A Happy New Year from WeGlide, Sebastian Kawa, and Klaus Ohlmann
Hey everyone, we hope you had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends 🎄✨ As 2025 is on, we’re reflecting on the 24 season with mixed emotions: On the one hand, the weather wasn’t ideal for logging flight hours (at least in Germany), but on the other, it gave us the opportunity to focus on further developing our features—especially the Copilot. Thanks to these efforts, WeGlide and the Copilot are better than ever, so you can hit the ground running (or rather, take to the skies) in 2025!
Of course, this year wasn’t without its gliding highlights either ⬇️
📮 Do you have friends or colleagues who’d love to stay cozy on the couch with the latest news from the gliding world? If you’re enjoying this newsletter, feel free to share it with your friends or on social media using the following link:
🔗 magazine.weglide.org/weglide-sebastian-kawa-klaus-ohlmann-newsletter-16-en/
We’d be thrilled if you helped spread the word 🙏
Attention: Don't forget to sign up for our webinar series. We’ll share tricks and tips to help you unlock the full potential of WeGlide. Of course, we answer your questions as well!
Now, let’s dive into the latest news from WeGlide ⬇️
Sebastian Kawa above K2
Sebastian Kawa, already the proud winner of 18 gold medals at world championships, took on a completely different kind of challenge this year. Instead of competing in Uvalde, Texas, he embarked on an epic journey with an ASH 25 Mi, covering 8,600 km on streets to the east. His goal? To conquer K2 in a glider. The sheer adventure of traveling to Pakistan alone could have earned him another gold medal! You can learn more about Sebastian’s incredible journey in the following interview:
Joshua Rieger
Klaus Ohlmann’s Flight: From the Pyrenees to Vienna
The adventure began the day before with a sporty flight to Orlon, the planned starting point for the next day’s endeavor. After a challenging takeoff, Klaus made swift progress eastward. Originally, the plan included reaching Nitra in Slovakia, but unforeseen circumstances changed the course of the flight. You can find out why in the comments—and don’t forget to leave Klaus a like ❤️ when you check out his flight. He’ll surely appreciate it!
We’ve taken the Copilot to the Next Level
The WeGlide Copilot app introduces an unprecedented way to bring live data from other gliders directly into your cockpit, supporting you in making tactical decisions during your flight. Haven’t heard about the Copilot yet? Check out everything you need to know in the following article:
Joshua Rieger
Since its release last April, the Copilot has been continuously improved. A huge thank-you goes to our community for providing valuable feedback—it’s thanks to you that the Copilot has reached the level of quality that our users now enjoy on their flights.
What’s New in the Copilot?
The biggest upgrade is our meticulously designed hotspot maps. Our top priority is to provide only high-quality data—no takeoff points, no local flights, just cross-country flights—to give you a map tailored perfectly to your needs as a glider pilot. Currently, these maps are available for Central Europe.
If you’d like to learn more about our hotspot maps, we highly recommend the following article:
Joshua Rieger
Here are two examples from Germany and Namibia. While we’d always prefer beautiful cumulus clouds over hotspots, the reality is that we often face challenging conditions like blue thermals or overcast skies. In these situations, hotspots can provide valuable guidance and support.
Hotspots - Links Namibia, rechts Deutschland
We’ve also developed a few smaller features that can be quite useful for your flights—and they’re completely free to use! Feel free to give them a try, and we’d love to hear your feedback.
New Features in Copilot
Distance Ring: Want to estimate how far a weather front is on the satellite image? Or how close you are to the next live thermal? The new Distance Ring makes this intuitive and straightforward. You can enable it in the settings.
Airfield Filter: Select an airfield to filter all gliders that have taken off from there. This feature helps you track where your clubmates are—useful in the air and for spectators on the ground.
Airspaces: Tap on the map to see all relevant airspaces in your vicinity, complete with altitudes and frequencies, clearly highlighted. This is particularly handy when communicating with FIS, as it’s not always clear which frequency you’re currently in.
Aircraft Markers: Tap on a glider to mark it. It will be surrounded by a circle on the map, allowing you to easily track aircraft of interest. You can mark and unmark as many gliders as you like.
Go-To Navigation: Tap on an airfield to navigate to it with a single click. You’ll see the course deviation and distance displayed, making it easy to adjust your route to follow the fastest conditions while minimizing unnecessary deviations.
Font Size: If the symbols or text appear too small, you can adjust them in the settings. Fonts can be increased by up to 25%.
Important: Don’t forget to update regularly to keep your Copilot up to the minute! ⬇️
Without the strong gliding community, WeGlide wouldn't be where it is today. Thank you for your support, which allows us to continuously develop WeGlide and the Copilot further.
LX NAV Integration
The Copilot integration is currently in beta, so feel free to give it a try! If you have the latest software version on your LX9000 or LX9070, you can link your WeGlide account via LX Nav Connect. You have access to the Live Netto Map and Live Thermal Height. A big thanks to LX Avionics for the seamless collaboration 🙏.
Do you have Questions? We do a Webinar
Due to high demand, we’ve scheduled some webinars on January 23rd and February 6th, both starting at 8:30 PM CET. We’ll introduce you to the new features in Copilot and share tips and tricks to help you get the most out of WeGlide. Of course, we’ll also be happy to answer your questions about Copilot, Coach, or any other topics you’d like to bring up. You can register for the webinar via the following link:
Analyze your flying style in under 5 minutes
The WeGlide Coach has become an integral part of many pilots' routines. Just enter your takeoff weight when uploading a flight, click on the Coach, and receive a detailed analysis of your performance. It’s the perfect way to accelerate your learning curve like never before!
As a quick example, let’s look at an impressive flight by Jonas Meier in 2023. Jonas flew a large triangle and came just 9 km short of achieving 1000 km. Gliding is undoubtedly a complex sport with countless variables. But can the Coach still identify a pattern in Jonas’s flying style that he could quickly and easily improve?
Overall, this flight looks pretty solid. In terms of cruising speed, Jonas was nearly spot on. But what does the yellow circle mean? When we click on it, the Coach provides a hint—Jonas carried too much water during this flight. With a lighter glider, he could have been 1.8 km/h faster.
Jonas spent about 9.5 hours on this flight. With less water, he could have covered around 20 additional kilometers. Surprisingly, reaching 1000 km that day would have been possible without changing his flying style with the LS8 neo—thank you for the insight, Coach! 🙏
We spoke with Jonas, and he mentioned that this was valuable feedback for him. He plans to try flying a bit lighter in the future.
All of this took less than five minutes, didn’t it? It’s never been easier to analyze flights without diving deep into the complex math of gliding—we’ve already done that work for you. The Coach also offers tips on your cruising speed or thermaling skills. The best part? You can even analyze flights from the past if you remember your takeoff weight.
So why not spend a cozy evening on the couch letting WeGlide coach you and uncover new insights into your gliding habits? If you haven’t done a trial yet, you can test it for free for 14 days here:
Support Section
We believe that fast and helpful support is essential for a well-functioning online platform. Need quick information about a competition rule or an analysis feature? Check out the support section at the bottom of the homepage for helpful answers. If you still need assistance or want to share feedback, you can reach out to us using the email button.
A Big Thank You to Our Sponsors
Finally, we want to express our gratitude to all our sponsors for their support this year. Without you, WeGlide wouldn’t be where it is today. You help us in our mission to connect glider pilots worldwide. Be sure to check out our sponsors and see what they have to offer. Thank you for being part of this incredible journey with us!
Thank you for your time and attention! ❤️