SPOT Tracking For 2009 Senior Contest at Seminole Lakes, Florida

[MarkHawke7]

Today is the first contest day for the 2009 Senior Contest at Seminole
Lakes Gliderport in Florida. There are 55 participants and 4 guests
on the contestants list. Of those, we currently have 12 of the
participants who have SPOT Personal Trackers and are being tracked.
There may be more that will be added soon. You can view the tracking
map at:
http://www.soaringpilot.org/snspotmap.htm

Please note, this is still a capability in development but it has
worked reasonable well for the past 4 days or so as the early arrivals
flew each day. I have requests for a similar capability for Perry and
the GTA Race series. I will be putting those together in the next few
days.

-Mark (OA)

[[email protected]]

On Mar 8, 10:38*am, MarkHawke7 > wrote:
> Today is the first contest day for the 2009 Senior Contest at Seminole
> Lakes Gliderport in Florida. *There are 55 participants and 4 guests
> on the contestants list. *Of those, we currently have 12 of the
> participants who have SPOT Personal Trackers and are being tracked.
> There may be more that will be added soon. *You can view the tracking
> map at:http://www.soaringpilot.org/snspotmap.htm
>
> Please note, this is still a capability in development but it has
> worked reasonable well for the past 4 days or so as the early arrivals
> flew each day. *I have requests for a similar capability for Perry and
> the GTA Race series. *I will be putting those together in the next few
> days.
>
> -Mark (OA)

Mark;

Looks good.

At what time will the map for March 8 be available????

Paul

[MarkHawke7]

Paul,
If you mean the task for the day, I am updating that when they send it
to me. I think John Good is waiting till the gates open and the task
is officially set before he email's me the task. Then I change it and
it shows up online.

Later!

-Mark
> Mark;
>
> Looks good.
>
> At what time will the map for March 8 be available????
>
> Paul

[Randy[_2_]]

Mark,
Thanks for making this available! I am considering
getting a SPOT and it is nice to see how it can be
used.

Randy

N304RS

[Papa3]

On Mar 8, 10:38*am, MarkHawke7 > wrote:
> Today is the first contest day for the 2009 Senior Contest at Seminole
> Lakes Gliderport in Florida. *There are 55 participants and 4 guests
> on the contestants list. *Of those, we currently have 12 of the
> participants who have SPOT Personal Trackers and are being tracked.
> There may be more that will be added soon. *You can view the tracking
> map at:http://www.soaringpilot.org/snspotmap.htm
>
> Please note, this is still a capability in development but it has
> worked reasonable well for the past 4 days or so as the early arrivals
> flew each day. *I have requests for a similar capability for Perry and
> the GTA Race series. *I will be putting those together in the next few
> days.
>
> -Mark (OA)

Oh geez. Great Mark. Just great. Another excuse to decrease my
daytime productivity.

Good fun. Thanks for doing this.

P3

[Papa3]

On Mar 9, 4:37*pm, Papa3 > wrote:
> On Mar 8, 10:38*am, MarkHawke7 > wrote:
>
> > Today is the first contest day for the 2009 Senior Contest at Seminole
> > Lakes Gliderport in Florida. *There are 55 participants and 4 guests
> > on the contestants list. *Of those, we currently have 12 of the
> > participants who have SPOT Personal Trackers and are being tracked.
> > There may be more that will be added soon. *You can view the tracking
> > map at:http://www.soaringpilot.org/snspotmap.htm
>
> > Please note, this is still a capability in development but it has
> > worked reasonable well for the past 4 days or so as the early arrivals
> > flew each day. *I have requests for a similar capability for Perry and
> > the GTA Race series. *I will be putting those together in the next few
> > days.
>
> > -Mark (OA)
>
> Oh geez. *Great Mark. *Just great. * Another excuse to decrease my
> daytime productivity.
>
> Good fun. *Thanks for doing this.
>
> P3

Okay, so assuming that the site is working more-or-less correctly,
then it appears that the reliability of the SPOT fixes is a bit
suspect, no? Out of the dozen or so pilots flying with SPOT, it
seems as if about half of them were not transmitting for fairly long
periods of time or "dropped off" entirely. Maybe I'm missing the
details of how SPOT works, but I thought it was supposed to be "fire
and forget" - turn it on and it broadcasts your position at defined
intervals. Of course, it could just be that my ignorance is
showing...

P3

[Tuno]

Everything you wanted to know about SPOT, and a little more:

http://www.wingrigger.com/wingrigger5_005.htm

[MarkHawke7]

As TUNO's awesome analysis document shows, the ability of the device
to transmit is very much dependent on placement and view of the sky
and with the current satellites in view. High up on the shoulder
straps, or even placement elsewhere in the cockpit with a good view
seems best. Down low on your shoulder straps or in the side pocket is
not such a good place. Yesterday and the day before, the posits
seemed to be pretty consistent across the board. Today, a bit
spottier. It is what it is. It's still fun to watch though. :-)

-Mark
> Okay, so assuming that the site is working more-or-less correctly,
> then it appears that the reliability of the SPOT fixes is a bit
> suspect, no? * Out of the dozen or so pilots flying with SPOT, it
> seems as if about half of them were not transmitting for fairly long
> periods of time or "dropped off" entirely. * Maybe I'm missing the
> details of how SPOT works, but I thought it was supposed to be "fire
> and forget" - turn it on and it broadcasts your position at defined
> intervals. * Of course, it could just be that my ignorance is
> showing...
>
> P3

[Papa3]

On Mar 9, 6:08*pm, Tuno > wrote:
> Everything you wanted to know about SPOT, and a little more:
>
> http://www.wingrigger.com/wingrigger5_005.htm

Okay, so it turns out that I was pretty much right (rare, but it does
happen) about how SPOT is supposed to work. A quick run through a
fiew of the shared pages of the individual users shows that, while
many of their logs have fairly consistent 10-11 minute intervals
between fixes (which seems to be the intended outcome), almost every
one of them has at least one 30 minute gap. A few of them seem to
have gone AWOL entirely during the course of the flight.

Obviously, having some idea of where a pilot was was 30 minutes ago
sure beats having no clue where to begin looking in the event he goes
missing, but I would have thought that the reliability would be
better than this. In other words, if the unit is mounted
approximately in the right place, I would expect it would deliver a
fix pretty consistently.

I'm not in the least suggesting that it's not a valuable tool (for
safety or for amusement purposes), just curious why so many of the
pilots seemed to be getting less than optimal results.

I'm sure I'm missing something.

P3

[Tuno]

Correction, Mark: the SPOT analysis is Steve Koerner's. He's too
modest to point people to it, and it's too good of an analysis not to
share.

I've been slightly dismayed with the missed reports problem, but I
remain a big fan of SPOT just for its utility in emergency situations
and landouts. Regardless of the whether you have a routine landout or
a serious mishap, the messenger tells your crew exactly where you are
with the "Ok" message, and whether you need more urgent help via the
"911" message. My crew is VERY happy that I fly with one, and she
watches my shared SPOT page when I fly.

2NO

[MarkHawke7]

I'd say the phrase "Location, Location, Location" certainly applies
here. If you stick it somewhere that it can't see the sky, then it's
not going to be able to transmit the position. If it can, it does.
So if you happen to be stuck low trying to dig your way out (regular
for me), it's very possible that even with the best location for a
horizontal glider, that it not be as good a position for a 45 degree+
glider. :-)

As TUNO said though, if I do land out, makes it VERY easy to let
people know where I am and if I'm ok or, god forbid, NOT!!

Later!

-Mark
On Mar 9, 4:32*pm, Tuno > wrote:
> Correction, Mark: the SPOT analysis is Steve Koerner's. He's too
> modest to point people to it, and it's too good of an analysis not to
> share.
>
> I've been slightly dismayed with the missed reports problem, but I
> remain a big fan of SPOT just for its utility in emergency situations
> and landouts. Regardless of the whether you have a routine landout or
> a serious mishap, the messenger tells your crew exactly where you are
> with the "Ok" message, and whether you need more urgent help via the
> "911" message. My crew is VERY happy that I fly with one, and she
> watches my shared SPOT page when I fly.
>
> 2NO

[Frank[_1_]]

On Mar 9, 6:49*pm, MarkHawke7 > wrote:
> I'd say the phrase "Location, Location, Location" certainly applies
> here. *If you stick it somewhere that it can't see the sky, then it's
> not going to be able to transmit the position. *If it can, it does.
> So if you happen to be stuck low trying to dig your way out (regular
> for me), it's very possible that even with the best location for a
> horizontal glider, that it not be as good a position for a 45 degree+
> glider. *:-)
>
> As TUNO said though, if I do land out, makes it VERY easy to let
> people know where I am and if I'm ok or, god forbid, NOT!!
>
> Later!
>
> -Mark
> On Mar 9, 4:32*pm, Tuno > wrote:
>
>
>
> > Correction, Mark: the SPOT analysis is Steve Koerner's. He's too
> > modest to point people to it, and it's too good of an analysis not to
> > share.
>
> > I've been slightly dismayed with the missed reports problem, but I
> > remain a big fan of SPOT just for its utility in emergency situations
> > and landouts. Regardless of the whether you have a routine landout or
> > a serious mishap, the messenger tells your crew exactly where you are
> > with the "Ok" message, and whether you need more urgent help via the
> > "911" message. My crew is VERY happy that I fly with one, and she
> > watches my shared SPOT page when I fly.
>
> > 2NO- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

As an update to the issue of SPOT tracking message performance, I have
been the 'on-site organizer' for SPOT-equipped pilots here at the
Seniors, and I have found that pilots need to be reminded to place
their units where they can see the sky. A typical response to my
question about where the unit was installed was "I just put it in a
side pocket".

Another problem was that new SPOT users weren't familiar with the
somewhat clunky procedure for getting SPOT into 'track' mode, and were
simply hitting the OK button every so often. If you are looking at
the Seniors experience as a measure of anticipated performance for
other contests, you should look at the track history for TA (my
ship). I have my SPOT unit attached to my harness in such a way that
it is almost horizontal when the glider is flying straigth & level,
and it is well above the canopy rails for good sky visiblity. I
believe Mark told me that he was seeing about 90-95% success rate for
tracking messages over several days of flying. As we all become more
familiar with SPOT units and their idiosyncracies, I believe overall
tracking performance will slowly approach the 90-95% level that I have
been getting.

Frank (TA)

[MarkHawke7]

One other minor suggestion irregardless of whether we're talking about
the tracking stuff we're doing or if it's just a wife/significant
other/etc watching your normal SPOT shared page. Try to leave the
unit on after you land back at the airfield for 15-30 mins where it
can send another position or two showing that you did make it back
home. That's been a tough one to get people to do as well. Just a
suggestion.

-Mark

[MarkHawke7]

Related to this topic, I've been able to enhance my application so
that it can now output KML quite nicely. I put together a small kml
file that contains network links for showing the SPOT trackers,
current task and the other turnpoints. This file can be opened by
Google Earth for viewing. Google Earth is by far the best depiction
of this information as I'm able to rotate the airplane symbols to show
the general direction of travel of each participant. John Leibacher
has graciously agree to host the kml file to allow for easy access.
The link to it is:

http://soaringweb.org/TP/Seminole/seminole_tracking_map.kml

For those whose computers just aren't quite up to the task of running
Google Earth. The original page is still available at:
http://www.soaringpilot.org/snspotmap.htm

The only thing it doesn't show is the rotated icons.

Enjoy!!

-Mark

[ContestID67[_2_]]

Mark - Thanks but....I couldn't get it to work with IE 6 (yeah, I
know). I just get a page showing raw HTML code. It does work with
FireFox 3, Safari 3.2.2 and Chrome 1. FYI and hope you can fix the
issue with IE 6 as there is alot of installed base. My $0.02.

Thanks again.

PS - The direct link imbedded in the XML works fine;
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=10284149876472 6378469.0004638f4c9cefdb9419a&output=kml

- John

[MarkHawke7]

Hi John,
Strange. I just tried it with IE version 6.0.3790.1830 and it worked
just fine. You have to have javascript enabled or it definitely won't
work. Is javascript access perhaps turned off with yours? I'll try
it with a couple more IE6's around our lab if I can find any. In
general Javascript is MUCH faster (as in 2 times or more) in Firefox,
Chrome and and probably Safari as well. I would HIGHLY suggest one of
those. Also, thanks for letting me know that it does work Safari. I
don't have access to a Mac to test with.

As for that link, it will only give you the Task.

Later!

-Mark
On Mar 12, 6:32*am, ContestID67 > wrote:
> Mark - Thanks but....I couldn't get it to work with IE 6 (yeah, I
> know). *I just get a page showing raw HTML code. *It does work with
> FireFox 3, Safari 3.2.2 and Chrome 1. *FYI and hope you can fix the
> issue with IE 6 as there is alot of installed base. * My $0.02.
>
> Thanks again.
>
> PS - The direct link imbedded in the XML works fine;http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=...
>
> - John

[Paul Remde]

Hi Mark,

I'm looking forward to trying it in Google Earth. I just upgraded to the
latest version of Google Earth today, but I can't seem to get the link below
to work. It simply opens a text file in my browser window. I tried saving
the text into a text file with a .kml extension and double-clicking on it.
Google Earth tries to open it, but it gives an error as follows:

Google Earth Error
Open of file seniors.kml failed: Parse error at line 1, column 2: XML or
text declaration not at start of entity.

I imagine I'm doing something wrong. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Paul Remde

"MarkHawke7" > wrote in message
...
> Related to this topic, I've been able to enhance my application so
> that it can now output KML quite nicely. I put together a small kml
> file that contains network links for showing the SPOT trackers,
> current task and the other turnpoints. This file can be opened by
> Google Earth for viewing. Google Earth is by far the best depiction
> of this information as I'm able to rotate the airplane symbols to show
> the general direction of travel of each participant. John Leibacher
> has graciously agree to host the kml file to allow for easy access.
> The link to it is:
>
> http://soaringweb.org/TP/Seminole/seminole_tracking_map.kml
>
> For those whose computers just aren't quite up to the task of running
> Google Earth. The original page is still available at:
> http://www.soaringpilot.org/snspotmap.htm
>
> The only thing it doesn't show is the rotated icons.
>
> Enjoy!!
>
> -Mark

[MarkHawke7]

Hi Paul,
I bet your using IE, right? I asked John L to post it to his
webserver because he has the server mime types set so it "should" open
the "Save" box not just display the contents of the file. In Firefox
and Chrome, it opens the window that allows me to "Save" or let's me
open it google earth. However, you should be able to right click on
the link in the RAS posting and do a Save As. Then you should be able
to double click on the downloaded kml file and it will open in Google
Earth. If that doesn't work for you or anyone else, I can email it,
just let me know. But the save as should work. Saving it in your
browser probably doesn't keep all of the info in the file formatted
correctly.

Related to IE 6 though and previous posting. While it is working, it
is popping up error boxes that none of the other browsers or IE7+ seem
to be having a problem with. I'll look into that.

Later!
-Mark
On Mar 12, 9:39*am, "Paul Remde" > wrote:
> Hi Mark,
>
> I'm looking forward to trying it in Google Earth. *I just upgraded to the
> latest version of Google Earth today, but I can't seem to get the link below
> to work. *It simply opens a text file in my browser window. *I tried saving
> the text into a text file with a .kml extension and double-clicking on it..
> Google Earth tries to open it, but it gives an error as follows:
>
> Google Earth Error
> Open of file seniors.kml failed: Parse error at line 1, column 2: *XML or
> text declaration not at start of entity.
>
> I imagine I'm doing something wrong. *Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Paul Remde

[rlovinggood]

Mark,

I hope you aren't loosing any soaring time due to all the fettling you
are doing with this program!

Here at work, our computers have IE 6 and NO GOOGLE EARTH! Dang it!
Our employer didn't want to get into a lawsuit with Google over our
use of the "free" version of Google Earth, so they took it off of all
the computers. Sigh.

So, does anyone know if the race is on for today, Thursday, 12 MAR 09?

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

[Paul Remde]

Hi,

Thanks to some great help from Mark, I got it working.

I had to right-click on the link and save it to my computer, then change the
file extension to .kml (instead of .xml). Then when I double-click on it is
opens in Google Earth.

It is very, very, very cool!!!

Thanks Mark!!!

Now I just wish my friends Dick Andrews and Ron Clark had a SPOT in their
DG-1000.

Paul Remde

"Paul Remde" > wrote in message
...
> Hi Mark,
>
> I'm looking forward to trying it in Google Earth. I just upgraded to the
> latest version of Google Earth today, but I can't seem to get the link
> below to work. It simply opens a text file in my browser window. I tried
> saving the text into a text file with a .kml extension and double-clicking
> on it. Google Earth tries to open it, but it gives an error as follows:
>
> Google Earth Error
> Open of file seniors.kml failed: Parse error at line 1, column 2: XML or
> text declaration not at start of entity.
>
> I imagine I'm doing something wrong. Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Paul Remde
>
> "MarkHawke7" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Related to this topic, I've been able to enhance my application so
>> that it can now output KML quite nicely. I put together a small kml
>> file that contains network links for showing the SPOT trackers,
>> current task and the other turnpoints. This file can be opened by
>> Google Earth for viewing. Google Earth is by far the best depiction
>> of this information as I'm able to rotate the airplane symbols to show
>> the general direction of travel of each participant. John Leibacher
>> has graciously agree to host the kml file to allow for easy access.
>> The link to it is:
>>
>> http://soaringweb.org/TP/Seminole/seminole_tracking_map.kml
>>
>> For those whose computers just aren't quite up to the task of running
>> Google Earth. The original page is still available at:
>> http://www.soaringpilot.org/snspotmap.htm
>>
>> The only thing it doesn't show is the rotated icons.
>>
>> Enjoy!!
>>
>> -Mark
>
>

[Paul Remde]

Hi Ray,

There are gliders out and about, so it appears that a race is on or at least
gliders are in the air.

You don't need Google Earth to view it in a browser using the link below.
http://www.soaringpilot.org/snspotmap.htm

Good Soaring,

Paul Remde

"rlovinggood" > wrote in message
...
> Mark,
>
> I hope you aren't loosing any soaring time due to all the fettling you
> are doing with this program!
>
> Here at work, our computers have IE 6 and NO GOOGLE EARTH! Dang it!
> Our employer didn't want to get into a lawsuit with Google over our
> use of the "free" version of Google Earth, so they took it off of all
> the computers. Sigh.
>
> So, does anyone know if the race is on for today, Thursday, 12 MAR 09?
>
> Ray Lovinggood
> Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

[Greg Arnold[_2_]]

Paul Remde wrote:
> Hi Ray,
>
> There are gliders out and about, so it appears that a race is on or at least
> gliders are in the air.

Is that for today? There is a check in the box for March 10.

>
> You don't need Google Earth to view it in a browser using the link below.
> http://www.soaringpilot.org/snspotmap.htm
>
> Good Soaring,
>
> Paul Remde
>
> "rlovinggood" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Mark,
>>
>> I hope you aren't loosing any soaring time due to all the fettling you
>> are doing with this program!
>>
>> Here at work, our computers have IE 6 and NO GOOGLE EARTH! Dang it!
>> Our employer didn't want to get into a lawsuit with Google over our
>> use of the "free" version of Google Earth, so they took it off of all
>> the computers. Sigh.
>>
>> So, does anyone know if the race is on for today, Thursday, 12 MAR 09?
>>
>> Ray Lovinggood
>> Carrboro, North Carolina, USA
>
>

[Greg Arnold[_2_]]

Greg Arnold wrote:
> Paul Remde wrote:
>> Hi Ray,
>>
>> There are gliders out and about, so it appears that a race is on or at
>> least gliders are in the air.
>
> Is that for today? There is a check in the box for March 10.
>

Looking again, I see the check mark is for Tuesday, March 12. But today
is Thursday the 12th. Hmmm.

[MarkHawke7]

On Mar 12, 10:43*am, Greg Arnold > wrote:
> Greg Arnold wrote:
> > Paul Remde wrote:
Greg,
Thanks for the heads up. Fat fingers on my part. It'll update in a
minute or so and say Thu, March 12, 2009 now.

Ray,
Nope, not keeping me from flying. A little bit of a distraction from
work maybe but not flying. :-)

Later!!

-Mark
> >> Hi Ray,
>
> >> There are gliders out and about, so it appears that a race is on or at
> >> least gliders are in the air.
>
> > Is that for today? *There is a check in the box for March 10.
>
> Looking again, I see the check mark is for Tuesday, March 12. *But today
> is Thursday the 12th. *Hmmm.