At long, long last, and after a lot of work we have finally managed to not just update the website but give it a complete overhaul and face lift! We hope you like it!! The new website encompasses all the usual elements of the old website and much, much more. On top of the usual static information pages that we feel are important to promoting pilot safety, the new site puts *you* in the driving seat by allowing you to add your own content, and helps pilots to network more effectively! Please take the time to read the rest of this article which will describe each of the new features of the site and how to make the most of them.
Wow - where to begin? Well for starters I'd like to thank Adam Drew, one of our members, for breathing new life into the old IHPA logo which replaces a dodgy scan of a very old letter-head we once used!
The new site is now running on the really cool Joomla! Web Content Management System, which makes updating the site a snap and allows us to add cool new features from time to time, like the Google Languages translation and Map tools. For the present I have kept a link to the old website on the main menu so that you can nip back there for a spot of nostalgia... and in case I have forgotten to copy something over to the new site. The old site will die an honourable death in the coming year when we're sure we've sucked the last drop of blood out of it! Many thanks to Stephen Gaughan for building and maintaining the old site for all those years.
By the way, if you want to increase or decrease the size of the text on the screen, just press CTRL+ and CTRL-, and the pages will automatically rescale for you - very useful if you're reading late at night with tired eyes!
Registration
There are two sides to the new site - a part that is open to the public that anyone can view, and another part that is visible only to IHPA members. Members will need to register on the new site - fill in their details and select a username and password. You'll find the 'Register' link on the top right of the front page. When filling in your registration details, please take the time to dig out a reasonably good photo of yourself, showing your face and general good looks - no helmets please! We hope that this little feature will help others to recognise you out on the hill and make it easier for new pilots fo integrate into the flying scene.
All the News that's fit to print!
We have decided to use the front page of the new site to display all the latest news articles, features and safety notices (there's a really important one for PGs there, right now - please read it!) The latest news will always appear at the top of the page, and older news items will slowly be pushed further down and onto subsequent pages. Important safety notices will be highlighted with a big exclamation mark, to draw your attention! If you have any news you'd like to see up on the front page then please let us have it - whether you're planning a round-the-world flying trip, or are entering a big international comp, or whatever - let us know about it! Just send your news to the Webmaster or any of the IHPA Committee members and they'll post it up.
About the IHPA
I've added a new section setting out what the IHPA does on behalf of pilots and all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes. Even I didn't realise just how much work the Association does until I started to write it down! You can read all about the Benefits of Membership and the IHPA's affilliations here, as well as browse through our Constitution - fascinating stuff! You will also find details of how to join the IHPA, or renew your membership. Unfortunately, for legal reasons we require a signed paper copy of your membership and liability waiver forms and so we are unable to offer an on-line membership and renewal service. You can, however, pay your membership fees on-line using PayPal! I've also added a round-up of all the insurance policies that are now available to Irish pilots to cover their normal day to day flying in Ireland and also when they are away on holiday. If I've left anything out then please let me know!
Forums
While the old GoogleGroups mailing lists have served us very well in the past they have always been separate from the IHPA website. This meant that there was little incentive for members to visit the website to check up on the latest news and activity (not that there was very much!) They also had serious shortcomings. It is hoped that by integrating the forums into the new website members and pilots will be encouraged to check the website more frequently, play an active part in its development, and form a closer social group... rather than just meeting up on the hill once in a while! One major benefit of the new forums is that all your emails and posts will be kept in discrete topical threads, and not all jumbled up as they are in the mailing lists. This makes reading and following a topic much easier!
For those who prefer to receive all their email traffic in their in-box every day, you can sign up to the 'Feed My InBox' service to receive a digest of all the forum activity each day. [To get the correct URL to enter into FeedMyInbox, place your mouse over the Forum button at the top of the screen and right click, select 'Copy Link Location.' Then go to FeedMyInbox and paste that link into the appropriate spot by pressing Shift-Insert.] You can also elect to receive all the forum traffic via an RSS feed to your favorate news-reader - just click on the RSS button at the bottom of the Forums list. Although not yet available, you will also soon be able to select a setting in your profile to send you an email whenever a new topic is started on the forums (I'm still working on that!)
Another neat feature of the new forums (one which you can use now!) is that you can subscribe to individual threads or topics that interest you and ignore all the others! If you start a new topic or post a reply, you will automatically be subscribed to it and will receive an email notification each time there is a new reply. If you loose interest or the thread goes too far off-topic for you, then you can unsubscribe from that thread. So there you have it - there are lots of new ways to keep up to date with the latest news (and an easy way to avoid all the less interesting waffle!)
Weather All-in-One
You've already seen the new weather page up on the old website, which I put together last year. Well I've tidied it up a bit and added a few more weather sources, and added a menu of quick links that will take you directly to your favourate weather site. Of course you can also click on any weather chart or graphic and you'll be transported to that site.
Our sport and safety revolves around the weather, so if you come across a particularly useful weather site or local weather station that you would like added to your IHPA weather page, then let me know!
Flight Safety Pages
This is perhaps the most important part of the site. I've put quite a bit of work into putting these pages together, drawing relevant information from many sources, and putting it all together in what I hope is a logical and usable form. Don't take just a quick look at them, please take the time to read all these pages carefully, and digest the information - it all applies to YOU!
On some pages, like the Rules of the Air and Restricted Flying Sites, you will see a little printer icon in the top right hand corner. It's there to allow you to print out that page and keep it handy for when you go flying. Other pages, like Understanding Airspace, contain information that you will need to pass your Para Pro / Safe Pro 3 & 4 exams. Print them out and learn the facts!
On the Accident Reporting pages you will now find a summary of all accident and incident reports (extracted under duress, in some cases!) going back to 2002, when I took over the reins of the Training Officer's position. They make for interesting reading and offer a few very important lessons! Also listed are all the Serious and Fatal Accident Investigation Reports by the Association and the Air Accident Investigation Board going back to the very beginning. These reports are too important to be lost in the archives - the lessons they teach are just as relevant today as they were then.
Foot Launched Powered Aviation (FLPA)
I've added a new section that I hope will prove useful to aspiring and experienced Paramotors and petrol-head hangies alike. It details the hoops you now have to jump through if you want to fly power legally in Ireland, thanks to certain individuals rattling the IAA's cage.
Learning to Fly
I've completely overhauled the Learning Zone pages and have added a considerable wealth of information and useful links to prospective pilots thinking of taking up the sport. Where to go - what to do - what kit to get - where to get it - and lots more! It were never so easy when I were a lad, running up'n'down t'slag-heaps with no shoes, a spiral fracture and me cast iron wings on me back. Honestly, the young'uns o' today have got it easy! I've even given them train timetables for heaven's sake!
Visiting Ireland to Fly
With all the new pilots coming into the country to work and fly, I've added a page to help them get into the flying scene here and to fly safely - and hay, they can even read the whole website in their own (if slightly mangled) language thanks to the new translation tool!
Flying Sites Guide
You can now find all the most popular flying sites marked on our interactive Google Map of Ireland! Zoom in and pan around as you would with any Google map, and click on a marker to read a summary of the site information. You can read the full site guide by clicking on the index links below the map. With so many sites, how do I narrow them down to the ones that are flyable today? That's easy! Just click on the Wind Direction Menu and the map will change to display just the sites that take a particular wind direction.
I hope to be able to offer a facility so that pilots can add their own comments, updates and photos to the site guides, but that's still in the pipeline!
Buy & Sell
The new website now has its own Classified Ads section where you can create your own For Sale or Wanted ads! Add a description, price, condition, photos and even a link to a YouTube video! The website will automatically fill in your contact details and a Private Message link. Once you've placed your advert, why not also announce it on the Buy & Sell forum to kick-start some interest in it? I've also included links to some of the more popular Buy & Sell sites that I have come across. If you know of any other good classified ads sites that might be useful to pilots then please let me know and I'll include it.
IHPA Community - huh?
What the heck's that - sounds a bit hippyish! One of the really powerful features of the new site is something called Community Builder. It's a framework that allows you to add not only your own profile, but start your own blog; feature your own photo gallery; start your own public or private forum, and join as many or as few as you like; develop a section of the site for your local club or group of pilots. It allows you to build your own contacts list and is a messaging service. Every member has their own Message Wall where others can post messages to - and you can write on other people's walls - just like FaceBook! It allows the IHPA to send out SMS messages from the website alerting pilots to the latest competitions. It lets you see who else is logged-in and on-line, and lets you chat to them in real time, in private or in public! Geez, that sounds a lot like a dodgy dating service!!
Your Groups! - This is a new way for different groups of pilots and members to keep in touch and organise on-line. Anyone can set up a group and invite registered members to join. I've set up a few groups as a demonstration, but if you want to set up your own, then go right ahead! Once you join a group you will receive group bulletins sent by other group members or the group manager. So, if you are a student of Fred's school he can keep you up to date on the latest training sessions or whatever. You can set up a private group (invisible to non-Group members) by creating it as a 'By invitation only' group. Clubs or informal groups of pilots can keep in touch by using Your Groups! as a bulletin board. Use your imagination! [NB - the demo groups were set up and are 'owned' by the website Administrator - if you want to take over the managing any of these groups (or change the logo!) then just let me know and I'll be more than happy to hand over the reins!]
Forums - The new IHPA Forums offer a real improvement over the old mailing list. You can customise your forum settings to alert you by email when a new topic has been stated or when a new message has been posted to a forum you are watching or contributing to. You can also display the messages in a threaded format to better follow the flow of a conversation. You can start a new forum specifically for your own Group, which may be public or private (by invitation only.)
Live Chat - You can now chat one-on-one to other members live using our on-line chat room. This is not an open-to-all public chat space. Just send a Private Message to any member who is currently on-line and ask them to join you in the chat room and your request will pop up on their screen instantly - great for planning a weekend's flying activities!
Newsletters - Members can sign up to receive the IHPA's Newsletter by email. In years gone past there have been a number of attempts to produce a printed newsletter but these have been costly and slow to put together. We hope to make the new on-line newsletter a quarterly periodical giving you a round-up of all the goings-on in your Association. Please contribute to it! Send your submissions to the IHPA Secretary
Articles - Members can now write their own articles and post them in the Community Articles area where other members can read them.Why would you want to? Well, you might want to write a review of a wing or harness, or other gear, or you might like to write up a piece describing your latest flying holiday destination and illustrate it with your YouTube videos, Gallery photos or Track Logs in GoogleMap - how cool is that! Other members can then add their own comments to your article if the wish! You'll find a short tutorial on how to write an article and what cool features you can include, and how to add them, in the Member's Articles section.
Gallery - Many pilots are also excellent photographers and have countless thousands of photos taken from the air showing a variety of muddy boots obscuring the beautiful scenery below! Rather than store all your images directly on this website (which might just bring it to a grinding halt!) you can, however, link your off-site photo gallery directly to this site by going to the Web Links page and submitting a link to the Members' Photo Galleries section or you can directly embed your photo galleries in your forum posts and articles. If you don't already have an on-line gallery, you will also find links to a few hosts offering this service for free. You can also (I think!) illustrate your forum posts, Articles and Group Bulletins by inserting image-links to specific photos in your gallery.
GoogleMaps - You can add GoogleMaps to your Articles and Group Bulletins and display your tracklogs on them. How cool is that! I'll write up a proper tutorial on how to do this shortly, and will post it in the Articles section of the website.
Users' Comments - Users can leave feedback about the website,and on various individual articles in it (see the bottom of this article!) by clicking on the Show/Hide Comments link wherever it appears. We'll use your feedback to try and improve the website and keep it relevant to you!
Members List - You can see at a glance who is a current IHPA member with full insurance, and who has let their insurance lapse - that's pretty important if you're flying with pilots that are new to you! The membership list is served up dynamically from an on-line database, so you know it's right up to date.
Polls - (not Poles!) The new site allows us to run one or more polls on any subject you can think of! If you want to run a poll and find out what the members think of an idea, then just let the webmaster know and he'll set one up! Votes are anonymous and you only get to vote once in each poll, so make your vote count!
The idea of all these features is to help you network with other pilots and get the most out of your membership and flying. Did you have a really great flight recently - upload your tracklog and let others see it in Google Maps on the site while they read all about your epic struggle with gravity! If you've just returned from a really fab flying holiday - write an article and tell everyone about it and post it up in the articles section. Community Builder puts a large part of the site development into YOUR hands (yeah, scary, I know!) and turns it from a rather dull static site into a much more vibrant and dynamic place to plan your fun! This is as much an experiment for us as it is for you, and the ultimate success or failure of all these features depends on how responsibly they get used. We'll try to keep an eye on things and stop them from getting out of hand, but if you spot anything that is offensive or clearly has no place on your site then please report it to any of the IHPA Officers or the Webmaster, who will investigate. But just like the world of free-flying - self regulation is better than imposed regulation!
More to Come!
As if all that were'nt enough, there's still a considerable amount more in the works! I still have a lot of work to do on the Sites Guide, adding user controls, discriptions, pilots' comments, even better maps, photo galleries, you name it...! I am also in the process of pulling together and editing a Technical Manal for the IHPA to cover all aspects of our sport in Ireland. This is something that has been in development for a while (and asked for by the AAIU) and will appear on-line in the coming year. Also in the works is the Pilot Development Programme - an attempt to prod and encourage all you lazy PP3 / SP3 Novice Pilots to get your PP4 & 5 / SP4 & 5 ratings and become real Sky Gods!
Feedback
As we hope you will appreciate, we're adding a lot of new features to the site and there are bound to be a few bugs to iron out and content to change. Some of the features that I've added to the site are a bit of an experiment and I don't know if they'll take off or not, only time will tell, but they have worked exceptionally well on other sites, really invigorating those communities. Please have a little patients while we get things working at 100%, and please let us know what you think - good or bad - about the site, or if you have discovered a bug or error in the content. Constructive criticism is welcome! Have fun exploring the new site and play with all the new features. It's your site; make the most of it!
Have fun, and Safe Flying,
__________________________ Phil Lardner IHPA website & Training & Flight Safety
At long, long last, and after a lot of work we have finally managed to not just update the website but give it a complete overhaul and face lift! We hope you like it!! The new website encompasses all the usual elements of the old website and much, much more. On top of the usual static information pages that we feel are important to promoting pilot safety, the new site puts *you* in the driving seat by allowing you to add your own content, and helps pilots to network more effectively! Please take the time to read the rest of this article which will describe each of the new features of the site and how to make the most of them.
We have decided to use the front page of the new site to display all the latest news articles, features and safety notices (there's a really important one for PGs there, right now - please read it!) The latest news will always appear at the top of the page, and older news items will slowly be pushed further down and onto subsequent pages. Important safety notices will be highlighted with a big exclamation mark, to draw your attention! If you have any news you'd like to see up on the front page then please let us have it - whether you're planning a round-the-world flying trip, or are entering a big international comp, or whatever - let us know about it! Just send your news to the Webmaster or any of the IHPA Committee members and they'll post it up.
The new website now has its own Classified Ads section where you can create your own For Sale or Wanted ads! Add a description, price, condition, photos and even a link to a YouTube video! The website will automatically fill in your contact details and a Private Message link. Once you've placed your advert, why not also announce it on the Buy & Sell forum to kick-start some interest in it? I've also included links to some of the more popular Buy & Sell sites that I have come across. If you know of any other good classified ads sites that might be useful to pilots then please let me know and I'll include it.