SPOT tracking for 2009 contests?

Our club (CCSC) is starting to think about providing real-time SPOT-
based glider track displays for ground crew/spectators for our 2009
Region 6 contest, and I was wondering if other clubs were considering
similar programs.

Sure would be a cool thing if the SSA and/or SRA were to provide a web
page link for contest organizers to display glider tracks. Then All
the organizer would have to do is tell SPOT users what url to use for
their 'spotteam' OK hit, and maybe what message to use (maybe a
formatted message from which the site could extract the comp ID?). A
contest organizer could then display the web page on a big screen
somewhere, or individuals could display it on their own laptops/pc's.

Each contest could have its own webpage, and anyone from anywhere
could see how their favorite glider pilot was doing. This could
really help to popularize glider flying in general and glider racing
in particular.

Any comments/thoughts?

Frank(TA)

Frank,

The gang in Australia is all over this one -- see glidingmaps.com.
They have said they will let us use their web site for the Parowan
Region 9 uber regional, and (hopefully) other contests. I'll send you
another e-mail when I hear from them again.

Stay tuned.

2NO

On Feb 12, 4:39*pm, Frank wrote:
Our club (CCSC) is starting to think about providing real-time SPOT-
based glider track displays for ground crew/spectators for our 2009
Region 6 contest, and I was wondering if other clubs were considering
similar programs.

Sure would be a cool thing if the SSA and/or SRA were to provide a web
page link for contest organizers to display glider tracks. *Then All
the organizer would have to do is tell SPOT users what url to use for
their 'spotteam' OK hit, and maybe what message to use (maybe a
formatted message from which the site could extract the comp ID?). *A
contest organizer could then display the web page on a big screen
somewhere, or individuals could display it on their own laptops/pc's.

Each contest could have its own webpage, and anyone from anywhere
could see how their favorite glider pilot was doing. *This could
really help to popularize glider flying in general and glider racing
in particular.

Any comments/thoughts?

Frank(TA)

Just as an added note, I found that a group in Australia did this for
a recent GP race, but I don't know how successful it was. You can see
an interactive demo of their tracking interface at http://www.glidingmaps.com/track/.

Scott Penrose, one of the developers of the Aussie system, says they
are thinking of commercializing it, and would be interested in working
with interested U.S. parties. Anyone at SSA or SRA think this might
be worthwhile pursuing?

Frank (TA)

On Feb 12, 2:39*pm, Frank wrote:
Our club (CCSC) is starting to think about providing real-time SPOT-
based glider track displays for ground crew/spectators for our 2009
Region 6 contest, and I was wondering if other clubs were considering
similar programs.

Sure would be a cool thing if the SSA and/or SRA were to provide a web
page link for contest organizers to display glider tracks. *Then All
the organizer would have to do is tell SPOT users what url to use for
their 'spotteam' OK hit, and maybe what message to use (maybe a
formatted message from which the site could extract the comp ID?). *A
contest organizer could then display the web page on a big screen
somewhere, or individuals could display it on their own laptops/pc's.

Each contest could have its own webpage, and anyone from anywhere
could see how their favorite glider pilot was doing. *This could
really help to popularize glider flying in general and glider racing
in particular.

Any comments/thoughts?

Frank(TA)

Frank,

http://track.glidingmaps.com/

Yes the SSA should work to provide this for all contests, better yet a
tie in with OLC so we can see where everyone is everyday.


Also see the threads from this newsgroup:

SPOT Possibilities (Dec 8 2008, 11:01 am)

and

See Spots Run (Jan 2 2009, 3:09 pm)

Tim (TT)

On Feb 12, 9:27*pm, Tim Taylor wrote:
On Feb 12, 2:39*pm, Frank wrote:





Our club (CCSC) is starting to think about providing real-time SPOT-
based glider track displays for ground crew/spectators for our 2009
Region 6 contest, and I was wondering if other clubs were considering
similar programs.

Sure would be a cool thing if the SSA and/or SRA were to provide a web
page link for contest organizers to display glider tracks. *Then All
the organizer would have to do is tell SPOT users what url to use for
their 'spotteam' OK hit, and maybe what message to use (maybe a
formatted message from which the site could extract the comp ID?). *A
contest organizer could then display the web page on a big screen
somewhere, or individuals could display it on their own laptops/pc's.

Each contest could have its own webpage, and anyone from anywhere
could see how their favorite glider pilot was doing. *This could
really help to popularize glider flying in general and glider racing
in particular.

Any comments/thoughts?

Frank(TA)

Frank,

http://track.glidingmaps.com/

Yes the SSA should work to provide this for all contests, better yet a
tie in with OLC so we can see where everyone is everyday.

Also see the threads from this newsgroup:

SPOT Possibilities (Dec 8 2008, 11:01 am)

and

See Spots Run *(Jan 2 2009, 3:09 pm)

Tim (TT)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes, the more I think about this, the more I think each club could
have a permanent page on the SSA site where SPOT equipped pilots could
send SPOT tracking messages. Such a site would be very useful on a day-
to-day basis for tracking XC practice tasks, informal contests, etc.
The only thing extra that would be required for a formal contest would
be a way of displaying the task.

This seems like such a no-brainer that it will probably never happen,
at least not officially. I for one will be happy to volunteer my time
and limited programming skills for such a project

TA

I realize cost is important, but it seems to me that the Yellowbrick
technology used during the Chilean Gran Prix offers much, much more
than SPOT tracking. With Yellowbrick I was able to follow the strategy
of the competitors, with SPOT I wouldn't get details like position,
speed, altitude and vario every 20 seconds and so know the strategy.
The Yellowbrick rental cost isn't that exhorbitant for a National
event, see he http://www.adventuretracking.com/airsports.htm I
understand that SPOT wasn't made for pilots, but if they understand
they have competition, maybe improvements would be made.

-John

SPOT is very useful and more and more pilots are starting to carry
them. Unfortunately, this increase might be one factor that has led
to the decreased reporting rate that we have been experiencing. This
might be an issue for its use in contests.

Last weekend, I was responsible for launching gliders at the Tucson
Soaring Club and making sure that they all made it home. One cross-
country pilot flew a 300 km flight on a somewhat marginal day and when
we hadn't raised him on the radio for quite a while, we checked his
SPOT website. AT 4:30 PM, the last fix reported was at 2:50 PM over
60 miles away. We were getting ready to start looking for him in
earnest when he arrived back at the field.

When we have gaps of over an hour in fixes, SPOT starts to lose its
usefulness.

Mike

Frank wrote:
On Feb 12, 9:27 pm, Tim Taylor wrote:
On Feb 12, 2:39 pm, Frank wrote:





Our club (CCSC) is starting to think about providing real-time SPOT-
based glider track displays for ground crew/spectators for our 2009
Region 6 contest, and I was wondering if other clubs were considering
similar programs.
Sure would be a cool thing if the SSA and/or SRA were to provide a web
page link for contest organizers to display glider tracks. Then All
the organizer would have to do is tell SPOT users what url to use for
their 'spotteam' OK hit, and maybe what message to use (maybe a
formatted message from which the site could extract the comp ID?). A
contest organizer could then display the web page on a big screen
somewhere, or individuals could display it on their own laptops/pc's.
Each contest could have its own webpage, and anyone from anywhere
could see how their favorite glider pilot was doing. This could
really help to popularize glider flying in general and glider racing
in particular.
Any comments/thoughts?
Frank(TA)
Frank,

http://track.glidingmaps.com/

Yes the SSA should work to provide this for all contests, better yet a
tie in with OLC so we can see where everyone is everyday.

Also see the threads from this newsgroup:

SPOT Possibilities (Dec 8 2008, 11:01 am)

and

See Spots Run (Jan 2 2009, 3:09 pm)

Tim (TT)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes, the more I think about this, the more I think each club could
have a permanent page on the SSA site where SPOT equipped pilots could
send SPOT tracking messages. Such a site would be very useful on a day-
to-day basis for tracking XC practice tasks, informal contests, etc.
The only thing extra that would be required for a formal contest would
be a way of displaying the task.

This seems like such a no-brainer that it will probably never happen,
at least not officially. I for one will be happy to volunteer my time
and limited programming skills for such a project

TA


It would probably be pretty easy to set up -- go to the appropriate part
of the SSA website, click on a pilot's name, and you would be redirected
to the pilot's SPOT tracking page. In fact, the SSA website already has
a page for each SSA member (though the last time I looked I couldn't
figure out how to access them), and you could put the link there.

Mike is referring to my flight, but being the moron that I am, I had
the SPOT on my chest strap where its satellite exposure was much more
limited than it should have been, and I spent a lot more time
thermaling in the last two hours than the first two.

I'll be doing an experiment early next week with a cross-country
drive, with the SPOT positioned to have a good view of the sky, and
see what kind of tracking success rate is achieved.

2NO

On Feb 13, 1:04*pm, Tuno wrote:
I'll be doing an experiment early next week with a cross-country
drive, with the SPOT positioned to have a good view of the sky, and
see what kind of tracking success rate is achieved.

I drove from Philly to Memphis over 2 days with the spot laying on the
dash, and I don't think it missed more than a half dozen reports. I
also carried it while towing in a Pawnee and got no reports. ??

Ed