On Monday, 17 April 2017 14:48:32 UTC-6, Sean Fidler wrote:
True, but even with that extra Guy Byers effort to make it "easy" for contest organizers to migrate tasks directly, the reality is that tasks are almost never active in Glideport.aero for SSA contests. Just look at Perry right now. And honestly, entering a task doesn't really have to be integrated. Entering a task into GP.aero is simple and takes under a minute. Less with a few days of practice. Obviously, see adoption and usage statistics, it was probably not worth the hassle to build this integration.
The key problem (in my view) remains the hodge-podge of various trackers (or no tracker at all) and complete lack of leadership and standards. Here is my report from today:
"---SSA Tracking Report Day 1 Perry---
..............And there off!.............I think? Where are they going? We have no idea. No tasks. Zzzzzzz. And, moving on....in roughly thirty seconds to something useful...
1) No Tasks are programmed into Glideport.aero, so we no idea where they are going.
2) Only about 10% of the gliders have altitude information (Mobile App or InReach). These tracks provide some value at least.
3) 60% of the sailplanes are using Spot trackers (awful). Many of those are updating far less than every 10 minutes.
4) 25%-40% of the competitors appear to have no tracking device, whatsoever...
5) Nico Bennett track is showing up in Perry's 18m class, even though he is flying a long flight in Florida (actually much more interesting than watching Perry as he has a good high quality continuous Mobil track, GO NICO!)
Dismal."
Obviously, todays Perry "tracking experience" was not very exciting, so I stopped almost immediately. But here are some screen shots for each class for reference.
Like 🇦🇺 Australia's SSA (GFA) has shown us, the SSA desperately needs a standardized, unified tracking device for all SSA contest pilots. At present, all the effort that has been put into Glideport.aero is being COMPLETELY WASTED. The SSA needs to require the contest organizers (just as they are required to meet certain guidelines) to take the two minutes necessary to enter the tasks into GP.aero. At the end of the day, successful, well adopted and exciting tracking will come down to the SSAs vision and leadership. So far, the current results are no surprise.
Here are some "riveting" screenshots of the SSAs "state of the art" tracking system from today's Perry Contest on GlidePort.aero (which is an amazing tool...if...the competitors and organizers feed it with good data)...
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0tGWBC59GlHo6c
The integration with WINSCORE IMHO was the way to go as the tasks have to be entered for scoring purposes anyway.
Your statement of 'The SSA needs to require the contest organizers (just as they are required to meet certain guidelines) ...' is hilarious at best. The SSA cannot require this type of action, at best they can encourage. What is the SSA going to do, fire the people, fine them or invalidate the results of the contest? We are fortunate that folks are willing and able to organize and run events and the SSA should not place any more requirements on them then what is absolutely necessary.
Most organizers are concentrated on the logistics of the day, getting everyone off and on the airport safely and keeping equipment in great shape for safety purposes. After that anything else is a bonus.
If you look at the R5 Regional FB page you will see pictures that show their priorities are geared more towards social events and providing a great experience for folks that are attended and paying the entry fee then providing desk chained folks tasks on the tracking map.
If you really want to see this happen put a proposal together for the SSA BOD and ask them to spend part of the ~$22K per year they collect in contest sanctioning fees on tracking hardware and what is needed to ship them around. I am sure if you are willing to coordinator for the first couple of years that would really help.