Tow Tracker

I have started tinkering around with the idea of developing a Tow-tracking for clubs to use that would not interfere with operations yet still be able to provide an upgrade to having a dedicated logger try and confirm release altitudes.

My current thought is to have a cell phone app that talks to bluetooth sensors mounted in the towplanes. The Wing runner/logger would enter in the pilot/glider info, then transmit the data to the tow. The towplane unit would take that log file and record the tow height (assuming max altitude) and save it to the file, which would then be transmitted back to the logger when the tow lands, and the next pilot log is entered. The logger should be able to upload all the files at the end of the day, with accurate tow heights without asking the tow pilots to record it.

Thoughts? Potential Problems? Interested in helping? The objective of this would that it would be a free app for the community at large with the hardware designs published as well.

I understand there will be the standard cry of "we have always used a pen and paper and it worked just fine," but that isn't the intent of the question being posed..

Sounds nifty. Will it work for multiple tow planes? Will multiple tow planes go to one spreadsheet in the cloud so pilots can be given read access to verify tow hight, number of tows, and amount owed, and treasure/ops given permission to mark as paid?

Seems like a lot of going back and forth from logger to tow plane back to logger then upload. Why not have tow plane put in tail number of glider, then apps does everything else through smart phone? Kinda like auto upload to OLC.

Cloud Spread sheet has: Tow plane / glider tail # / tow height / take off time / land time / tow cost / paid

clicking on the spreadsheet can organize by tow plane, glider tail #, ect. One can then see how many tows each tow plane did, how many tows a glider did, total cost for that glider, ect.

Good luck, have fun.

We are in the final stages of doing something similar. I think it is going to work really well.

Our first stage was to digitize the glider flight reservation, loging and billing. Now we are about to start roll out of the tow pilot portion.

Our tow pilots will login with their name and tow plane initials at the start of each day. Each flight they select glider pilot and glider ID from a list. As you plan, highest altitude is the default but can be adjusted if needed.

The app auto connects to our club WiFi and uploads the tows which are synced to the data they may have already been pre entered by the glider pilot. Thus will happen any time the tow plane is in range of the wifi.

Contact me if you want to discuss. Good luck!

Alan

On Sunday, March 6, 2016 at 6:57:57 PM UTC-8, Giaco wrote:
I have started tinkering around with the idea of developing a Tow-tracking for clubs to use that would not interfere with operations yet still be able to provide an upgrade to having a dedicated logger try and confirm release altitudes.

My current thought is to have a cell phone app that talks to bluetooth sensors mounted in the towplanes. The Wing runner/logger would enter in the pilot/glider info, then transmit the data to the tow. The towplane unit would take that log file and record the tow height (assuming max altitude) and save it to the file, which would then be transmitted back to the logger when the tow lands, and the next pilot log is entered. The logger should be able to upload all the files at the end of the day, with accurate tow heights without asking the tow pilots to record it.

Thoughts? Potential Problems? Interested in helping? The objective of this would that it would be a free app for the community at large with the hardware designs published as well.

I understand there will be the standard cry of "we have always used a pen and paper and it worked just fine," but that isn't the intent of the question being posed..

Believe something like this was developed in Australia a few years ago using the FLARM in the towplane and a PDA. The PDA uploads to the club's WiFi when it can - for example as the towplane passes the office.
Aircraft info comes from the FLARM in the glider and the top of the tow is logged when distance between tow plane and glider increases.
Will ask for an update and contact info.
Jim

At Booker we have fitted Flarm to all our tugs and a Flarm receiver in the
club house. We then get a report through OGN for every launch showing tug,
glider, times, and release height for every tow.

See

http://live.glidernet.org/flightlog/...t=0&d=04032016


for an example

Jim

On Monday, March 7, 2016 at 3:18:04 PM UTC+11, JS wrote:
On Sunday, March 6, 2016 at 6:57:57 PM UTC-8, Giaco wrote:
I have started tinkering around with the idea of developing a Tow-tracking for clubs to use that would not interfere with operations yet still be able to provide an upgrade to having a dedicated logger try and confirm release altitudes.

My current thought is to have a cell phone app that talks to bluetooth sensors mounted in the towplanes. The Wing runner/logger would enter in the pilot/glider info, then transmit the data to the tow. The towplane unit would take that log file and record the tow height (assuming max altitude) and save it to the file, which would then be transmitted back to the logger when the tow lands, and the next pilot log is entered. The logger should be able to upload all the files at the end of the day, with accurate tow heights without asking the tow pilots to record it.

Thoughts? Potential Problems? Interested in helping? The objective of this would that it would be a free app for the community at large with the hardware designs published as well.

I understand there will be the standard cry of "we have always used a pen and paper and it worked just fine," but that isn't the intent of the question being posed..

Believe something like this was developed in Australia a few years ago using the FLARM in the towplane and a PDA. The PDA uploads to the club's WiFi when it can - for example as the towplane passes the office.
Aircraft info comes from the FLARM in the glider and the top of the tow is logged when distance between tow plane and glider increases.
Will ask for an update and contact info.
Jim

Look up Dittolog.
Developed by the guys at Lake Keepit I believe.

I believe it could work with multiple tow planes, you would have a single cell phone connected to Bluetooth receivers in each plane.

While flarm is an option, the majority of club aircraft I have flown in do not have flarm, and with a focus on the ability to track a pilot, glider, and tow height, this makes using flarm too cost-prohibitive, and non-specific to the pilot.

The other goal is to take recording burden off of the tow pilots. Which is why you would ideally have the tow purely be involved in the process for recording the tow height.

There are certainly a lot of interesting flarm options out there though, thanks for the responses. Dittolog seems like a great product for the flarm line, but will also cost the club $30 per pilot per year, which seems a bit steep to me as well.

Chris

On Monday, March 7, 2016 at 5:49:23 AM UTC-8, Giaco wrote:
I believe it could work with multiple tow planes, you would have a single cell phone connected to Bluetooth receivers in each plane.

While flarm is an option, the majority of club aircraft I have flown in do not have flarm, and with a focus on the ability to track a pilot, glider, and tow height, this makes using flarm too cost-prohibitive, and non-specific to the pilot.

The other goal is to take recording burden off of the tow pilots. Which is why you would ideally have the tow purely be involved in the process for recording the tow height.

There are certainly a lot of interesting flarm options out there though, thanks for the responses. Dittolog seems like a great product for the flarm line, but will also cost the club $30 per pilot per year, which seems a bit steep to me as well.

Chris

Maybe it's about time those club aircraft were fitted with FLARM, and this additional benefit help justify/fund that. Maybe that is better than focusing effort onto non-FLARM things. Nothing is free, hardware, the cost of people time and hassle for implementing anything, including testing out new unproven software and workflows, losing track of charges etc. is pretty real.

Maybe it's about time those club aircraft were fitted with FLARM, and this additional benefit help justify/fund that. Maybe that is better than focusing effort onto non-FLARM things. Nothing is free, hardware, the cost of people time and hassle for implementing anything, including testing out new unproven software and workflows, losing track of charges etc. is pretty real.

Perhaps, but that is still expensive, and does not solve the problem of no knowing who is being charged for the flight...

There are multiple examples of programs that the community has put together that are not cost-prohibitive, proprietary solutions...XCSoar for one. I understand there is significant development time and effort required, but I believe that is fully worthwhile if it would be of benefit to the large number of small clubs that struggle with tow logs.

At 09:50 07 March 2016, Jim White wrote:
At Booker we have fitted Flarm to all our tugs and a Flarm receiver in th
club house. We then get a report through OGN for every launch showing tug
glider, times, and release height for every tow.

See

http://live.glidernet.org/flightlog/...&t=0&d=0403201


for an example

Jim

Sorry the web site seems to nick the last character off each line. Add a 6
to the above it needs to read

http://live.glidernet.org/flightlog/...=0&d=04032016@

or drop the @ if shown above!!