The Minden/Truckee database has had a standard terminology for some time - a single letter (e.g. "U" for unlandable) and a rating number (1-5) to rate the quality. Reasonably concise is better. Common standard is better.

I have always felt that the soaring community should create a standard repository that would collect user contributions of info such as landout field dimensions as well as other elements - photos (many glide computers have provision for these now), obstacles, potential for change in conditions (flooding of dry lakes) and most important, a time stamp and method for collecting the info (Google can't tell if a field is too rough or the height of scrub at the edge of the runway but walking the field can).

Could the WWTP exchange accommodate such a database? What would it take to create formats that could be easily used by glide computers - I'm thinking mostly of the photos. The current method is a bit labor-intensive.

9B