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GlidingMaps
Glider Tracking for Competitions and Clubs
by Scott Penrose
I have spent time on and off for the past 3 years talking and working on possible tracking solutions for our gliding, thanks to the enthusiasm of members especially John Wharington. All solutions have been reasonably difficult either from a time or dollar perspective. In that time I also developed a Google Maps based waypoint and task editor (old demo here http://www.glidingmaps.com/test/).
Earlier this year John Wharington and myself purchased a SPOT each to test for tracking. They seemed to work well. The SPOT not only became a useful tracking tool, safety tool and general OK and Outlanding message tool, but it also became an addiction for my family. Now they can see where I am when flying, where I have landed and if I am OK.
The GCV Committee then purchased 10 SPOT units for use by members and for competitions.
In November these all came together to the new glider tracking system. John Wharington stepped in to help out and ended up writing not only all the calculation code but a lot of the interface bits as well.
We have now successfully run two competitions - Australian Grand Prix and Australian Juniors. Feedback so far has all been very positive.
The basics
Gliding is a difficult sport to follow from the ground. Getting involved with the launch is fun but once they are off on their 2 to 6 hours adventure, you really having nothing to do but wait. Even when they get back home you don't know how they have compared. Competitions such as the Grand Prix have improved this by having a race horse start and exciting finish - but still nothing in between.
Enter the glider real time tracking - now we can watch the race as it happens, not only from the competition but from anywhere in the world. We can see the speed each person is doing across the course, the distance, which turn point they are at, and whether they have landed.
We are doing something completely new. What we have done that is new, is to have built a system that is maintainable and cheap to run. Our intention is to have a system that is accessible to almost everyone in a club. Systems in the past have concentrated on live tracking of competitions with lots of money, but we want to see it used in every day sports.
Where is it?
Please note: As of this writing (2008-12-12) the site is working very poorly in Internet Explorer (bugs with the VML version of our code, and performance issues with IE) - so please use Firefox, Safari or Chrome.
- You can see an old event here - http://track.glidingmaps.com/event/1/2008-12-05/display
- Or you can go to the list of events here - http://track.glidingmaps.com/event/
- Or other information here - http://track.glidingmaps.com/
What is it?
- For less than $500 a year, we can track a glider in near-real time (10 minute intervals)
- Previous and competition available in this space has normally exceeded $3000
- Mapping of competition tasks (including shaped turn points) and airfields
- Using Google Maps for the terrain and satellite information
- Ability to overlay weather information from RASP
- Statistics such as speed & distance
- Presentation of important information, such as outlanding coordinates, status and more
- Links to pilot information, photos and more
- Pretty and presentable graphics (even the glider graphics represent the direction they are flying).
I want one !
The SPOT unit is available from various distributors in Australia. I can provide you with one, please contact me (Scott Penrose).