Online Game for Glider Pilots, Copilot Update and New Badges?
In the Southern Hemisphere, glider pilots are making the most of peak season, with 1,000-km flights being clocked one after another across Australia and Southern Africa, and more.
Meanwhile, in the North, eyes are slowly turning back toward the skies. The days are finally drawing out, and on the penultimate day of 2025, the weather even gifted us one last blast of thermal activity. If that isn't a good omen for the new year, what is?
Keep your chin up—the season is closer than you think. We’re already working full tilt to ensure you have the perfect start to your year in the air.
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WeGuess – Your Winter Season is Saved
If you’re a WeGlide user, you probably have a soft spot for leaderboards—whether it’s the daily rankings, the national leagues, or collecting badges. You want to know: who’s currently in the lead, and who’s nipping at your heels? Well, we have good news: from now on, you can go head-to-head with other pilots even when it’s snowing, storming, or hailing outside!
Left: Leaderboard and game menu. Right: In-game. Study the photo and guess its location on the map. The closer your guess, the higher your score
Every day, countless aerial photos from all over the world are uploaded to WeGlide. We’ve wanted to do something special with them for a long time. You and the rest of the community constantly share stunning shots with us, and now we’re giving something back: WeGuess. You can play WeGuess in single-player mode or jump into multiplayer to challenge friends and other pilots online across the globe.
Curious? WeGuess is incredibly easy to pick up. Check out the article below to learn how to play:
Jens Kammerer
Or dive right in and put your skills to the test against the rest of the gliding world:
Junior Development Taken to the Next Level
And this isn't just for pilots in Germany! Ever since WeGlide went live, every year has felt like a milestone for us. From rolling out new features and seeing our user base grow, to more and more nations entrusting us with their decentralized competitions—there is always something to celebrate. We are incredibly grateful to the gliding community for making this possible.
Supporting junior pilots is a cause close to our hearts. For years, programs like WeCoach and the JS Challenge have thrived on WeGlide. Now, we are thrilled to announce that the prestigious Bitterwasser Prizes and the "OLC" Discus 2ct—a dedicated performance glider for juniors—have also joined our platform. These are the very initiatives that many of us benefited from personally during our time as juniors. We couldn't be happier that they’ve found a new home at WeGlide. It’s a major milestone, not just for us, but for the entire community.
Much like the JS Challenge (which is open to juniors worldwide), the Bitterwasser Cup gives young pilots across Europe a shot at an incredible prize.
Are you a junior pilot in Europe, or do you know a motivated young pilot? Then make sure they know about the chance to fly a Ventus 3M in Namibia—all inclusive! You can find out more here:
Copilot Updates
More and more pilots are enjoying the benefits of the WeGlide Copilot during flight, whether they’re using the HD satellite imagery or our live maps.
"The Live Netto map is particularly useful for me. I use it mainly when flying in the mountains to see how well the ridge I'm heading for is working." — Yves Gerster
We are currently working on rebuilding the Copilot as a native app. This will make it available in the major app stores, but it also opens up a world of new possibilities.
For instance, we’ll be able to feed position data directly into our live tracking when OGN coverage is unavailable. This will significantly improve tracking in areas with sparse OGN infrastructure. It’s also a huge win for our live maps: features like Live Netto, Live Thermals, and Live Cloud Base will become much more accessible in regions like Namibia.
For this to work, pilots will need to fly with the Copilot app and stay connected live. We’d love it if you could share this with your fellow pilots—spread the word! 🙏
Help us to improve the live tracking. Choose your profile in Copilot > connect the glider you are flying
Perhaps you’ve heard of the WeGlide Copilot but haven't had a chance to dive in yet? Now is the perfect time to get up to speed so you can hit the ground running when the new season kicks off!
Joshua Rieger
Samuel Leihkamm
Did You Know?
People are taking more photos than ever—without them, WeGuess wouldn't even be possible. But did you know that you can now upload videos as well?
Quite a few pilots are already taking full advantage of this, filling their flight logs with moving memories. Imagine how those emotions will come flooding back in a few years when you're browsing your old flights on WeGlide and can watch breathtaking footage from the cockpit.
You can upload videos in the same section as your photos (a Premium subscription is required).
And isn't it great to show your non-flying friends that you were actually up in the air today? We’ve built a social media overlay that lets you share your flight stats on Instagram or WhatsApp in a matter of seconds.
Select a photo from your flight on WeGlide and click "Share" > choose where you’d like to share the overlay > post your flight photo with the overlay
On WeGlide, select a photo from your flight and click on it. Select the "Share" icon in the top-left corner and choose where you would like to share the overlay.
It Pays to Declare your Flight
No matter where in the world you fly, declaring your task is worth the effort. We host decentralized competitions for many of the world's top gliding nations, and you can earn a significant bonus by declaring your planned task in advance.
By making a formal declaration, you can earn a bonus of up to 70%! The process is simple: you can plan and declare your task directly online via WeGlide.
To see if your country hosts its decentralized competition on WeGlide, check out our documentation here:
Here you can learn how to declare a flight:
Level 11
We never imagined that badges would be such a hit with the community. Originally designed for beginners, they’ve now caught the attention of top-tier pilots who have gone on a literal "badge hunt," rediscovering the sport of gliding in a whole new way.
Just recently at the Swiss Gliding Conference, Rainer Cronjäger told us all about his quest for the Yin-Yang badge. Let’s just say it didn’t happen on the first try, and we could probably write an entire magazine feature about the effort he put in 😏. In the end, Rainer finally pulled it off during his flying holiday in Fuentemilanos.
We recently saw our first pilots reach Level 11—an incredible feat that requires collecting 100 badges! Huge congratulations to Guy Bechtold and Baptiste Innocent on this achievement 🎉.
We’re excited to see how this race unfolds. Interestingly, neither pilot has earned the "Meet the Cows" badge yet (requiring at least five outlandings in a field). It remains to be seen if the drive for the next level will push them to get a little "creative" here—back to the roots, as they say! 😉
Clearly, it’s high time for some new badges. We’re already on it! If you have any ideas, feel free to drop us a line at info@weglide.org. Your suggestion might just become the next badge featured on WeGlide.
What Else?
Alongside new developments, we are constantly working to make WeGlide’s infrastructure more cost-efficient. Since we launched WeGlide Premium, the price has remained the same—even though Premium now offers far more features than it did at the start in 2021. This is the direct result of our daily optimization efforts.
By subscribing, you help us continue this work and ensure that we can provide the gliding community with an innovative, sustainable platform for years to come.
A Visit to Schempp-Hirth
Jens and Josh recently visited Kirchheim, the location of Schempp-Hirth. Together with Tilo Holighaus, we got a behind-the-scenes look at every stage of production and took the new Ventus 3E Performance out for a test flight. Plus, there are new winglets for the Discus 2! Curious to see how it looks? You can find all the photos in the full interview:
Jens Kammerer
Our Sponsors
Last but not least, we would like to say a huge thank you to all our incredible sponsors who supported us over the past year. WeGlide simply wouldn't be where it is today without you. Your support helps us pursue our mission of connecting glider pilots across the globe. Thank you for everything!
WeGlide. Innovations for the sport. Help us advance gliding:
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