Contest "viewing"

The foreign competitions I have viewed can only afford around 10 devices which they randomly distribute daily.

The GlidePort app integrated with SSA contest data and Winscore is freely available to anyone. Contest Directors can take advantage of this system by requesting a Competition Manager user name and password from the SSA. You do not have to be a sanctioned contest to use our Contest system.

Our present obstacle is the reluctance of pilots to download and use the respective smartphone app. The apple version " glide track" is free. The droid version "igc droid" has a small one time fee.

This system has proven its potential over the last two seasons and is getting better as we work out the sync issues (amazingly there seem to be persistent errors with SSA member numbers as people enter their info).

At the Seniors competition Rich provided complementary aux phone batteries (highly recommended) yet only a half dozen pilots used real time (igc style) tracking. You can differentiate them by the bold track info in the left hand pain when selecting tracks.

I would like to emphasize that this is a "entertainment" app and not to be confused with the PLB features that SPOT and InReach provide.

You can also upload igc files to GlidePort and it becomes a very effective analysis tool. Additionally the phone apps allow OLC uploads so you can get your flight on OLC even if you don't have a logger ?

All this for "free"? Yet we wonder "why is the SSA not providing contest tracking"? The answer of course is "we are".

Many thanks to Pedja Bogdanovich, Doug Easton and Guy Buyers for keeping this system functioning and free.

Lane Bush
SSA Tracking Committee

I'd say that what has been accomplished with the free SSA / GlidePort system is really quite impressive.

I'm wondering... If I fly with both InReach and IGCDroid running at the same time, does the data get merged into a single real time trace?

If both devices are registered in your profile you will have two tracks. Examples of this feature can be found at a number of contests. I encourage you to carry two devices.

Lane

I fly with a Spot and also use the phone tracker. While neither are perfect, the fidelity every 4 seconds of the phone tracker is MUCH better than spot. It does not send every 4 however, but from conversations with Lane, I think it sends more often than Spot.

Also while marketed as an entertainment app, if I go down somewhere and need help I think the higher fidelity of the phone app would really aid in finding me.

My wife and faithful crew both loves and hates the phone app. Spot does not show altitude and the phone app does. She loves it when she sees I am high and hates it when she sees I have gotten low.

Running both give you some redundancy.

Kevin
92

As the developer of the Android IGCDroid phone tracking app I'm biased.

The phone app is actually sending an entire IGC file piece by piece in near real time. So, positions are recorded up to once a second, buffered on the phone and sent in blocks once every minute or so. The exact sending interval depends upon cell coverage. The app wants to send data as quickly as it can but also needs to consider your phone's battery life.

The final results you get from a phone tracker depend upon lots of thing, the quality of your phone, mounting in your glider, cell tower coverage. I have seen flights that update faster then spot. I have seen flights that update much, much slower than spot. Its this unreliability that makes Lane say this is for entertainment. I think that is slightly harsh, but I do agree that I wouldn't trust my life to it.

Personally I fly with a PLB and my phone. I don't use Spot or InReach. Everyone needs to make their own personal safety cost tradeoff.

One big down side I personally see with IGCDroid is that the data is addictive... I REALLY, REALLY, hate not seeing the data updating for a long time.. With Spot I don't hate not seeing the data as much because I don't like the data as much.

Alan