I am Thankful for YOU! (Nov 13th 2020)

[hotairballoonist]

Need your help.

We have gone down our list of almost 200 balloon events.  Sadly we have only been able to identify about 60 events for the 2021 season.  When you have a moment, please visit HotAirBalloonist.com.  Have a look at either the North American Balloon events calendar or look on our member map for an event in your area.  Here is a link to the video tutorial on how to view “Events Only” on the member map to make it easier to view the events we have listed.

https://hotairballoonist.com/forum/index.php?/files/file/1227-events-on-the-member-map/

If you are involved in a balloon event please take a moment to watch the video then go to the member map and check to see if we have your event listed.  If we are missing your event, please send us an email at Info@HotAirBalloonist.com and give us the website and any other details you believe we could use so we can have an up to date calendar for 2021.

MAP FILES

Do you have map files?  We are compiling files from as many balloon events as we can.  We already have many files for pilots in our Download Center.  These files can be downloaded for use in several Navigation applications like HOTAIR,  Hot Air Balloon Pilot (Android) Two Nav, Back Country and more.  We have KML, KMZ, GPX files and more.  If you have map files for your event, or flying area, we would like to have them available in our download center.  Our goal is to have map files for all balloon events and eventually have maps for flying areas all around the country.  This would allow out of town pilots to be able to fly in your area without creating issues for the local pilots.  Keep in mind that these files can be protected by using our member permissions, so others cannot see or use them.  If you have a map file for a specific flying area, we can also create an online club for your area.  By creating an online club YOU can invite only your local pilots to be members in your club.  This will make your files even more protected since you can choose exactly the members whom have access.  There are two “Video Tutorials” about how to make a club for your area.

Start a club (Part One)  Start a club (Part Two)

In addition to these fantastic features we can also incorporate the “FOLLOW FEATURE”.  This means that anytime a change has been made to your map file or a new file is uploaded all the members who “Follow” that file will be sent an instant email notifying them that there is a new file available.  This is a wonderful way to keep everyone in your area up to date with the Green Zones, Red Zones, Yellow and more.  Here is another great “HOW TO” video tutorial about the use of map files.

https://hotairballoonist.com/forum/index.php?/files/file/1197-hotairapp-map-files/

Map Files (more)

Recently we had a request, that once we started to think about it made a bunch of sense.  We were asked if we could separate the different maps for a flying area.  So, we created separate files for maps.  We created a PZ map with 3D Red Zones and Yellow zones on one map.  We created Green Zones on another map.  We created Targets in another map.  We created a Marker map with colored pins that you could tap on and view information about that Red Zone and we created another overlay of pins for the Green Zones that include information like Landowner, Phone, Special instructions, Gate Codes and more.  By doing this we were allowing the pilots and crews to select the specific map or overlay they wanted to view for the area.  Now I will admit that when you download all these maps and turn them all on the map looks very cluttered, however, in most cases when you are flying your map is zoomed in to about a 25 square mile area.  This unclutters the map greatly!  We have also sent an email to Shawn Gano the developer of the HOTAIR.app and asked if we could incorporate colored pins into the KML overlay.   Over the next few days we will be making either a video tutorial or a power point slide show about all of this.

Safety Seminars

We realize that with the Covid-19 issue we are all suffering from a change in our lives.  We believe this is a great time to have a safety seminar.  The question is HOW?  I will be starting a topic in the “Walkie Talkie” forum inside the “Hot Topics” category.  Feel free to log in and get involved with this important topic.  Remember the “Hot Topics” category is a private Members Only category!  You must be logged in to view and participate.  If you are having a Safety Seminar sometime this winter, please send us the details about your seminar.  Better yet use our Safety Seminar form for an easy way to send us information.  Go to this link.  We have created a simple form you can fill out in a very short time that will provide us with information we will use to post the event on the HAB calendar and on the Member Map.

Support the site!

As always we want to thank our paid members who keep this site alive.  Members have many useful features on the site and we are adding more all the time.  One of the greatest features is that YOU the member can participate.  YOU can create new topics, add an item for sale, advertise your services, participate in a chat room and so much more.  BUT we need both new members and current member’s to create a paid account.  We currently have more than 50 video tutorials about how to use the site.  One of them is about getting a membership.  In less than two minutes you can purchase a membership online.  Check out this Video Tutorial.

Thank you all for your support and participation.  Please be safe this year for the holidays and remember we all have many things to be thankful for.

Jeff A Thompson.