Crosscountry.aero

[Alexander Georgas[_2_]]

I am delighted to announce the launch of a new cross-country soaring site:

http://www.crosscountry.aero

Here are a few of the site highlights:

Crosscountry.aero introduces evaluation of flights according to IGC
rules as well as OLC-type tasks. Flights are also evaluated for FAI
badge requirements.

One of the main site features is the ability to easily share flight
experiences with other pilots, but also with non-flying friends and
family. For every flight you upload, you can easily create an image
gallery or even write an entire article containing pictures and video.

We are also introducing the Pilot Ranking, a new flexible competition
format we hope will prove to be fun and popular.

There are also plenty of tools to track your soaring achievements, from
following your progress through the badges to viewing statistics on your
season performance.

I invite you to take a look at the site. Don't forget to upload your
flights!

Best wishes for the holidays,

Alexander Georgas
Editor - Crosscountry.aero

[Daniel Sazhin]

I was going to upload my flights, but I noticed you guys don't have any
Schweizers in the Sailplane list! Kind of surprising that I can't pick a
1-26 when you have 10 different configurations of a Ventus to choose
from...

Regards,

Daniel Sazhin


At 13:53 24 December 2012, Alexander Georgas wrote:
>I am delighted to announce the launch of a new cross-country soaring
site:
>
>http://www.crosscountry.aero
>
>Here are a few of the site highlights:
>
>Crosscountry.aero introduces evaluation of flights according to IGC
>rules as well as OLC-type tasks. Flights are also evaluated for FAI
>badge requirements.
>
>One of the main site features is the ability to easily share flight
>experiences with other pilots, but also with non-flying friends and
>family. For every flight you upload, you can easily create an image
>gallery or even write an entire article containing pictures and video.
>
>We are also introducing the Pilot Ranking, a new flexible competition
>format we hope will prove to be fun and popular.
>
>There are also plenty of tools to track your soaring achievements, from
>following your progress through the badges to viewing statistics on your
>season performance.
>
>I invite you to take a look at the site. Don't forget to upload your
>flights!
>
>Best wishes for the holidays,
>
>Alexander Georgas
>Editor - Crosscountry.aero
>

[Daniel Sazhin]

I was going to upload my flights, but I noticed you guys don't have any
Schweizers in the Sailplane list! Kind of surprising that I can't pick a
1-26 when you have 10 different configurations of a Ventus to choose
from...

Regards,

Daniel Sazhin


At 13:53 24 December 2012, Alexander Georgas wrote:
>I am delighted to announce the launch of a new cross-country soaring
site:
>
>http://www.crosscountry.aero
>
>Here are a few of the site highlights:
>
>Crosscountry.aero introduces evaluation of flights according to IGC
>rules as well as OLC-type tasks. Flights are also evaluated for FAI
>badge requirements.
>
>One of the main site features is the ability to easily share flight
>experiences with other pilots, but also with non-flying friends and
>family. For every flight you upload, you can easily create an image
>gallery or even write an entire article containing pictures and video.
>
>We are also introducing the Pilot Ranking, a new flexible competition
>format we hope will prove to be fun and popular.
>
>There are also plenty of tools to track your soaring achievements, from
>following your progress through the badges to viewing statistics on your
>season performance.
>
>I invite you to take a look at the site. Don't forget to upload your
>flights!
>
>Best wishes for the holidays,
>
>Alexander Georgas
>Editor - Crosscountry.aero
>

[Tobias Bieniek]

Am Montag, 24. Dezember 2012 14:53:06 UTC+1 schrieb Alexander Georgas:
> I am delighted to announce the launch of a new cross-country soaring site:
>
>
>
> http://www.crosscountry.aero
>
>
>
> Here are a few of the site highlights:
>
>
>
> Crosscountry.aero introduces evaluation of flights according to IGC
>
> rules as well as OLC-type tasks. Flights are also evaluated for FAI
>
> badge requirements.
>
>
>
> One of the main site features is the ability to easily share flight
>
> experiences with other pilots, but also with non-flying friends and
>
> family. For every flight you upload, you can easily create an image
>
> gallery or even write an entire article containing pictures and video.
>
>
>
> We are also introducing the Pilot Ranking, a new flexible competition
>
> format we hope will prove to be fun and popular.
>
>
>
> There are also plenty of tools to track your soaring achievements, from
>
> following your progress through the badges to viewing statistics on your
>
> season performance.
>
>
>
> I invite you to take a look at the site. Don't forget to upload your
>
> flights!
>
>
>
> Best wishes for the holidays,
>
>
>
> Alexander Georgas
>
> Editor - Crosscountry.aero

What is the advantage compared to other platforms like the OLC or SkyLines?

[Alexander Georgas[_2_]]

Apologies for the error. A testing glider list seems to have made its
way into production.

The list has now been corrected and you will find the 1-26 listed as
Schweizer SGS 1-26.

Best regards,

Alexander Georgas


Since

On 25/12/2012 15:05, Daniel Sazhin wrote:
> I was going to upload my flights, but I noticed you guys don't have any
> Schweizers in the Sailplane list! Kind of surprising that I can't pick a
> 1-26 when you have 10 different configurations of a Ventus to choose
> from...
>
> Regards,
>
> Daniel Sazhin
>
>
> At 13:53 24 December 2012, Alexander Georgas wrote:
>> I am delighted to announce the launch of a new cross-country soaring
> site:
>>
>> http://www.crosscountry.aero
>>
>> Here are a few of the site highlights:
>>
>> Crosscountry.aero introduces evaluation of flights according to IGC
>> rules as well as OLC-type tasks. Flights are also evaluated for FAI
>> badge requirements.
>>
>> One of the main site features is the ability to easily share flight
>> experiences with other pilots, but also with non-flying friends and
>> family. For every flight you upload, you can easily create an image
>> gallery or even write an entire article containing pictures and video.
>>
>> We are also introducing the Pilot Ranking, a new flexible competition
>> format we hope will prove to be fun and popular.
>>
>> There are also plenty of tools to track your soaring achievements, from
>> following your progress through the badges to viewing statistics on your
>> season performance.
>>
>> I invite you to take a look at the site. Don't forget to upload your
>> flights!
>>
>> Best wishes for the holidays,
>>
>> Alexander Georgas
>> Editor - Crosscountry.aero
>>
>

[son_of_flubber]

On Tuesday, December 25, 2012 8:36:37 AM UTC-5, Tobias Bieniek wrote:

> What is the advantage compared to other platforms like the OLC or SkyLines?

Why is it a good thing to have flights scattered across multiple sites?

[Alexander Georgas[_2_]]

Hi Tobias,

I would not like so say that crosscountry.aero is better than other
sites, only that it offers something slightly different.

OLC is of course a very successful decentralized competition format. We
are not seeking to compete with OLC, but rather introduce an additional
competition option for people who would like to fly varied types of
declared or free distance tasks in addition to the OLC 6-leg task. The
format of the competition is also a bit different in that it does not
run on a single-year cycle, but rather takes into account the pilot's
best and most recent seasons. We are hoping that pilots will enjoy
having an additional and slightly different type of online competition
to participate in, rather than choosing one or the other.

The main difference, however, is that while the OLC site focuses around
a competition, crosscountry.aero aims to accomplish a few additional things:

I often see postings on ras and other places which mention an
interesting flight and then give links to a video and maybe also an
article or an image gallery. In an age when many pilot carry a camera in
the cockpit, it has become much easier to communicate this wonderful
side of our sport to our friends and fellow pilots, yet I feel that it
is still difficult to make this material available in an easy way.

One of the major aims of the site is to provide an easy and enjoyable
way to share flight experiences with fellow pilots, but also with a
general audience which may not have experience in gliding. We have
started by providing an image gallery and a blog for each flight.

You can easily upload pictures to the image gallery and it it will
automatically sort such things as resizing to a usable format and
rotating (if your camera will record portrait/landscape orientation).
You can also very easily type in a few words for the flight in the blog,
or if you wish write an entire article with embedded pictures and video.
We are planning to also introduce annotated maps and additional tools,
which will allow you to easily produce interesting visual aids to
describe your flights.

The point is that these things will be available right next to the
technical description of the flight performance. As a further step, you
can just press the like button and a link will be published in your
Facebook page, putting your latest soaring experience only a click away
from your friends.

A second major difference with the sites I am aware of is that
crosscountry.aero will evaluate flights for every task type available in
the IGC performance rulebook (SC3) and it will do so according to the
full sporting requirements of the rules. This is really useful if you
like to fly declared task or non-OLC free tasks, but also if you would
like to validate a flight against Badge performance requirements.

The site will also track your progress through the badges, which brings
me to the third point I would like to make. There is a number of tools
available for pilots to track their overall soaring performance through
the seasons.

I cannot comment on SkyLines, as I have not really used it, other than
to say that it looks like a very well produced site.

Our vision at crosscountry.aero is to continue developing the site as a
resource for gliding, by providing a number of useful tools and
databases and I would say that this is probably the main difference in
respect to the OLC and similar sites, which are more focused around a
single competition format.

I encourage you to give it a try. The success of the site is based
entirely on the willingness of people to used it.

Best regards,

Alexander Georgas



On 25/12/2012 15:36, Tobias Bieniek wrote:
> Am Montag, 24. Dezember 2012 14:53:06 UTC+1 schrieb Alexander Georgas:
>> I am delighted to announce the launch of a new cross-country soaring site:
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.crosscountry.aero
>>
>>
>>
>> Here are a few of the site highlights:
>>
>>
>>
>> Crosscountry.aero introduces evaluation of flights according to IGC
>>
>> rules as well as OLC-type tasks. Flights are also evaluated for FAI
>>
>> badge requirements.
>>
>>
>>
>> One of the main site features is the ability to easily share flight
>>
>> experiences with other pilots, but also with non-flying friends and
>>
>> family. For every flight you upload, you can easily create an image
>>
>> gallery or even write an entire article containing pictures and video.
>>
>>
>>
>> We are also introducing the Pilot Ranking, a new flexible competition
>>
>> format we hope will prove to be fun and popular.
>>
>>
>>
>> There are also plenty of tools to track your soaring achievements, from
>>
>> following your progress through the badges to viewing statistics on your
>>
>> season performance.
>>
>>
>>
>> I invite you to take a look at the site. Don't forget to upload your
>>
>> flights!
>>
>>
>>
>> Best wishes for the holidays,
>>
>>
>>
>> Alexander Georgas
>>
>> Editor - Crosscountry.aero
>
> What is the advantage compared to other platforms like the OLC or SkyLines?
>

[Alexander Georgas[_2_]]

It is not really a good thing!

The main point here is that different sites offer different things. If
we could take away the fragmentation of flight data, this would be good
for all parties. I hope that the various sites can eventually come to an
agreement to automatically cross-post flight data from pilots who
consent to do so.

Best regards,

Alexander Georgas


On 25/12/2012 20:51, son_of_flubber wrote:
> On Tuesday, December 25, 2012 8:36:37 AM UTC-5, Tobias Bieniek wrote:
>
>> What is the advantage compared to other platforms like the OLC or SkyLines?
>
> Why is it a good thing to have flights scattered across multiple sites?
>

[son_of_flubber]

On Tuesday, December 25, 2012 2:25:56 PM UTC-5, Alexander Georgas wrote:
> I hope that the various sites can eventually come to an
>
> agreement to automatically cross-post flight data from pilots who
>
> consent to do so.

What about a site that acts as a front end to automatically post a flight to all of the relevant sites?

Putting aside the fragmentation problem, I applaud your effort to innovate. Your site looks good and I like your general idea.

[Eric Greenwell[_4_]]

On 12/25/2012 11:25 AM, Alexander Georgas wrote:
> I hope that the various sites can eventually come to an agreement to
> automatically cross-post flight data from pilots who consent to do so.

I think that is an excellent goal! I'm encouraged to see new sites
offering additional features, but do not want to fragment the flight
records.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)

[Alexander Swagemakers[_2_]]

Being an open platform it should be possible to pull flights from skylines.

In my opinion an even better idea would be to contribute new features to skylines
instead of building the basics from scratch for yet another platform. This would also make it easier to reach the critical mass for success.

Nonetheless, it's nice to see some new ideas being implemented and people contributing their spare time for the benefit of the soaring community.

[[email protected]]

Very nice display.

It would be nice to have altitude and position displayed at the same time with the slider bar. The overview page shows both, but with no slider bar. the map page with slider bar doesn't show altitude. It's interesting to correlated position and altitude.

While you're at it, if you were to implement US contest start, finish, and turnpoints it would be cool for evaluating contest flights.

John Cochrane

[Alexander Georgas[_2_]]

From a technical standpoint, this is easy to do. All that is required
is the consent of the person submitting the log file and some way to
identify their account in the different sites.

The issue of consent is important here. One cannot just go to SkyLines,
pull all the log files and then re-publish them on another site without
the original file contributor's permission.

There must be explicit consent from the contributing pilot to publish
flights on other sites.

In other words all that is needed for this to happen is agreement
between sites, from individual pilots and a small bit of work to make it
happen.



On 25/12/2012 21:52, son_of_flubber wrote:
> On Tuesday, December 25, 2012 2:25:56 PM UTC-5, Alexander Georgas wrote:
>> I hope that the various sites can eventually come to an
>>
>> agreement to automatically cross-post flight data from pilots who
>>
>> consent to do so.
>
> What about a site that acts as a front end to automatically post a flight to all of the relevant sites?
>
> Putting aside the fragmentation problem, I applaud your effort to innovate. Your site looks good and I like your general idea.
>

[Alexander Georgas[_2_]]

Hi John,

The link between barogram and map is being designed and will be
available very soon, in both pages.

In regards to contest flights, the functionality to evaluate IGC racing
tasks has already been created and will be introduced shortly in the
form of a decentralized competition around a task: Anyone can declare a
task and people who fly it will be ranked according to best speed around
the course (or distance achieved).

There are plans to introduce a more dedicated contest evaluation
function, but this is further down the list. That is unless of course it
proves to be a popular demand, in which case it could be developed as a
matter of priority.

Alexander Georgas


On 26/12/2012 00:13, wrote:
> Very nice display.
>
> It would be nice to have altitude and position displayed at the same time with the slider bar. The overview page shows both, but with no slider bar. the map page with slider bar doesn't show altitude. It's interesting to correlated position and altitude.
>
> While you're at it, if you were to implement US contest start, finish, and turnpoints it would be cool for evaluating contest flights.
>
> John Cochrane
>

[son_of_flubber]

> > What about a site that acts as a front end to automatically post a flight to all of the relevant sites?

On Wednesday, December 26, 2012 7:54:24 AM UTC-5, Alexander Georgas wrote:
> From a technical standpoint, this is easy to do.

The first site that implements a gateway to post my flights to my accounts on multiple sites, will win my loyalty.

[John Cochrane[_3_]]

> There are plans to introduce a more dedicated contest evaluation
> function, but this is further down the list. That is unless of course it
> proves to be a popular demand, in which case it could be developed as a
> matter of priority.
>
> Alexander Georgas
>
> On 26/12/2012 00:13, wrote:

Ok, guys, you heard it here. How about it, automated scoring for US
contests? Upload your file, at least you can check if you're getting
the right start, turns, finish, and penalties. Better yet, see all the
scores in real time..see all the flights in one place without
downloading a zip file from ssa.org and running both see you and
winscore... Run local contests with US rules.. Alexander says you
just have to ask!

John Cochrane

[Ramy]

On Wednesday, December 26, 2012 5:01:13 AM UTC-8, Alexander Georgas wrote:
> Hi John,
>
>
>
> The link between barogram and map is being designed and will be
>
> available very soon, in both pages.
>
>
>
> In regards to contest flights, the functionality to evaluate IGC racing
>
> tasks has already been created and will be introduced shortly in the
>
> form of a decentralized competition around a task: Anyone can declare a
>
> task and people who fly it will be ranked according to best speed around
>
> the course (or distance achieved).
>
>
>
> There are plans to introduce a more dedicated contest evaluation
>
> function, but this is further down the list. That is unless of course it
>
> proves to be a popular demand, in which case it could be developed as a
>
> matter of priority.
>
>
>
> Alexander Georgas
>
>
>
>
>
> On 26/12/2012 00:13, wrote:
>
> > Very nice display.
>
> >
>
> > It would be nice to have altitude and position displayed at the same time with the slider bar. The overview page shows both, but with no slider bar. the map page with slider bar doesn't show altitude. It's interesting to correlated position and altitude.
>
> >
>
> > While you're at it, if you were to implement US contest start, finish, and turnpoints it would be cool for evaluating contest flights.
>
> >
>
> > John Cochrane
>
> >

This looks very promising! I just easily uploaded all my 2012 flights with one click and at first glance, they seemed to be scored right.
As other commented, being able to easily cross post to OLC, Skylines and Crosscountry is a must to prevent fragmentation of flight data.

few quick comments:
1 - The turquoise trace is hard to read.
2 - The average speed in the pilot stats page is calculated wrong.
3 - When posting to facebook, will be nice to show the trace in the thumbnail similar to OLC, instead of the site logo.

Ramy

[Alexander Georgas[_2_]]

Hi Ramy,

Thanks for your feedback.

There was indeed a problem with the average speed, which is quite
embarrassing! This has now been fixed.

Putting a map on facebook as the link picture presents a problem, as I
am using google maps instead of a custom-rendered height maps as OLC
does. I have created the functionality to draw maps based on height data
as OLC does, but I do not believe is is worth the overhead of loading
all the height data and rendering thumbs, just to show on facebook.

So I propose a compromise: I have now changed the behavior of the like
button and it will display a picture of the pilot. If a pilot has not
uploaded his/her picture, it will show a logo of the site. Which brings
me to another point: please upload your pictures and let's put faces to
the pilots out there! It is quite simple, just go to your logbook and
click on the placeholder pilot image (you have to be logged on to do this).

I will be happy to change the turquoise to some other color that will
work better, if there is a feeling out there that it doesn't work. But
remember, that the contrast should also work well for satellite images
which tend to have darker colors. I have also put a request on the to do
list for users to be able to adjust the color to their own liking (but
this will only work when they are logged in).

Alexander Georgas


>
> This looks very promising! I just easily uploaded all my 2012 flights with one click and at first glance, they seemed to be scored right.
> As other commented, being able to easily cross post to OLC, Skylines and Crosscountry is a must to prevent fragmentation of flight data.
>
> few quick comments:
> 1 - The turquoise trace is hard to read.
> 2 - The average speed in the pilot stats page is calculated wrong.
> 3 - When posting to facebook, will be nice to show the trace in the thumbnail similar to OLC, instead of the site logo.
>
> Ramy
>

[Ramy]

Thanks Alexander.
Perhaps showing a thumbnail of flight performance will be more interesting than pilot photo.
As for the trace color, the dark blue OLC uses works very well on google map both in terrain and satellite mode ( unless you fly over water :)
The thin turquoise trace is barely noticeable...
Another nice feature you may want to consider is to be able to select multiple flights to show multiple traces similar to skylines.
And last suggestion (for now) is to let the user select which flight performance to show vs defaulting it to the highest score. For example a 1000km OLC looks better than 950km 3TP even if the 3TP gives slightly higher score :)

Ramy

[marco]

The OLC has created a huge potential for gliding through the daily competition that takes place. But personally I welcome a bit of competition for the current OLC. I believe that our flights could give information on the areas we fly in. And in the current OLC setup the files a slightly less accessable. Also I would like my own flights always being rated in the same way.

So what do we now have next to the current OLC?
I like the interface that you guys have prepared. But also the clean layout of skylines looks refreshing.
The Brits went their own way. http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/Enquiry.asp The BGA has a wonderful tool to select the type of glider and to see how the other people have been doing with the same ship. But also clubselection is possible.

Finally the link to the French version: http://www.netcoupe.net/main.aspx

Within the gliding community we have a number of organisations. Wouldn't be great if one upload of our files would be shared between the platforms we could pre-set? This would still allow for diversity and for th different developers to play with their own ideas extensively before seeking compromises from the start. Maybe crosssharing between skylines and crosscountry could be a start. And with a BGA selectiontool implemented as well I will upload my files to this platform.

[Ramy]

On Thursday, December 27, 2012 1:32:34 PM UTC-8, Marco wrote:
> The OLC has created a huge potential for gliding through the daily competition that takes place. But personally I welcome a bit of competition for the current OLC. I believe that our flights could give information on the areas we fly in. And in the current OLC setup the files a slightly less accessable. Also I would like my own flights always being rated in the same way..
>
>
>
> So what do we now have next to the current OLC?
>
> I like the interface that you guys have prepared. But also the clean layout of skylines looks refreshing.
>
> The Brits went their own way. http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/Enquiry.asp The BGA has a wonderful tool to select the type of glider and to see how the other people have been doing with the same ship. But also clubselection is possible.
>
>
>
> Finally the link to the French version: http://www.netcoupe.net/main.aspx
>
>
>
> Within the gliding community we have a number of organisations. Wouldn't be great if one upload of our files would be shared between the platforms we could pre-set? This would still allow for diversity and for th different developers to play with their own ideas extensively before seeking compromises from the start. Maybe crosssharing between skylines and crosscountry could be a start. And with a BGA selectiontool implemented as well I will upload my files to this platform.

One more comment if I may:
Instead of using the 'Like' for facebook, I suggest changing it to Share from couple reasons:
1 - Share is more suitable than Like for sharing, and behaves different.
2 - The Like defaults to public from some reason even when your setting is for friends only, as a result the flight is publicly showing on the facebook profile page. Not a good idea if you called sick and went flying.

Ramy

[Alexander Georgas[_2_]]

Hi Ramy,

Facebook, for their own reasons, have been trying to discourage the use
of Share in favor of Like, but I see your point. I, myself, prefer the
share button as I feel it also displays content better on the Facebook page.

I will change all the content related posts to a Share button.

Alexander



On 30/12/2012 08:59, Ramy wrote:
> On Thursday, December 27, 2012 1:32:34 PM UTC-8, Marco wrote:
>> The OLC has created a huge potential for gliding through the daily competition that takes place. But personally I welcome a bit of competition for the current OLC. I believe that our flights could give information on the areas we fly in. And in the current OLC setup the files a slightly less accessable. Also I would like my own flights always being rated in the same way.
>>
>>
>>
>> So what do we now have next to the current OLC?
>>
>> I like the interface that you guys have prepared. But also the clean layout of skylines looks refreshing.
>>
>> The Brits went their own way. http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/Enquiry.asp The BGA has a wonderful tool to select the type of glider and to see how the other people have been doing with the same ship. But also clubselection is possible.
>>
>>
>>
>> Finally the link to the French version: http://www.netcoupe.net/main.aspx
>>
>>
>>
>> Within the gliding community we have a number of organisations. Wouldn't be great if one upload of our files would be shared between the platforms we could pre-set? This would still allow for diversity and for th different developers to play with their own ideas extensively before seeking compromises from the start. Maybe crosssharing between skylines and crosscountry could be a start. And with a BGA selectiontool implemented as well I will upload my files to this platform.
>
> One more comment if I may:
> Instead of using the 'Like' for facebook, I suggest changing it to Share from couple reasons:
> 1 - Share is more suitable than Like for sharing, and behaves different.
> 2 - The Like defaults to public from some reason even when your setting is for friends only, as a result the flight is publicly showing on the facebook profile page. Not a good idea if you called sick and went flying.
>
> Ramy
>

[Alexander Georgas[_2_]]

The Crosscountry.aero site has just been upgraded, incorporating much of
the feedback received in the past month.

The main change involves a new map system which is now linked to the
barogram and which features new flight data display and playback
functionality.

For those of you who have not yet visited http://www.crosscountry.aero
here are the feature highlights:

-Flight evaluation of all IGC task types (free and declared) to Sporting
Code standard. OLC style distance tasks are also evaluated.
-Image gallery and blog tools for every uploaded flight
-Pilot badge and statistics tracking
-New Pilot Ranking competition format, which includes all styles of
flight (free FAI, declared FAI, OLC distance).

For people interested in participating in the Pilot Ranking competition,
please note that the scoring takes account of flights from previous
years as well. Flights can be uploaded at any time, but you are
encouraged to upload your previous flight history now and take advantage
of the site's pilot stats features.

Development of new features continues with, among other things,
evaluation of competition-style tasks. The plan is to introduce IGC task
(RT, AAT) evaluation.

There has been a suggestion for US rules tasks to be included so I would
like to ask the following question:

If you had a system that would allow you to define and evaluate a MAT,
AT, or other US rules task, would you find this useful?

Alexander Georgas
http://www.crosscountry.aero