April 2016

[hotairballoonist]

Well the summer season is starting.  The Event Calendar on HotAirBalloonist.com shows a dramatic increase in the number of events occurring in the month of May!  We would like to say to everyone hitting the road to an event, or two, or a dozen this summer please be careful.  We are not talking about just the flying you will do at the events but on the road to and from the events.  Please take the time to read and consider the following list.

•       Vehicle Tires

•       Trailer Tires

•       Trailer Bearings

•       Lights, Turn, Brake, Marker, Trailer and vehicle

•       Hitch and Ball Tight?

•       Hitch Latching system working

•       Jack Stand Oiled?

•       Spare Tire has air?

•       Jack and lug wrench?

•       Oil Change on Vehicle and your inflation fan?

•       Inflator fan cage, tires, fan hub, air cleaner and shutoff?

•       Radios, discharged and recharged, chargers working, spare batteries, antennas

•       Spare batteries for GPS, Radio, Flashlights

•       Basket in good shape, cleaned out, Tank Straps Tight, Fuel fittings tight, Oiled,

•       Envelope good, Balloon Bag, straps, skirt, Scoop,

•       Lift Gate and tie down straps inspected

•       Ropes and tether gear

•       Balloon Tie off or Quick release working

Before you hit the road take an afternoon and grab a crew member or your spouse or whomever is going on the road with you and spend some time looking over your gear.  You may find something that could or would have been a disaster on the road.  An afternoon spent talking with crew and looking over the gear will not only make you safer but will build trust in your equipment and a common desire amongst your team that you have a safe summer season.  We did not intend to cover everything that should be checked but rather give you a start on your own list.  Please have fun and be safe.

New Events.  If you are involved with a balloon event please take a moment to check the HAB Events calendar to see if you are listed.  We will be glad to list your event if you are not on our calendar.  If you are on the calendar and want to have changes made please let us know.  Keep in mind we have an Event Organizers membership that will allow you to post your event yourself as well as provide links, emails, descriptive text and even upload files for others to download!  Take a second and read about the Event Organizers Membership.

Pilot and Crew Badges.  Anyone who has been to the National Balloon Classic has been given a name badge. We made over 1600 for them last year.  They are great for identifying people.  Great for remembering that pilots name you forgot since last year. They also make a great souvenir or keepsake from your event.  They are not as expensive as you may think.  Do you have a sponsor who would like a little more exposure?  Why not let them pay for the badges in return for their logo on the bottom?  Post your contact information and phone numbers on the back.  Identify Sponsor’s or VIP’s with a badge.  There are many uses and it even helps your spectators by identifying Pilots, Crews, Sponsor’s and Staff!  Your spectators always love to ask questions from the pilots and crews.  The spectators love it and let’s face it, it’s a little ego boost for the pilots and crews too!   Call us or email us on how to get badges for your event for less than you think.

The Exchange.  We talked about this in our last newsletter.  In the Balloon Rides section of HotAirBalloonist.com there is a section called “The Exchange”.  This section of the site is private for members only.  If you go to the site and look on the Rides page you will not see The Exchange, but, log in as a Pilot Member or above and you will see this private category.  There are Exchanges already set up for some of the larger flying areas in the country.  The intent of this is that local pilots can communicate with each other about 4 basic areas of information, inside each exchange are four Forums. 

•         Crew Forum

•       Pilot Forum

•        Passenger Exchange

•       Landowner Relations

Each forum works like the Balloon Reflector.  Any topic posted will send an email out to all other members who are following that forum.   As you can imagine this can be a huge asset locally for any group of pilots or crew.  Imagine you need another crew member for tomorrow.  Post it and everyone knows instantly.  Imagine you have two extra passengers you need someone to fly.  POST IT and everyone will know.  If you have two spaces left to fill for tomorrow, POST IT and everyone will know. Imagine you are told that you are not welcome of someone’s property.  You guessed it.  POST IT and everyone will know.  Here in our area we had a landowner who has asked us not to use his property after 15 years of doing so.  After posting a topic we found out that several of our local pilots did not know.  We would have had an uncomfortable situation on our hands if someone had landed there.  Now because everyone is respecting his wishes, he has told us we can use part of his property to launch from.  It’s a start but communication was the key and we are sure it is in your area as well.  Remember you can share files in the Exchange as well. PDF, GPX, TIFF, JPG, and more.

ONLINE TICKETS.  I guess we should have labeled this newsletter as the Balloon Events newsletter.  Are you involved with an event and would like to sell tickets online?  We can do that for you.  We can have your event passes set up in our store in as little as 24hours!  HONEST..  Sell passes to your event tomorrow!  Passes can be scanned and verified with a smart phone.  No need for scanners, Wi-Fi or any other expensive gear.  Best of all you do not have any mailing costs or set up costs.  Just let us know you want to sell passes and we will take if from there. 

Ride Operations.  We have over 350 ride operators listed in our Rides category.  If you do balloon rides we encourage you to get a Ride Operators Membership.  A very small $5 a month fee will allow you to do so many things on the site but most importantly you can create your own advertisement all about your balloon rides.  Include text, links, emails, photos, specials and more.  Heck you could even copy and paste your website into a topic.  Best of all when someone is looking for a balloon ride and visits your topic they won’t see the disclaimer “This Balloon Ride Operator is NOT a member of HotAirBalloonist.com.  Their contact information is listed below.  Let them know that, YOU FOUND THEM on HotAirBalloonist.com, and encourage them to become a member”.  Instead they will find a complete description of your services and how to contact you to take a flight..  Remember As a Ride Operator Member you create your topic any way you want.  Add all the information you want.  Another benefit is that when you create your own topic you are now ON TOP of the list of operator’s in your state.  This means you get the most traffic from potential passengers.  There is also a Yearly Option for this membership.  A one-time fee of $50 gives you an entire year!  Keep in mind that the topic you create about your services is yours to do as you wish.  Post specials, coupons, and more.  Change it weekly if you want.  The Topic is yours to do as you wish and there are no limits on what you can do with it.  Give us a call or send us an email if you want to know more.  If you make one booking you have paid for your subscription for the year!  And we do spend money on google for placement and advertisements.  As the membership grows the advertising will also grow.

Current News.  Don’t forget there is a web scrubber on our Current Events page.  This scrubber goes all over the web finding stories about ballooning.  If something hits the news you can bet you will find a link to it or several links on our Current Events page.  Stay in the know and visit often.

Login in!  Remember you need to log in to see most of the items on the site that are created for Balloonists.  We have many public areas on the site for the general public but the private membership side of the site is huge.  There are many things on the site that are for members only.  If you have not logged in for a while you may want to do so.  In many cases you will find a bunch of new stuff since the last time you were logged in.  If you have forgotten your user name or password there is a password recovery system on the site.  If all else fails send us an email and we can help you out.  Remember our security protocols do not allow us to see your password so we cannot tell you what it is, however, we can give you a new one.  So just let us know and we can get you set up.  Don’t forget to select REMEMBER ME when you sign in so you won’t have to remember your password next time.

We are starting to fly a bunch down here in Florida and I am sure you are in your part of the country.  Please be safe, if you are uncomfortable with the conditions don’t fly!  Even if others do!  We need leaders and now followers.  BE A LEADER!

All the best and we hope you have a safe summer

Jeff A Thompson

Info@HotAirBalloonist.com

407-421-9322

Sorry Jon for so long……(inside joke)

 

 

 

April Newsletter 2016.docx