Well it’s January and a new year! (2017)

[hotairballoonist]

Have you taken our poll?  We recently conducted a poll with questions regarding the ballooning accident in Texas back in July of last year.  You are welcome to log in (you must log in) and take the poll yourself.  We will publish the results at a later time.  We do ask that only Pilots take the poll so we can keep the results as pure as possible.  If you are not a pilot, but are interested in the results just scroll to the bottom of the poll and click on the “view results Null Vote” button.  To take the poll, first, log in.  Then go to the “Hot Topics” category.  Click on the “Walkie Talkie” sub-category and the topic with the poll will be the first one on the list.

In the Headlines.  Did you know that one of the crew members for the Texas balloon incident has died?  Don’t forget we have a page called Current Events.  On this page there is a news scrubber that scans the headlines all over the world for items that are balloon related.  On the current events page scroll down to the “Ballooning in the Headlines” section and you will see the headlines of balloon related events.  Just click on them to find out more.  Don’t forget to check in now and then to see Ballooning in the Headlines.

Seminar Season.  Please remember we have a calendar for Safety Seminars.  We sure would like to have your seminar listed.  Send all your details to Events@HotAirBalloonist.com and we will list your seminar! Send as much information as you like, send event information, times, speakers, pricing, and all your contact information such as phone, Email, Website URL or Hyperlink. Remember you can also upload your event application or registration so that anyone can download right from the site. Remember if you have an Event Organizers Membership YOU can create events yourself on both the Balloon Events calendar and on the Balloon Seminars calendar.  When you place an event on the calendar you may include Photos, contact information with Email Links and Hyperlinks as well as upload application forms and all the descriptive text you want.  Best of all you may go back and edit at any time. 

I am excited to be making the trip from Florida to Iowa to speak at the Iowa Balloonists Association’s seminar on February 25^th.  The group of pilots there holds a very special place in my flying history.  I am very proud and humbled to be a presenter this year.

NEW IN THE STORE.  We have added several new items in the online store.  Some of these items are discounted for our membership.  Here are a few of the new items. 

Shoot A Lite strikers.  We made a special purchase and are able to offer them to our members for only $10 each.  They are normally found on the web for almost twice that. 

Basket Wedding Decorations. Those of you who may do weddings in your balloon now and then may want to take a look at this.  These Velcro onto your basket and are reusable for years.  They are custom made for your basket! Best of all you can fly with them and there is no need to make any alterations to your basket.

Tank Stickers.  New regulations may require you to have these on your tanks to refuel the balloon.  Thanks go out to Sam Parks, Phil Bryant and Andy Baird and the BFA for their involvement protecting us from potentially harmful new regulation in the propane world.

We have PI-Bal lights!  We have been using them for a few years now for our pre-dawn wind observations.  Inside a 12” yellow balloon you can spot them several thousand feet up.  We have packages of 30 lights available for about 42 cents per light.

Below is what Mike Shrum would call a SHAMLESS PLUG.

Paid Memberships.  The HotAirBalloonist.com site runs because of the paid memberships.  There are many items offered for free to our membership. We have been working hard to create new features, find new products, and upload useful files and presentations. This along with the additional content and the ability for the members to interact with the site and each other make it a great marketplace and resource for all of us. 

Please read this carefully and think about it.  If you are a BFA member you can become a Pilot Member of the HAB site for as little as $11.25 A YEAR!  You realize that is less than ONE DOLLAR a month!  Why would you not do that?  The FREE items for download alone will pay for your membership. Download a Tether contract and the Hot Air App tutorial and you have paid for your membership.

If you are a BFA member and you do passenger flights you can get a Ride Operators Membership for $12.50 A YEAR or ONE DOLLAR and FOUR CENTS a month! A Ride Operator can create their own custom advertisement on the Rides Page where they can advertise their rides.  They may create their topic with all the photos, text, links, emails and pricing.  They can also sell photo of their passengers in the Download center.  Here again Why would you not do this?  Sell one ride and you have paid your membership for a year! 

We currently have more than 350 operators listed on our rides page.  We will be going down the list to try to verify the operations and get current information.  Help us help you by getting a membership and then creating your own advertisement for yourself.  Then we will delete the one we have on the site. 

As we have mentioned in previous newsletters the site does many great things for the balloon world.  If you have been given a free membership or have a Registered Guest membership we respectfully ask that you chip in a buck a month and upgrade to a paid membership. Then enjoy all the amazing benefits a paid membership has as well as supporting the site.  There is a step by step tutorial on how to get the special BFA membership in the Download Center.

If you would like a guided tour of the site and an explanation of many of the dozens and dozens of features the site has built in already just let me know.  I am working on the site almost daily.  I work very closely with the BFA Hall of Fame committee who use the site for their files and the selection process.  The Hall of Fame committee has a complete category for their use in total privacy within the HotAirBalloonist.com site.  We were awarded a BFA Directors award for our work with the HOF Committee last fall at the general meeting.  Just send me a note and let me know what time would be good for you and I will log you into the site thru my computer so we can see the same computer screen at the same time while I show you around the site.  Just send me an email Info@HotAirBalloonist.com

Do you have a Balloon Club?  We can create a complete PRIVATE section on HotAirBalloonist.com just for your club.  No need to maintain a website of your own.  You can have complete section all private just for your club while still being able to access all the other features of the HAB site.  Newsletters can be sent with a couple of mouse clicks to all your membership.  Conduct Polls, Have Photo Galleries, Create topics where you entire club can comment.  The system will even send out emails automatically to your club members each time someone creates a new topic or replies to any previous topic.  Have more interaction among your club than you ever imagined.  Call for more details on this special feature of HotAirBalloonist.com

Thank you all for your support for HotAirBalloonist.com.  If there are features you would like to see added or types of files or items in the store let us know.  Remember send your event listing (Festival, Competition or Seminar) to Events@hotairballoonist.com

Please get out there and go to a seminar if you can.  They are a great way to brush up on your skills.  See friends you may not have seen in a while, show your support for our balloon community and heck you might learn something.

All the best to everyone and please fly safe and have fun.

Jeff A Thompson Info@HotAirBalloonist.com

407-421-9322

 

 

 

Jan 2017.docx