Big Copilot Update. New Badges. New Season!
Across the Northern Hemisphere, cumulus are looking better every day. It’s high time for an update! No matter when your season officially kicks off, we wish you a fantastic start, successful flights, and plenty of fun with the best hobby in the world.
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Thanks for your support. Now, let’s get into the latest updates at WeGlide ⬇️
WeGlide Copilot Becomes a Logger
Until now, Copilot has been your strategic companion for live maps in the cockpit. Now, we’re taking the next big step: Copilot is becoming a fully-fledged app.
What’s New?
Over the winter, we rebuilt Copilot, transitioning it from a PWA (web app) to a native app. As a result, Copilot is now available in the Apple App Store (iOS)and Google Play Store (Android). What this update means for you:
- Copilot as a Logger: In addition to live data, Copilot now acts as a logger for your flights. It reliably tracks your position even when the app is running in the background or your screen is locked.
- Valid IGC Files: Copilot is the first app ever to provide valid files for all decentral national competitions on WeGlide. You can use Copilot as your logger for any competition on WeGlide, such as the DMSt (Germany) or the DAGR (USA).
Your Smartphone As a Backup Logger
Even if you aren't chasing records, you can now simply use Copilot as your primary or secondary logger for e.g. DMSt flights. Best of all, it provides the live maps you need for success at the same time. Plus, Copilot is the easiest way to upload your flights to WeGlide.
No More Juggling SD Cards or USB Sticks
Copilot automatically detects takeoff and landing, saving your flight directly to your private logbook. From there, you can easily upload it to WeGlide - complete with a commenting feature and airspace check.
Check Airspace Before Upload
Have you ever uploaded a flight through an external service only to realize afterward that you’d committed an airspace violation? When you use the Copilot Logger, you can double-check that everything is in order before you hit publish.
How It Works
Before Takeoff: Tap "Start" before you head into the air. You can tell it’s active by the red dot on your profile picture.
Logbook: After landing, you’ll find all your flights in your private logbook -regardless of whether you plan to publish them.
Upload: Select your flight, check the airspaces, add the aircraft type and a comment, then upload it directly to WeGlide (or export it as an IGC file).
Further Updates
We’ve recalculated our WeGlide Hotspots! Thanks to the massive amount of data from the past year, you’ll find even more thermal hotspots in Copilot. It’s great to see an increasing number of hotspots appearing in the flatlands - showing the same probability of hitting a thermal as you’d have over a power plant 🚀
Hotspots are based on historical data, not live tracking. This means the map works perfectly even when there’s little traffic around you. Copilot offers hotspot maps for most of Europe; for the rest of the world, we’re still gathering the necessary data. So, keep those uploads to WeGlide coming ✈️
It’s also now possible to load your Waypoint Collections into Copilot. While the base app remains free, the certified logger and live maps are part of our Supporter Package ($5/month).
New Badges
Some get excited when they stumble upon a new one by chance; others have become true "badge hunters," actively planning their flights around them. Regardless of which camp you’re in, you can now look forward to 10 brand-new challenges!
The feedback and ideas you’ve sent us show just how much the badge system has become a staple in the soaring community. This has also led to a slight shift in our philosophy: while badges were originally intended as a "by-product" of your flights, there are now challenges you’ll actually have to work for. We’ll let you figure out which ones for yourselves... 😬 With your help, we’ve added the following:
- Pechvogel: Fly at least 999 km, but less than 1000 km
- Everesting: Gain at least 8848 m altitude by thermaling within one hour
- Helicopter: Fly below 10 km/h groundspeed for one minute
- Limbo: Fly more than 500 km while staying below 1000 m MSL
- Centrifuge: Gain at least 1000 m in a thermal with more than 45 degrees bank angle
- Old but Gold: Fly a declared triangle of at least 300 km with a vintage glider
- Airport Vulture: Fly for more than 5 hours and never farther than 5 km from takeoff airport
- Matterhorn: Gain at least 4478 m altitude by thermaling within one hour
Have fun collecting them! We can’t wait to hear the new stories these badges will inspire. 🚀
Guy Bechtold Challenge
"Hey guys, your badges are awesome! How can I support you?" That’s roughly how the conversation with record-setting pilot Guy Bechtold began. It sparked something entirely new, and we’re thrilled about the opportunity to give juniors some fresh incentives.
We’ve built on the momentum of the new badges to create the Guy Bechtold Challenge for junior pilots. The rules are as simple as it gets: a junior needs to collect five specific badges. The first pilot to collect them all wins and receives €1,000. Second and third place will also receive cash prizes. The challenge is open to all juniors worldwide. Here you can find more details:
Jens Kammerer
3D View Update
The 3D viewer has received several updates especially useful for competition analysis:
- New aircraft models have been added for both Club and Standard classes, making the 3D view feel much more lifelike. More models are on the way
- Tasks are now also visible in 3D
- By clicking the list in the barogram, you can switch between aircraft and always stay focused on the most critical competition situations
Bringing WeGlide Live to Life
You’ve probably already noticed: you can now react to flights in real time. It’s even more exciting to cheer the pilots on when you see how many others are currently watching and reacting right along with you.
We’ve seen as many as 30 people at a time watching a single flight and cheering the pilots on. If you have a Supporter subscription, you can also leave comments on the flights.
We’re already thrilled by how well these new live features are being received and are excited to see the stories that will emerge from them in the future.
We’ve also optimized our live coverage. Whenever OGN reception is unavailable, we now feed ADSB signals or data from the Copilot app into the live tracking. This makes a significant difference in regions with marginal OGN coverage, such as Namibia or parts of the Alps.
If you have a Garmin InReach or Spot satellite tracker, you can add it to your profile, and we will pull that data in whenever no other source is available.
Premium Features at a Glance
WeGlide has become incredibly versatile. From task planning to detailed flight analysis, local competitions for training with friends, and a wealth of social features - it offers a lot. This short article provides a summary of all our premium products:
Joshua Rieger
Ready to go Premium and really take off this season? You can take the next steps right here:
Four New Nations on WeGlide
Just in time for the start of the season, we are excited to welcome four new gliding nations that will now be hosting their national decentralized competitions on WeGlide. A warm welcome to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic 👋
This marks another major step toward connecting glider pilots worldwide. There are now 13 nations on board. We would like to thank all countries for their trust and look forward to future collaborations.
Bitterwasser Cup for Juniors
Hey Juniors: Did you know, you can win an all inclusive gliding vacation to Bitterwasser? Here you can find out how:
Joshua Rieger
Bird Protection Areas in Southern France
Efforts are currently underway to ease restrictions regarding bird protection areas in the Southern French Alps. If you plan on flying there this year, you can help the cause by respecting the current regulations. We hope you have a great time flying in Provence!
WeGlide. Innovations for the sport. Help us advance gliding:
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