Magazine

Getting Started with WeGlide

If you are new to WeGlide, this is the place to start.
Getting Started with WeGlide
Photo: Holger Leicht

It's great to have you in the WeGlide community (if you have not signed up yet, you can do so here). Now that you have created your account, you can add a user image, a small bio and update your unit settings in your profile.

WeGlide App

One of the first things you should do is install WeGlide as an app on your phone. WeGlide will be more convenient, and you have more space to display flights on the map. You can also activate push notifications in the app so we can inform you directly about comments and flights from your friends. You can find out how to do all this here:

Push-Notifications
Brand new: With push notifications from WeGlide, you’ll never miss flights and comments from your friends again.

WeGlide Copilot

There is one more app you can install on your phone: WeGlide Copilot. Copilot provides you with real-time data while you are flying. It bundles satellite images and SkySight forecasts with live updrafts, a real-time thermal height map and a map showing real-time vertical air movement. Never miss out on a good energy line again.

WeGlide Copilot | Real-time data on your phone
After intensive work, we are introducing our new app. Copilot will make it easier for you to make strategic decisions in flight and boost your performance.

Upload your First Flight

WeGlide is all about sharing. You can upload old flights to have everything in one place. Just drag and drop your files here.

After uploading a flight, you can enter information like your copilot, the aircraft type, and even your water ballast. If you struggle with anything, you will find help in the Docs:

Get Started | WeGlide Docs
Learn everything about how the different WeGlide features work, how to upload flights and participate in various gliding competitions.

Stories

Adding pictures to your flight is equally simple; drag them onto the story field on the flight page. The image is automatically linked to a particular position in the flight and will be displayed together with the flight.

Lists and Maps

The heart of WeGlide is the combination of the list with the map and the many ways you can filter for flights. If you are on the list, you can use the toggle in the lower right corner to see the same flights on the map. The map and the list are linked; you can hover over a flight, which will be highlighted on the map.

The search is one of the most powerful tools on WeGlide. Every keyword can query it: be it a pilot, a country, a region, a continent, an aircraft, a scoring class, female pilots, or outlandings.

Filters can be combined as desired, and no flight should be hidden. You can find detailed instructions regarding the search in our docs.

Custom Filters

You can configure the start page to see the daily ranking for your club or your home region without any clicks. Click here to set or update your custom filters. After setting custom filters, you will still see the worldwide daily best on the left-hand side and the daily best for your club, airport, or region on the right-hand side.

Navigating Flights

If you have clicked on a flight from a particular list, you can use the arrow buttons to navigate to the next flight in a list. So if you order all flights by the number of likes and click on the first flight, the arrow buttons will guide you through the most popular flights.

Social Features

To never miss a friend's flight, you can follow pilots when you visit their profile. New flights will appear in your feed. In addition, flights can be commented on and liked by others. Notifications in WeGlide itself about new comments are also available.

In addition, flights can be commented on and liked by others. Notifications in WeGlide itself about new comments are also available.

User Messages

Have you ever wanted to contact other pilots to organize a travel-by-glider flight, exchange ideas about the optimal setup for the common type of glider, or congratulate them on a fantastic achievement? You can do that now via WeGlide!

User Messages
We are thrilled to announce an exciting new feature on WeGlide, allowing you to connect with fellow glider pilots. Our platform now offers a messaging feature that allows you to communicate seamlessly with other pilots via email.

Segments

WeGlide Segments are a new way to compare your performance to other pilots in your area. Segments are popular routes from a start to a finish gate. All pilots automatically get scored on all segments they pass during their flights.

Announcing WeGlide Segments
A completely new kind of gliding competition. Compare yourself to pilots in your area or chase your shadow.

Badges

Our sport is unique because everyone can practice it according to their preferences. Equally unique are the WeGlide Badges. They are designed to accompany you on your journey in the gliding world, wherever it may take you.

Currently, there are about 40 handcrafted badges. With each badge you earn, you will receive points, and once you have collected enough points, you will advance to the next level.

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

Satellite Images

Once activated, the satellite images animate when moving the aircraft behind the flight track. Images are available for Europe, America, and also southern Africa, thanks to SkySight. Of course, satellite images are also available for live tracking.

All new Satellite Images
Breathtaking quality and video-like playback. Powered by SkySight, we have launched our all-new, worldwide, satellite images.

Task and Online Declaration

WeGlide has a dedicated task planner. You can create tasks with WeGlide or upload existing tasks from cup files. If you have a SkySight account, you can link it in the settings and use SkySight layers while planning a task. We are all about sharing tasks, so you can browse tasks from other users and give them a star.

New: Custom waypoint files
Keyboard support for the task planner, your own waypoint collections and a cleaner task overview page.

LXNAV, SeeYou, and XCSoar

Direct upload of flights to WeGlide is possible from LXNav, SeeYou, LXNavigation, and XCSoar. On LXNav devices, it is also possible to download your task onto the device.

Downloading a task on the LX9000 

With the latest XCSoar update, you can access your WeGlide tasks directly from XCSoar. It's never been easier to schedule a task online, then select it right on your phone. Do you use XCSoar for navigation? Then learn everything you need to know to plan an optimal task next weekend and score extra points in your national competition:

WeGlide Tasks in XCSoar
Almost ten thousand tasks are declared and successfully circumnavigated with WeGlide each season. Now we have some exciting updates for you.

WeGlide Live

WeGlide Live is the first live scoring platform for glider flights. Data from the Open Glider Network is visualized and supplemented by WeGlide with information such as take-off airfield and ground altitude.

For all flights, the live scoring distance is continuously calculated. Together with the flight track and the barogram, this provides the same detailed information as uploaded flights. Real-time evaluation and the usual extensive search make discovering ongoing exceptional flights possible.

Connecting to a particular glider in your profile will display your name and online declared task in the live tracking.

Get displayed in the live tracking

Competitions

WeGlide hosts multiple competitions, the most prominent being the Free competition, which considers the largest five flights. The Sprint competition comprises the three fastest flights of each pilot. Find out about all the competition in our Docs. In addition, there are multiple national competitions:

Leagues

WeGlide offers weekend leagues in multiple countries. These are speed competitions that take place every weekend. If there is a league for your country, and you belong to a club, you are automatically scored for the league. The league considers each club's three fastest speed flights on weekends. The speed of each flight is optimized over 2 hours and three legs. The only rule is that you must finish at least as high as you have started. Leagues are available in Germany, France, Switzerland, Poland, and Australia.

Junior Promotion

There are multiple junior promotion programs on WeGlide, including the Jonker Sailplanes Challenge. The prize is the partition in the South African club class nationals for the two juniors who win the European sprint competition and the sprint ranking for the rest of the world. Here is a small read about the experience of the 2022 winners.

Gliding in South Africa, Are You Excited?
In February, we announced the start of the JSChallenge. Two juniors get the opportunity to experience an adventure in South Africa. Now the winners are nominated, let’s get to know them.

Have you heard about WeCoach? Each year, four juniors experience a once-in-a-lifetime gliding coaching in the mountains of South Africa and Southern France.

WeCoach | A memorable experience at Puimoisson
Eric Schneider and Gerrit Neugebauer had a great time in Puimoisson. Finally, the two wrote down a few impressions.

Premium Features

WeGlide is run by a small team passionate about soaring and connecting the gliding community. Of course, running such a website requires some resources. Therefore, we have launched a subscription model which enables us to improve WeGlide continuously. If you like what we do, please support us.

The Premium features we have developed allow you to improve your gliding and become a better pilot. For example, you can view all your flights in three dimensions.

3D Flight View
WeGlide flights can now be viewed in 3D with all subscriptions. The feature is mature and works performant on mobile devices.

We have written a few articles in which Premium analysis features like the Statistics List, with which you can compare your stats to other pilots, are closer described.

The Trick to Flying Faster
On every single flight, we make hundreds of small mistakes. Understanding and adapting your flying style will help you increase your cross-country speed.

Other analysis features include Thermal Replay, which shows you thermals from other pilots which you could have taken, but didn't.

What You See Is All There Is
This story is about seeing the bigger picture of what is going on in the atmosphere, about understanding how a day is developing.

Getting in Touch

We are eager to hear your feedback and answer any questions. Feel free to contact us via email.

💡 If you want to keep updated about special flights and insights, don't miss out on following us on Facebook and Instagram.

Embed on Website

You can embed flights from your club or airfield on any other website. More information can be found here. Here is an example from Segelflugschule Oerlinghausen.

Sponsors

We are grateful to our sponsors, who help us improve WeGlide daily. If you want to become a sponsor, don't hesitate to write us.

Gold- and silver sponsors

Bronze Sponsors