Are you ready 2-FLY? (April 2020)

[hotairballoonist]

CABIN FEVER

Many of us understand that phrase but unless you live in the Arctic Circle (until now) you may not understand what it feels like.  Seems now, more of us are feeling that way!  The desire to get out and do stuff is nearly overwhelming and completely understandable.  If you do decide to venture out please do it carefully.  Statistics are showing you can catch the Covid-19 about as easily as the flu but it is much more dangerous.  We know of a family where mom caught the virus and passed away in her 30’s during the time the husband spent caring for the mother, the husband became infected and also passed away.  He was also in his late 30’s.  They left two small children behind.  Please be careful.

How do we get back to flying? (Safely)

We have started a topic in the Hot Topics category in the “Walkie Talkie” forum on the HotAirBalloonist.com site.  We are looking for your input into this topic.  How do we start flying safely again?  Have a look at the topic and then post a response.

https://hotairballoonist.com/forum/index.php?/forum/510-hab-walkie-talkie/

Remember you must be logged in to view and respond.

A Great way to use the CLUB feature on HAB.

So you fly a few rides and go to a few events each year.  How does you crew know?  How about starting a club for you and your crew?   Purchase a “Balloon Ride Operators Membership” Then you get a 50% discount on crew memberships.  Then start a club for your Balloon.  Call it by your balloon name.  Make it a private club and invite your crew to join.  Now you have the ability to have a club calendar and a club newsletter and post events on the calendar and even create an RSVP for the events so your crew can sign up for any events you are planning to attend!  Sound COOL?  We will be making some Video Tutorials for exactly this.  The Features are currently available NOW on the HAB site.  If you do not want to wait for the Tutorials to be posted, just send me an email and I will be glad to get on the phone with you and walk you thru the feature live online!

The Member Map

This is still one of the COOLEST features on the HotAirBalloonist.com Site.  If you are a Member of the site you should have a pin in the map.  Imagine being able to find any balloon related service from a Ride Operation to a Pilot to a Repair Station and even balloon Events and even more anywhere in the U.S. and more.  We are now starting to get pins across the world.  Best of all you can separate the pins into one of many categories by simply unchecking the pins you do not want using the category box in the upper right side of the map.  We just finished updating all the Ride Operators, Balloon Clubs, Repair Stations and BFA Board members and HACD Board.  As always send us a note if you see something incorrect and let us know what needs fixed and we will jump right on it.

How’s your website?

This is a great time to give your website a facelift.  The First thing we would recommend is to become a member of HAB.  When you do you can create an advertisement for your Ride Operation on the HAB site in the Balloon Ride Category.  Here is a pre-view of what others have done.

https://hotairballoonist.com/forum/index.php?/topic/710-apex-balloons/

Next we would like to suggest that we help you with your site.  We have looked at almost all the Balloon Ride websites online.  Many are fresh and look wonderful but some could honestly use an update.  We can build a new (up to date) site for you and help you promote the site to get more visitors and increase balloon ride sales.  We can also provide several references of sites we have done for others for you to view.  So think about what you need and then let us know how we can help.

CHAT ROOMS,

Now with the “Stay at Home” stuff going on this is a great time to jump on the HAB site and join us in a chat room!  There are Public chat rooms where you can talk to other balloonists and even just random people or if you want to talk more “Shop” there are Members Only private chat rooms.  We even have a few area specific chat rooms and if you want a chat room for your flying area let us know.  We can create a room just for your flying area or group of pilots and crews.

 

 

 

NEWLY OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

The BFA Hall of Fame committee has been working on a TON of new stuff.  The committee chairman Orvin Olivier has agreed to open one of their many private categories for the public.  Many of you may know that the HOF Committee uses the list of “NOTABLE BALLOONIST BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION” to draw names for possible submission to the BFA Board of Directors for inclusion into the National Balloon Museum Hall of Fame. 

The Hall of Fame committee has many lists of Balloonists, whom have been identified for each list.  The NOTABLE BALLOONIST LIST'S category is now open for your viewing.  If you know a Balloonist whom should be on any of the lists please contact the HOF Committee and submit a biography for the Balloonists Biographical.  To modify a BIO on file or to add a new BIO, please submit information to the BFA Hall of Fame Committee at    Notable Balloonists

Video Tutorials

We have been continually adding new video tutorials to the HAB site.  We have also been re-making some of our old videos from .swf format to .mp4 format so they will play on ALL of your devices.  Have a look around some of the new videos, you may find some cool features you did not know the site could do!

All for now

Please be safe and if you need any help with anything on the site do not hesitate to send me a note.  I am more than happy to help with whatever you need and if you have new ideas for the site we are happy to create something for our fellow ballooners.  Join the conversation in the “Walkie Talkie” on how we get back in the sky.

Thank you for all you do for the balloon world.

Jeff A Thompson