential for a hard landing was high. I did not advise them to fly today. I told them that if they choose to fly on a different day I would make sure they would be assigned to me in whatever balloon I was flying on that day. Well, it worked. They trusted me and came back a couple weeks later and we had a ball. In fact the Son who arranged the trip for his parents became one of our regular crew. You just never know but I was so glad I made that call on that day. Registered Guest Take the change from your pocket, just one day a month and use it to support the HAB site. Just 42 cents a month! That is all we ask of you to help us keep this wonderful online ballooning resource available. The Registered Guest Membership allows you to have so many more privileges above a simple visitor yet has a one-time per year fee of $5. Becoming a registered guest will allow you to see 8 more categories, view and read more than 100 more forums and doubles the areas where you can post and review topics. You also gain additional benefits in the Calendar section, Download Center and the photo galleries. ALL for 42 cents a month! The Nylon Telegraph We touched on this briefly in the last newsletter but the new category is set up and ready for use! Here is a link where you can go and see a full explanation about the new category on HAB. https://hotairballoonist.com/forum/index.php?/topic/6755-the-nylon-telegraph/ Here is a brief explanation of this new feature on the site. The Nylon Telegraph is just what it sounds like. It is a communication hub for ballooning. As a member on HotAirBalloonist.com you have the privileges to post a topic in any of the 5 forums inside the Nylon Telegraph and the HAB system will send out HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of emails on your behalf, to other members of the site. As a member when you get one of these notification emails you can log in and “FOLLOW” that post for more information about that topic of discussion. One of the great features of this new category is that if you are not interested in the topic that has been posted simply DO NOTHING and you will near nothing more about that topic, however if you are interested in the post simply “FOLLOW IT”. Best of all, when creating a new post, you have the ability to add photos, links, emails and other contact information within your topic. Some of the forums are viewable by visitors and some of the forums are only viewable by HAB Members when logged in. Here are a few direct links to video tutorials that will help you create topics to post in one of the five forums. “Starting a topic” “The Follow Feature” “Posting a Reply” Just for fun Do you have a fun balloon story? WE would love to hear about it. We have an area on the HotAirBalloonist.com site for you to submit your favorite balloon stories. Tell us about an even you have been to or a flight you had last summer that was special. How about a lesson in weather or NOT. Tell us about your amazing ground team or an adventure in recovering a balloon. Here is an example of what we are talking about. “It’s Just a trip to Iowa” Share your adventures with the rest of our members! April Fools Some may think this is a horrible trick but I will tell you from firsthand experience the passengers loved it! Once they found out (or figured out) it was an April Fools Joke. We issued our April newsletter a couple of days early just so you would have time to have fun with this if you wanted to. Here is a link to the actual briefing card we normally used for nearly 20 years and the FAKE card we used on April First. Notice how we took the time to make the cards look extremely similar so that when they were laying out on the table or when you handed them out it was super hard to tell the fake one from the real one. Only after you began to read them did you realize what was going on. Forgotten GEMS As I do, I spend quite a bit of time now a days at my computer working on web stuff and a bunch of it on Ballooning related stuff. As I work on the HotAirBalloonist.com site I stumble across files that have been on the site for years that I forgot were there. Many of these old posts or topics are well worth the read and today (unfortunately) most of us just do not have or don’t take the time to read. Here is a great topic posted way back in July of 2014. As we enter our 10th year of being online with the HAB site we are amazed at the amount of files we have accumulated. A few years back we moved our entire site from one server over to a new server. The task required moving over 35,000 files and database accounts. We were thrilled that we did not lose anything and we managed to make the more with no interruption on the front end at all. We urge all members to participate and share your wisdom, stories and advice with the rest of our members. We have installed a mirror server so that if anything happens to our primary server and database we have a continual backup system so that nothing will ever get lost. At the Thompson Compound. I just wanted to say “Thank you” to all my ballooning friends and family for all the support you have shown our family over the last couple of years. Between my hemorrhagic stroke and then our Noah’s Leukemia Diagnosis we have had a pretty rocky road of late. I am happy to report that I am doing very well and have recovered better than was expected. I am still on the No Fly list but I am still here and everything works and the memory is still intact. Our son Noah is responding to his Cancer treatments as his team expects. We have had a few scary bumps in the road but his attitude has been our saving grace thru all of this. We are just past the half way point in Noah’s treatment and have just about one year to go. #noahsheroes It is our hope that YOU will continue to support the HotAirBalloonist.com site and help me spread the love for our sport and pass along the collective knowledge to the new generation of LTA fliers who will be gracing the fair skies in our place. Thank you for all you do for the Balloon World. Jeff A Thompson PS. If you are interested in past newsletters they can be found here. Also if you know someone who should be listed in our Notable Balloonists Category please send me an email. I would love to get you in touch with my father who does a bunch of work in the NOTABLE BALLOONIST BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION category.

Below is a downloadable PDF that explains the different permission levels and costs of the different memberships on HAB. UserPermissions.pdf

Get Movie Maker View File Movie Maker is a great program that was first introduced with windows 2012. Since then the program has been changed and made almost unusable. It is also become hard to find online and many downloads contain malware and virus's. Here is where you can find a clean version for your use. We also suggest you download the How to use Movie Maker tutorial as well. Submitter hotairballoonist Submitted 03/25/2022 Category Photo & Graphics Applications  

What is The Nylon Telegraph? 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, This forum is for balloon related topics. You must be a Member or Registered Guest to start a topic. Replies can be deleted by any moderator if found to be in poor taste or off topic. You may add photos and hyperlinks to your postings so long as they are also balloon related and apply to the original topic. You may add Email Links also We will use a three strike method for this category. You will warned about bad behavior three times and then your email will be banned from the site. Please conduct yourself accordingly. 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"

As Restrictions Ease, I am sure many of you are looking forward to a great flying season this next year. As the mandates and restrictions ease it is our hope that we can return to a more normal flying schedule. We encourage you to sit down with your teams, pilots, and even contact a few of your landowners and talk about what everyone it comfortable with. Talk about sanitation. Talk about costs. Talk about passenger management. Have a good understanding about what is to be expected this next summer and how things will go. Having a plan has so many benefits. You never know what issues may be in the mind of your team. Sitting down, even if it is in the garage or your pre-flight meeting location and having a pow-wow to talk about expectations, worries and needs, is a great opportunity for everyone. We want everyone to have a safe year this year as well as being comfortable. Passenger Briefings How do you brief your passengers? Do you have a pre-flight speech? Is it written down or something you have just memorized over the years? Do you have a written check list or briefing card? When was it updated last? During my 30+ years of flying passengers full time, I have had many types of briefing styles from Videos played on a big screen TV to briefing cards and passenger verbal briefings. We have a section in the “Download Center” where you can view pre-flight check lists and passenger briefing cards. AS A MEMBER you can also share YOUR items with others. I am sure there are things that YOU may have or use that we have forgotten or do not have on our card. That is why I am encouraging ALL MEMBERS to share with each other. Did you know you can submit a file? YOU CAN! Log in and go to the Download center. Click on Passenger Related Resources and submit a file. It could be an image of your briefing card or a word document of your pre-flight speech or checklist. Let’s create a great resource for everyone to use for passenger management. I will be writing down my verbal passenger briefing and sharing it in this forum as well very soon. In the mean time since the next newsletter will come out on or slightly before April 1st, I wanted to share with you the April Fools Briefing card. Here is the scenario; we would meet in a private area in the back of a restaurant. Normally we would have 18 -20 passengers. We would lay out 15 normal briefing cards and two of the “FAKE” April Fools briefing cards. Then watch the expressions as the passenger reads the fake card and then begins to hand it around to others. Every year we would look forward to April 1st. Here is a link to the normal card and a link to the April Fools Card. A NEW CATEGORY We have a new category with several new forums within. Our new category is called “The Nylon Telegraph” This category is for communication between balloonists and crews. Currently we have three forums within this category. We will talk about the first forum last. Forum #2 is “Equipment Transport” There are many times when we need to get an envelope, or a fan, or sometimes a basket, or even a trailer from one part of the country to another. This forum is designed specifically for those needs. Post a topic here and include all your contact information and specifics about your needs. Forum #3 is “Wanted”. Are you looking for something? An old envelop to use as a walk thru balloon? A set of A-Blocks? An old basket to make a desk or wall display? A Pilot to fill a position? Post a wanted ad in the Wanted forum. The First forum is the best. It is called “The Balloonetin Board” This is a Ballooning Bulletin Board! This forum is for Members Only! The Equipment Transport forum and the Wanted forum are open for anyone to post a topic in. The Balloonetin Board requires you to be a logged in member of the site to post a topic in. Here is the best part of all of these forums. As with all of the forums on HotAirBalloonist.com you can include as much content as you wish including emails, websites, phone, text and…. PHOTOS! Not only can visitors to the site SEE your post but any member who follows the forum will get an instant email alerting them that you have just posted a new topic in that forum. FOLLOW THIS. Many of you are members of the Balloon Reflector. The FOLLOW FEATURE on the HAB system works just like the Balloon Reflector with a couple of MAJOR improvements. First is the ability to add hyperlinks and email links into your topics. For example in this newsletter you will find many links embedded in the text of this newsletter. These links take you directly to the topics or files we are talking about. ON the HAB site you can embed links into the TEXT of your topics. Then when you post a topic on the HAB site, the system will send out an email to everyone who is “Following” that topic. The email that the follow feature sends out will include any links you have posted in your topic. IN addition to that fantastic ability you are able to include photos, and/or even video in your topic! The best part of the follow feature is that YOU get to choose what you want to hear about. If you are a member of the balloon reflector you get emails about anything and everything that gets posted but with the HAB site you get to choose what you follow. You can follow an entire forum or just one topic inside a forum. If there is a forum or topic you are no longer interested in you simply UN-Follow that topic or forum. The new forum “The Balloonetin Board” inside our new category “The Nylon Telegraph” is designed to work just like the Balloon Reflector. You are receiving this newsletter because you are a member of HAB. This means that you can log in and post topics in the new forum. This also means that you can FOLLOW that forum. Please take a moment, Log in, and go to the new category “The Nylon Telegraph” Then click on the top forum “The Balloonetin Board” and click on the FOLLOW button. You can choose the frequency in which you will be notified. Then when other members of HAB post something you will be notified! Remember if you are posting a topic you can add all sorts of information in your topic. Before you post a topic watch the Video Tutorial about creating topics for a better understanding of what can be included and how to do it. Registered Guest. Please post this in your club emails, on your web site, and send this to as many Ballooners as you can. WE are having open registration on HAB for new members for FREE for a year! The Registered Guest membership is a limited membership but will allow someone to post topics and read items that the general public (a visitor to the site) cannot. It takes only a few moments to register with the site. All you need is a valid email address to validate your registration. The registration process DOES NOT ask for a credit / debit card. This registration is totally FREE for your first year. This registration can also be used to “FOLLOW” the new Balloonetin Board forum! At the end of your first year you may upgrade your membership to one of our other memberships or continue your registered guest membership for only $5 for another year. The $5 just helps us with the server fees, email programs and virus protection services we use to keep the site up and running. Let’s get as many balloonist (Pilots, Crews, Event Organizers and others) involved with this fantastic ballooning community. Honestly it is hard to beat FREE. Have I seen you in here before? If you are new to the HotAirBalloonist.com we want to welcome you and let you know we are thrilled to have you as a participating member of our community. A couple of things you may want to know about this site. First there is an entire section in our Download Center dedicated to Video Tutorials to help you get the most out of the website. There are dozens and dozens of videos you can watch to learn about many of the fantastic features built into this online Balloonist community. We encourage you to USE THEM! The Video Tutorials will help you get more out of the site. If there is anything you do not understand let us know! We are more than happy to make a video for you and to help others who may have the same questions as you do. Share your knowledge! WE can ALL help each other here on the HotAirBalloonist.com site. In closing I will pass along a wonderful pearl of wisdom my father told me when I was very young. He said, “Just remember that the guy who does 9 out of 10 things wrong can still teach you something”. “The 1 thing he does right is something you may not have thought of, learn from everyone”. Please become involved on the HAB site. The entire site was build and designed so you could log in, Participate, Ask Questions, Share your wisdom, Talk about your experiences and HELP OTHERS become as good as YOU ARE, most of all… Thank you for all you do for the Balloon World. Jeff A Thompson

Passwords View File This video tutorial is all about passwords. How do you recover a forgotten password? How do you change a password? The HAB system makes it easy to log in and use your membership even if you have forgotten your password! Submitter hotairballoonist Submitted 02/01/2022 Category Video Tutorials