WeGlide Badges

At WeGlide, we are working hard every day to make the platform better. Often, these are small bug fixes or design updates. But every once in a while we get to work on a bigger feature. Something that starts as a vague idea, that takes a lot of iterations over the course of several months, and brings something new to the gliding community in the end.

Today, we are excited to announce WeGlide Badges, opening up new horizons for beginners and experienced pilots.

You get badges for different milestones you reach along your personal journey in gliding. The badges you have collected, are shown in your profile. While some badges like the Launch Specialist (upload one Winch-Launch, Tow, and Self-Launch) are one-time achievements, others have multiple levels. The Explorer is awarded for flying a declared Out&Return of different sizes (250 km, 500 km, 750 km, 1000 km, 1250 km).

Together with badges, we are introducing a simple level system. For every 10 badges you have collected, you get promoted to the next level.

Historic Flights

Badges will not be awarded for achievements on old flights. Only flights from the 11th of April will count for your badges. This way, everyone starts on the same level. We do not want to give rewards for old achievements but rather want to encourage people to try out new stuff.

Even some of our team members, who initially would have liked to receive badges for their old flights, realized, that in this way, they get more motivation.

Diverse

Gliding is unique for everyone, and so are badges. Some of us like flying vintage gliders. Some of us enjoy the occasional afternoon flight in of their club's gliders. Some push harder, achieving incredible distances and speeds.

Badges are designed to accompany you on your journey in the world of gliding, wherever it may lead you. You get the first stage of the Vintage Viper for your first flight with a vintage glider. The fifth and last stage is awarded for flying 20 different old gliders.

Do you enjoy participating in a league on the weekends? Take your shot at the Consistency badge, which you get for flying multiple weekends in a row (3 in the first stage, 40 in the final one).

Some people like seeing lots of different places, and they quickly earn the lower stages of the Nomad (flying from different airports) or even the Globe Trotter (flying on different continents).

There are 40 more badges into which we have put a lot of effort, you can check them out in your profile.

Beginners

Have you ever seen someone quit gliding a few years after doing their license? Have you ever noticed someone being stuck in developing their gliding skills? That one person who always flies the same router, never trying out new stuff?

This is the problem WeGlide Badges hopes to solve. We want to accompany you on your personal story in the world of gliding. For beginners, there are easy-to-earn badges like the Traffic Circuit (20 flights shorter than 10 minutes) or Mission Completed (declare and achieve a task >50 km).

Our goal is to show easy and achievable steps beginners can take to increase their skill level. On their way, they can celebrate individual achievements when reaching a badge. We hope that badges and levels will increase the motivation of beginners and help them transition to experienced pilots.

Advanced Pilots

But badges are just as much aimed at experienced pilots. They can get the first stage of the Walk of Fame by flying five times more than 1000 points. And the fifth stage will be quite an exclusive circle. You'll need to fly 100 times more than 1000 points. The Day Winner will be added to your profile if you win one or multiple days on WeGlide.

And there are also achievements for doing great stuff on individual flights. If you fly more than 500 km with more than 10 thermals but don't need a single attempt, you'll get the Clean Sheet. There are a lot more badges that can be a goal for more experienced pilots, just check them out in your WeGlide profile.

Your Profile

You'll find all the badges in your profile when clicking on the level, next to your name.

Then, you'll see all the badges you have collected so far. The remaining badges which you have not achieved yet are greyed out. Badges with multiple stages are stacked on top of each other.

So in the example below, the pilot has earned the second stage of the Sky Streak, as he has flown 12 months in a row. He has achieved the third stage of the Zugvogel, by flying more than 50 thousand kilometers in total.

And the last one is quite special. The pilot has achieved the fifth and final stage of Flying in Circles by circumnavigating 15 different major airports. Therefore, there is a blue check mark next to it, as this badge is fully completed.

We would like to thank Tobias Bieniek, Benjamin Bachmaier, and Clemens Pape for their creative support in the implementation of the badges.

We are always happy about input and feedback. If you have an idea for a new badge write us at info@weglide.org. Have fun while earning your first badges, let's take gliding to a new level together!