April showers and May Flowers. (April 2017)

[hotairballoonist]

Hi everyone. 

Each month I try to insert information that you the members of HotAirBalloonist.com will find helpful and interesting as well.  The one thing I do keep asking is that if you have a FREE membership we sure would like you to become a paid member.  Sites like HotAirBalloonist.com take time to keep up to date and effort to continue to add more content as well as, provide support for the public and the membership.   We all know many balloon sites that have faded away, like Fireside, Everything Ballooning, Aunty Monkey and other sites like hotairballooning.com and Aerostatz that have become nearly stagnant in recent years.  The big difference with HotAirBalloonist.com is that we have a private members side and a public side and the membership like YOU control the content.  YOU can ask for anything you want to see on the site and we will make it happen.  You also have the ability to log in and start new topics, upload equipment for sale, create a calendar event, spend some time in the chat room, Share files, photos, drawings and more with your fellow LTA aeronauts.  Please if you are not a paid member become one.  Tell your friends to get online and become a member. 

The word of the month for April 2017 is “Participate”

CHECKLISTS

Last month we touched on the need for using checklists.  We have Pilot Checklists and Crew Checklists and even passenger pre-flight briefing cards available in the store.  If there is ever a question about your procedures having a checklist is almost like insurance.  It carries some weight as to your overall diligence as a pilot and your crew, for that matter.  As we mentioned all of our checklists and briefing cards are customizable. 

WELL, We have gone one step better.  We now have a form in our Download Center where you can download a file in Word Format.  Open it up on your computer and you literally can fill in the blanks. You will find on the left side of the page is a sample.  On the right side of the page are blank areas where you can write your own text.  Honestly you can make a completely customized checklist for yourself in just minutes.  Go to HotAirBalloonist.com and go to the Store.  Click on the Pilots Flight Bag category and you will find the checklists.  There are links to the download center in each product.  You can also go to the Download Center and go to the Balloon Related Resources to find the downloadable files.

 How’s your BTU?

Over the years the old debate about my burner is better than your burner and so on has gone on and on.  Here is how you can rate your burner and how you can rate someone else’s burner.  Next time you are at a balloon rally you can challenge your fellow pilots to do the same.  Keep in mind this is not a perfect way to rate a burner but it’s pretty close and if done at the same location and at the same time you will get very comparable numbers. You can purchase a scale at any Walmart for under $20 that will measure to 10^th’s of a pound.

 Propane has 21,600 BTU’s per pound.  So,  Take a tank of propane.  Weigh it.  Hook it up to your burner and light it up.  Turn it on for 30 seconds.  Now weigh the tank again.

How much propane did you use?  Let’s just say you used 3.9 pounds.  So here is the formula,

(UsageX2)X60= hourly usage.  Hourly usage X 21,600 = BTU/HR

3.9 pounds of propane used in 30 seconds.  X2 = a minute.  So 7.8 pounds a minute.  X60 = 1hr  so 7.8X60 =468 pounds in an hour.  468 X 21,600 =10.1 Million BTU per hour.

Now, Here are a couple of SERIOUS notes..  FIRST.  Be protected.  Hands, Arms, Head and your location! A 30 second burn is a very very long burn.  Things are going to get hot and no pun intended.  Make sure you are protected from the radiant heat and make sure bystanders are well back.  Also make sure you are in a very open well ventilated area.  We don’t want you setting the neighbors trees on fire.  Make sure you light the burner.  Believe it or not some burners are rated without lighting the burner.  You know the expansion of liquid propane to a combustible vapor slows down the flow and lowers the BTU rating.  The burner must be lit as if you were using it in flight to get a proper result.  Doing this at a balloon rally will give you results on a level playing field (also no pun intended) since all the propane will be at the same temperature and you will be at the same altitude.  Almost all smart phones have available applications for Decibel rating if you wish to measure that as well.

GoPro and Ballooning.

Many more pilots are now flying with GoPro and many more are thinking about it.  We do have a presentation in our Download Center on GoPro and Ballooning.  Go to the Video and Tutorials page and download the presentation for FREE.  It is a great beginner’s guide to what you will want to have for using GoPro Video cameras in ballooning.  One of the suggestions we have is using Ram Mounts.  We have been using them for several years and they are fantastic. You will find photos and links to the products we use.  Ram also makes a clamp on mount I used on my Father’s balloon works basket last summer and it worked fantastic.  Many of the mounts can be used on Uprights, Burner Frames and Tanks as well.  We will be writing an article for the Current Events page featuring many of the mounts we have tried over the years and what we think works best.  We are also experimenting with an easy clamp on mast attachment so look for details on that coming soon.

 

 

 

Tablet Flying.

 There are some fantastic programs available now for your tablet and for use while flying.  Some of these programs can be used for competition and be much easier to use than the big clumsy Map Boards the Good ole boys use.  We all have seen them, the big flat board where they have a laptop and cell phone and two GPS units and more with a clip for maps and so on.  Some even have straps and different attachments to mount onto the basket.  Some look like they could be used to torture the crew after the flight.  There is a very nice power point presentation in the Download Center on Tablet Flying.  It shows many of the programs that are out there and extremely useful for not only flight planning but inflight navigation as well.  The Download is free so have a look when you have time.  This presentation is also located in the “Tutorials & Presentations” category

Pilots Goodie Bag.

Some of you are involved in balloon events from a planner or organizer standpoint.  At almost every balloon event the organizers are looking for things for the Pilots goodie bag.  Don’t forget we have many items that would make great pilot gifts in our store.  Many of them are only a few dollars.  How about a Shoot-A-Lite sparker or a sighting compass.  What about flashlights or custom checklists like we talked about above. What about custom ID badges for the pilot with a color photo of the balloon on the badge.  What about Crew badges with the balloon photo on them.  There are so many items available and best of all many can be customized for the participating pilot.  HEY!  What about a membership on HotAirBalloonist.com?  Give us a call and we can work out special pricing for your event.  Heck we would even print up a special membership card for them to find in their goodie bag.

Well there is no doubt I have rambled on way to much again.  Honestly it is my sincere hope that you enjoy these newsletters each month.  Please patronize our sponsors and if you have a product or service you would like to promote remember we offer banner advertising all over the site and many memberships allow you to upload items in the 4Sale section of the site. 

Remember this site was built for YOU!  Tell us what you think.  Imagine if each of you started a topic about something or asked a question on the site or uploaded a file or drawing or presentations of some sort, how quickly we would have a HUGE resource for future balloonists.  Remember your local map files are wanted in the Download Center!

The summer festival season is on us!  Please fly safe and have fun but make your own choices!

Jeff A Thompson.

April 2017.docx