Fall Foliage! (August 2017)

[hotairballoonist]

Fall Foliage!

This is a time of year I sincerely miss.  Living here in Florida, we do not get the spectacular colors of the fall as you do in many places up north.  The fall season is some of my favorite flying.  I remember when flying in Michigan the fall color tours were a very busy time.  That is also the time of year when the weather can be somewhat tricky as the cold fronts begin to invade from the north.  I wish you all great flying weather, fantastic colors and most of all safe flights.  Share a few photos with us on HotAirBalloonist.com

CLUBS

This is a new feature that is not well understood on HotAirBalloonist.com

“Clubs” simply is a FANTASTIC addition and has great potential for EVERY MEMBER.  As a member you can now start a club.  Your club could be just you and your ground team, or if you want, the pilots and crews in your flying area or even friends across the country.   For example:   You and a couple of your pilot friends want to start a club.  So you create a club.  You choose the type of club!  You can create one of 4 types of clubs, (public, open, closed or Private Club).  You invite your pilot friends and their crews to join your club.  Inside your club you can create several fantastic areas.  You can create a forum for topics of discussion.  You can create a photo gallery for your club.  You can create a download center for file sharing and you can even create a club calendar!  That’s right an online calendar just for your club.  BEST OF ALL each of your new club areas include the “FOLLOW’ feature.  This means that if each member of your club selects to follow a forum or a calendar the system will send them an instant email whenever something has been added!  So you can enter an event on the calendar or post a new topic in your forum and the system will automatically send out emails!    BOTTOM LINE, creating a club for your flying area or friends is a great way to keep in touch with local pilots and crews and share local information quickly and easily with just a few mouse clicks.  Log in and take a look!

DELETING A TOPIC

Deleting a topic or any item you have started has now become much easier.  One of the new additions to the site is the ability for any member to easily find all the items they have started.  When you are logged in go to the menu bar at the top and mouse over “Activities & Interests” then click on “Content I Started” This will then pull up a list of all the activity associated with your account from the entire site.  There are many items such as reply’s or Status Updates that you can delete directly from this page.  Topics are also easy to delete.  Just click on the topic.  Just below the Topic Title over to the right you will find a gray link called “topic moderation” Just click on that link and hit delete.    

NEW NAVIGATION

We have new and improved navigation on HotAirBalloonist.com.  The top four navigation links are now mouse over links.  This means you do not have to click on them.  Just hold your mouse over them and the links will appear in the line below.  By doing this we have made navigation quicker and allowed us to add even more items to the site.  Have a look at the new navigation bar and the many new features and links.

HALL OF FAME

Do you know a noteworthy balloonist?   Do you know someone who has made a huge impression on you in the world of ballooning? Do you know someone who could possibly be someone who is worthy of being in the National Balloon Museum “Hall of FAME”?  Currently the Hall of Fame committee has 200 biographies on file but there are many more balloonists who deserve to be on that list.  If you know someone whom you believe should be considered as a notable balloonist?  Please help the Hall of Fame committee by providing information about a notable balloonist or someone involved in the world of ballooning whom you believe should have information preserved for future balloon enthusiasts.

If you wish to see the names those on file navigate to the forum below.

·  Home

·  U.S. National Balloon Museum

·  Ballooning Hall of Fame

·  Notable Balloonists with Biographies   

ACTIVITIES & INTERESTS

We have a new section on the site called Activities & Interests.  This is where you will find a link to the new Club Feature on the site. If you mouse over the link “Activities & Interests” you will see many other new options.  REMEMBER LOG IN…  If you do not log in you will see very few options on the site.  When you log in the site doubles in size.

UPGRADE

Our upgrade on the site is almost complete.  We are still working on a few page layouts but for the most part the site is running well with all the new modifications.  We have a few new pages in the works but will talk more about that in a future newsletter.  We will be thinning the heard in the next few weeks.  We have many members that have not logged in in a very long time or have never used the site.  If we delete your account please remember you can always go back and create a new account.  If you have the chance to log in in the next week or so please do.  If you have forgotten your password just use the password recovery system on the site.

MAPS!

PLEASE PLEASE if you have a map of your flying area or if you are involved with a balloon event we want your files!  We want to share them with all balloonists.  There is a section in the Download Center just for map files.  We would like to create a complete database of maps from all over the country and the world!  Imagine how nice it would be to simply download a map from local pilots anywhere!  Imagine the ability to avoid land owner relation problems just by providing a file for pilots who are unfamiliar with your area?  PLEASE if you have files, help us achieve this goal.

All for now!

I know I get somewhat long winded in these emails.  I hope you get some benefit from them and if you log into the site and find some benefit there then I have achieved my goal.  HotAirBalloonist.com is meant to be a site where we can all participate, share, and benefit from the HUGE knowledge of balloonists like you, everywhere.  You are receiving this email because you are a member.  PLEASE PARTICIPATE.

 

 

Fly safe and enjoy the cooler temps and beautiful vistas.

Jeff A Thompson

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