For a couple of years there has been an Internet mailing list where
balloonists from around the world can exchange ideas. This free and open forum
is administered by Dave Temple in the United Kingdom. Information about how
to join this list is found nearby.
Early this summer, one of the many contributors (there are now over 500) suggested that those on the list attending the Balloon Fiesta should get together. This would allow people to put a face with a name. The idea went through a number of transformations.
After much discussion it was decided to meet the first Saturday. Time and place to be after flying at launch site F-7.
For better identification Bruce Boatman volunteered, for nominal fee, to make each cyberjunky a T-shirt transfer individualized with their name, Internet address, and the address of the balloon mailing list.
Participants came from Australia, Europe, and North America. It was a wonderful opportunity for those at KAIBF to get together with friends that they had been corresponding with by computer.
For those who did not bring their laptops with them, Fiesta’s information provider, rt66.com, had an on-field tent with computers to let the visiting techies send and receive their e-mail.
Fiesta itself, earlier this year, established a home page on the world wide web (http://www.rt66.com/aibf). The Fiesta’s new Web site opened with 38 pages of information on this year’s event. During the Fiesta updates were posted on the activities surrounding Fiesta.
For those interested in subscribing to the balloon mailing list the address is below. But first a word of warning. This is a mailing list. Everything that is posted to it will be sent to you. Some of the information is useful, some not. Some of the postings are useless.
During Steve Fossett’s solo Pacific flight, Bill Bussey’s record setting flight in February, and the tragedy in Belarus it was a wonderful source of immediate information available no where else.
With good comes the bad. You really have to like junk mail. Expect from 10 to 30 pieces of e-mail a day. That’s 500 or more messages a month. If you do not check your e-mail often it can be overwhelming. Don Piccard just reported that while he was gone for three or four weeks he arrived home to 409 messages waiting for him. Of course, one can subscribe and unsubscribe to the list as need be.
At present there is a discussion going on about NPRM 95-11.
To subscribe send e-mail to: balloon-request@lut.ac.uk On the subject line put Subscribe (or Unsubscribe). That’s it nothing else.
To post a message to the list address your correspondence to: balloon@lut.ac.uk
