FAQ
Can I broadcast tracking without buying a £500 FLARM vario?
Yes! Put the XC Guide app on an Android phone and connect it to OGN.
Who built this site?
Neil Charles, an average weekend warrior PG pilot who likes building techy stuff. You can contact me here.
Where does the data come from?
Tracking data comes from the Open Glider Network (OGN), which picks up FLARM and OGN tracker broadcasts.
The paragliding sites database was built using XC League flights. If a few people have gone XC from a hill in the past and logged it on the league, then it should be shown here.
I flew a big XC! Why didn't I trigger any XC alerts?
The Open Glider Network defaults to not sharing your FLARM ID via its API. You need to tell it who you are and that's it's allowed to share those details, or you'll just appear as a blank to the PG & HG Alerts engine and it won't send alerts about your XC flights. We don't send alerts XC without a pilot name, because alerts about anonymous gliders are much less fun than alerts where you know who the pilot is.
Register your FLARM or OGN tracker device here to have your name show on alerts as whatever you put in the 'Registration' box.
Why is my ground-speed reported as 0kph while I'm flying?
Whatever tracking device you're using is not reporting your ground speed to OGN. It's not calculated based on your GPS positions, it's broadcast by your device.
How do I add a new flying site or correct one that's in the wrong place?
Head on over to corrections.
Can I get a flying site moved to a different Telegram group or get a new group set up?
Give me a shout, I'd be happy to talk about it.
Does PG & HG Alerts store data?
Only temporarily.
OGN is queried at five minute intervals for the positions of aircraft within the UK. The first time an aircraft is seen, its initial position is logged.
When more positions are received for that aircraft, only the first position and the most recent position are stored. PG & HG Alerts does not store the entire track.
If no positions are received from OGN for an hour for a particular aircraft, its history is completely erased. When a position is received for that aircraft in the future, it is treated as a new aircraft again.
Messages in the Telegram broadcast groups are automatically deleted after 24 hours.
What's a 'Possible PG or HG'?
When a device is registered on the OGN database, PG & HG Alerts knows what type of aircraft it is, because OGN makes that information publicly available. Your tracking device may also broadcast the type of aircraft that you're flying.
If the OGN database doesn't know what you're flying, it tracks you as just an ID number. For the purposes of generating alerts, we assume that any aircraft being tracked from a known paragliding take-off site, which doesn't travel over 100kph and which doesn't announce itself as being something else, is very likely to be a paraglider or hang glider.
What if I don't want to be tracked?
If PG & HG Alerts can see you then you're already also being tracked and visualised on sites like Glider Radar and Glider Net, via OGN. It's easy to opt out of being tracked by OGN - you can either set the 'no tracking' flag on your FLARM device, or set 'I don't want this device to be tracked' in the OGN devices database. You will then not appear on any of the numerous different websites powered by OGN.
You can also set 'I don't want this device to be identified' via OGN, which will mean that you are tracked only as an anonymous ID.
What if I do want to be tracked?
Great! Head over to the Get Tracking page.