I Believe I Can Fly

  Photo: Alex Souza. A view of Dania Pier from the sky. This was my last flight in Florida with a bunch of pilots.

Several small updates were done since last posting. Here goes the list:

1. Interface fixings (yes, too many browsers in the market, but many of us still using old versions of Internet Explorer);
2. Print and Directions to a site starts now with your city, if you are logged (in the past the directions started always from Florida);
3. Points system track your participation in the site, as well as allows you to change points by advertisement (I hope to make some partnerships with vendors in order to share prizes besides only free ads). To check your points:
   1. Login (if you are not logged yet);
   2. Click Your Account;
   3. Select tab Points;
   4. If you have more than 100 points you can contact me and ask a 1 month free Random Ad.
4. Search results includes pilots besides places (one of the top priorities for many users);
5. Trike info is requested now for all new places. Another request from the community, this will help trike owners to check whether the place is trike friendly or not.

Photo: Marina Souza (my daughter). My beautiful wife Elen starting my Fresh Breeze at Saint Augustine, FL. After so many tentatives, I decided to buy an electric starter. Like a website, when you start in paramotor, you must keep improving.

Start a new site is a huge task, especially when you are doing it alone, with basic skills of programming, and no other target user (in our case, ppg pilots) available for usability tests.

What I am trying to say is, you do your best but when things get real (you publish the site and invite people to come), you start to find bugs, usability problems, and receive lots of suggestions from your users.

Fact is, a website is like a child (ok, if you do not have children, think about your pet): you are going to take care of it your entire life! Sometimes the error fix or the suggestion implementation is simple, and you do it promptly, other times if will spend another couple of nights thinking on how to do the task.

Fortunately this is a positive thing for ppgplaces.com. With less than a week, I have made so many progress in the project that I could not imagine in the beginning.

As you know already, the positive feedback came also with (mostly) good suggestions. Also, I made my list of “known problem fixing” (mostly about browser compatibility and security, these kind of things most people will never notice). Saying that, here are the progresses after 3 days of launch:

1. Browser compatibility: now you can visit the site with any browser you want and you see the correct design of the site (first version had a difference in format if you were using IE 6 or 7);
2. Better search: Mike Phillips reported that he was not getting the correct results when searching “florida” (I was saving only the 2 digit state, that’s why the list of sites in “florida” was not showing correctly). I revisited the search function and know you can find any site when searching the full name of the state;
3. FAQ: Many pilots sent me emails with very similar questions. I compiled most of them and create a Frequently Asked Questions page;
4. Random headers: As a designer, I liked to be surprised with new images every time I browse the site. By the way, you can send me your own pictures either;
5. Blog: In order to keep the site alive and also having a space for show my progresses in the development of the site, I have created this blog as a deeper form of interaction with you all (hope you are liking it);
6. Map All: Joe Onofrio suggested this feature as a benefit for people travelling around the country for his Monument Valley Fly In in October (man, I would love to be there but, starting a new job in Washington in August I will not be able to make it). The idea basically is show all available sites in a map, allowing people to create their routes to fly as much as possible when travelling around states;
7. Directions to the site: This is my favorite new feature. Just inform from where and you are going to see the directions to the site;
8. Print: This is a good one also. Select your next place and print the instructions about it (directions included). Even being disconnected you will be able to find the place and/or contact the locals while in road.

There are lots of other suggestions and ideas to be implemented. Keep sending them. Unfortunately some features being asked had to be “postponed” due their centricity to the United States area only, as my idea is to make this site as globally as possible.

Thanks again for your support. I am seeing new pilots and places arriving every day and this is great!

Alex

Photo: Alex Souza. My friend Simon flying over Miami South Beach, FL. This photo was 2nd place at Paramotor Magazine Gallery contest of Feb/Mar, 2009.

As I mentioned in my first posting, I am a beginner pilot, travelling around as much as possible. Of course, during my trips, mostly in Florida, I always try to fly in new places. Unfortunately it is not always easy to find fellow pilots in different cities. I had to try hard to find clubs via search engines and the ppg big list. Most of times people do not reply you.

One day, I planned to went to Saint Augustine. I asked the list for places or pilots around. No news. I asked in my hotel if people flew around and the guy in concierge replied me: “all the time”. So, I took-off but couldn’t fly more than 5 minutes as it was too windy. Months later, another pilot in the list asked the same question about Saint Augustine. Politely I replied telling that I had flown months ago there, point the spot for my GPS coordinates. Few minutes later I got an email from a member of the list telling me that I flew over a nature park (a non-flying zone). Not good!

Deciding to make our life easy and considering my background in web design, I decided to create a site where people could share spots with others. I bought some books about PHP/MySQL and Dreamweaver, downloaded the 30 day trial and start to code. Fortunately I could make my deadline launching the first version of ppgplaces.com in the very last day of the trial.

Before made it public, I sent the link to a group of friends and Jeff Goin. Like a prophet, he replied:

“Love the idea.

My observation is that many pilots are reluctant to share their sites for fear of outsiders ruining them. We do, unfortunately, have a few disrespectful pilots who seem to think it’s their right to fly wherever and however they like. And some sites just don’t tolerate much traffic.

Having said all that, I love the idea and will gladly mention it on FootFlyer. I’ve got a section on my website with sites I’ve visited although I’m very careful with what I put there.

Thanks for doing it.

Jeff Goin”

Like always, he was right. As soon as I announced it at the big list, people started to express worries about their sites. I received great feedbacks either. In fact, many of the feedbacks came with suggestions for improve the site.

Regarding sharing sites, my suggestion to all was:

1) If you can share the site without any problem (like airports, etc), just share it;
2) If you want to hang out with fellow pilots but you are worried about your site, share the site informing CONTACT XYZ (and inform the contact email/website) and put the map point on top of the city name (instead of the site area). With that, travelers will need to contact you (or someone else) to discover where the site is and to be briefed;
3) If you are interested only in finding places, just use the site and do not publish any place of yours;

Saying that, people started to share and join the site. I sincerely expect to have done a good thing for the community and I appreciate any feedback or suggestion you may bring.

Thanks a lot for your support!

Alex

Photo: Rodrigo Souza (my oldest son) took this picture during my first training day. The guy with me is Oscar from Fly2Now. Belle Glade Airport, FL.

First of all, welcome to my blog at ppgplaces.com! I will use this space not only to inform about the news of the site but also, to share my personal experiences flying around the States.

Although my first flight happened in June 2007, I still consider myself a beginner pilot. Due my previous work, it was hard to keep flying my paramotor due my constant trips to Latin America and Europe.

I am from Brazil, living in Florida since October, 2005. In the “sunny state” I had the privilege to discover the sport thru my friend John Perez, a paragliding pilot (he don’t like the idea of an engine in his back and the noise disturbing the sound of wind). John introduced me to two amazing people: Jose and Javier from Aerolight.

First time I talked to Jose I was interested in to buy a paragliding kit. He kindly alerted me about a mistake I would do, because it wouldn’t be useful in Florida. With his advice, I met Carlos Segnini, which became not only my instructor but also a really good friend.

With Carlos I learnt to fly and had the opportunity to meet such amazing people like Oscar, Simon, Rons (Nolan and Majestic), Mikes (Donati and Minnars), Robert, and the list goes on. Also, some problems with my engine made me met another awesome person, Paul from Planet PPG.

With their support, I went to my first fly-ins and discover even more fellow pilots. What was a dream became a passion. And that’s what PPG Places.com is all about: share my passion with other passionate people.

I sincerely hope this site can be a extraordinary resource for all the community. Please keep sending me suggestions to improve it.

In my next posting I will talk about the history behind www.ppgplaces.com. Meanwhile, enjoy the project!