We often get questions from pilots and officials about how WatchMeFly handles user and pilot profiles. The most common point of confusion is around why most users have 2 profiles (a WatchMeFly profile and a Pilot profile) and why sometimes they are not linked together.

In this post, we will clarify why there are these 2 profiles, what they are used for and how event officials can link them together (if they are not already linked).

The Two Profiles

As mentioned above, WatchMeFly has 2 types of profiles for users and they both serve different purposes within the WatchMeFly and the Balloon Live systems. Let us explain the 2 profiles.

WatchMeFly Profile

When you first signup to WatchMeFly by providing your name, email address and password, you are created a WatchMeFly Profile. All members of the WatchMeFly website (including pilots, officials and general users) have a WatchMeFly Profile. This profile is used for your login and access to the different functions of the website, including:

• Member only features
• The Competition Center
• The Learning Center

Pilot Profile

The pilot profile is used for Competition Pilots within the site. This is the profile that is used for the following features:

• Competition registration and Pilot pages
• Competition scoring
• FAI World Hot Air Balloon Ranking List

You are able to edit the details and upload a profile photos within the Account Settings page by clicking your name in the top right-hand corner.

So why do we have 2 profiles?

There are a couple of reasons for this. Let us look at these:

• There are many WatchMeFly users that are not pilots. Therefore, they do not need a Pilot Profile.
• There are many Pilots that are not WatchMeFly users. Therefore, they do not have a WatchMeFly Profile
• There are privacy reasons for the two profiles. The WatchMeFly profile is private and is not visible to the General Public on the website. The Pilot Profile is a public profile that will display on the Competition Pages and the FAI World Hot Air Balloon Ranking List.

How do Pilot Profiles get created?

There are 3 ways that a Pilot Profile gets created:

1. When you first sign up to WatchMeFly, you will be asked if you are a Competition Pilot. If you say "yes" then you will have a Pilot Profile created and it will be linked to your profile. If there is already a Pilot Profile in WatchMeFly with the same name (spelt exactly the same) and the same country, then we will automatically link you.
   
   
   
2. An event organiser or official can add new Pilot Profiles to WatchMeFly when they are adding pilots to their events.
3. All pilots that are listed in the FAI World Hot Air Balloon Ranking List will have a Pilot Profile in WatchMeFly.

How do you know if your 2 profiles are linked?

As a pilot, it is very easy to see if you have linked WatchMeFly and Pilot profiles. Simply log into WatchMeFly and on the homepage you should see a set of links to your Pilot Profile, Your Competition Data and Your Competitions (as shown below). If you do not see these, then your profile is not linked.

Alternatively you can try logging into the Balloon Live App with your WatchMeFly login details. If the login works, then your WatchMeFly and Pilot Profiles are linked.

How do I get my profile linked if it is not already linked?

You can either contact the event organiser and/or officials for the event you are competing in or you can email info@watchmefly.net.

For Officials

We have recently made some changes to the Competition Center's Pilot Management tools to allow authorised officials to manage to the linking of profiles. There are now detailed instructions in the Learning Centre about these changes and how to use this functionality. Please visit the Pilot Management instructions for more information.