Albuquerque Aerostat Ascension Association (Quad A)

It’s an online database of Pilots and Aircraft that participate in AAAA monthly flying events and as of March 2022 the AAAA-ATC Letter of Agreement (LOA) regarding ABQ’s class C airspace.

The FAA requires AAAA as part of the waiver process to collect and provide to the FAA upon request, certain data to establish qualifications and airworthiness of the pilots and aircraft operating under the waiver.

In addition AAAA must provide to the FAA after each Flying Event, the full legal name of each participating pilot, telephone number, certificate number, and level, as well as the N number of the balloon.

For the LOA, the FAA requires the pilot name, certificate number, balloon N number and a signature.

Pilots submit the required information and documents to http://bit.ly/AAAAPAD. This information is manually transferred to the PAD system and verified. A status email is sent to the pilot anytime a document(s) is uploaded and verified. This email contains the status of all documents/information fields. 

Pilots using the system will also receive via email, a “pilot badge” with a QR code that will allow Flying Events staff to scan the code for check in, which will log all the necessary information for the FAA. This badge also now includes “proof” of your current year AAAA membership, necessary to be included the AAAA LOA and LOA participation.

On the back end…. Flying events staff will move your documentation to the actual database, and compare the data with the images to “Validate” the information. The database does automatic calculations based on the date and when it becomes due. A status is automatically set. A document is either Current, Expiring soon (within 60 days) or Expired. Documents with no expiration date are set to Valid or Not Valid. Not Valid would be for documents that we can’t confirm due to some issue, like legibility or missing information on the document itself. It also adjusts those calculations for those conditions that expire at the end of the month vs a specific date. ie, Flight reviews and Annual inspections are good til the end of the month while insurance expires on a specific day of the month.

Each these status conditions are combined to provide a status of the pilot and another one for the balloon. These are combined to create an overall status condition. 

Unfortunately there are no options available. Pilots must find a way to go online and submit the documents. No accounts, passwords or other information are needed to access the upload site.

There are multiple reasons.

1. 1. To gather the information needed to satisfy the conditions of the FAA waiver and the LOA.
   2. To help pilots keep their documents current.
   3. To allow pilots to upload their documents in one place and have multiple organizations access them. This prevents a pilot from having to upload the same documents over and over again.

Simply, no. There are certain fields that will always be required to ensure they are current and to ensure we are matching the information to the correct pilot, but you only need to upload new or updated documents as they become available. The upload form was tweaked in December, 2022 to hopefully make it clear on what documents need to be uploaded.

The Flying Events chairperson, currently Doug Gantt, and the developer of the system, Ken Tuley. AAAA will not publish or release lists of pilots and/or their information to anyone, except the FAA, as required by the conditions of the flying events waiver. 

As of December 2022, the system will now ask for and track permission to share a pilot’s documents and/or document status with other organizations. Pilots may choose what to share with which organization(s). Permission must be granted in AAAA PAD by a pilot before we will share any of this information with any organization.

In order to fly under the waiver, we need all the required information before the event. We ask that you submit your updated information by 5pm on the Friday night before the event. That gives us time to process the information before the event. If you upload documents after that time, we may not get your information entered before the event and you may show as NO FLY during the check-in scan. FLYING EVENTS STAFF ARE NOT ABLE TO UPDATE YOUR DOCUMENTS THE MORNING OF THE EVENT! If we don’t have it, or it’s not current, all we can do is document in our report to the FAA that you were not eligible to fly under the waiver. If you decide to fly, you can. It’s always pilot decision to fly or not fly. We can just tell you the waiver is not in effect for you. To earn competition points, you must be eligible to fly under the wavier.

As of January 29, 2022, we allow you to enter as many as 3 balloons into the system. You must designate one of the balloons as your primary balloon. This is only to determine which balloon to print on your pilot badge. It can be changed at any time. Pilots with multiple balloons in the system will be asked at scanning time which N number they are flying that day. That N number and status is recorded for that day, regardless of the balloon that is on the badge.

Here are two tables outlining what we collect and why. You’ll notice the overlap between what is required for the Waiver and the LOA. Thus providing information for the Waiver also counts for the LOA. All we need is a separate signature. All uploaded to https://bit.ly/AAAAPAD.

Pilots have two options when selecting to share information. One option is to share just the status. In this case, the organizer will receive a list with the same information that appears on each monthly email to pilots. It lists just the status of the documents for the pilot and all balloons registered in AAAA PAD. If a pilot chooses to share the documents in addition to the status, we’ll send them the status list and a copy of the documents. Note some organizations will want both, others will need only the status. The organization should inform pilots what they will be requesting from AAAA PAD in order to match up the requests.

Contact Ken Tuley (video@hotairballooning.org) He will work with you to add you to the list of organizations a pilot can choose to share their information with. Then on your pilot application for the event, ask the pilot if they have their documents in AAAA PAD and if you have permission to access the documents or just the document status. This maybe depend on your relationship with the FAA and what they require you to obtain at registration time. 

Current AAAA members can access the system at any time without a fee. As of this update, non-current AAAA members can also access the system without a fee. However, non-current AAAA members can not be included on the LOA list. Organizations may be charged a fee depending on the situation. 

Ken Tuley is the designer and administrator of AAAA PAD. Email him at video@hotairballooning.org with any questions, suggestions, or comments.