About Paragliding Map

Misson: Show paraglider pilots where it's flyable using a simple and powerful interactive map. Pilots can click map markers to view more information.

A simple concept which was complex to implement!

My goal is to provide a map to easily see where to fly. The map displays the weather stations, forecasts, webcams and photos so pilots can make a pre-flight safety decision.

Forecasts come from Windfinder, who are constantly improving their models to accurately predict complex areas such as the European alps, where there are micro-climates, föhn, valley winds and lees. Over time, you will see the accuracy of alpine information improve even further.

 

How does Paragliding Map work?

Real-time weather observations, forecasts and site information are used to make a rules-based decision on whether each flying site around the world is flyable or not. In detail:

• Flyable wind directions for each launch.
• Real-time wind direction, wind speed and gust strength to calculate safe launch conditions.
• Real-time weather observations (clouds, fog, rain, or thunderstorms; in future even föhn).
• Forecasts to see where to fly in the next 3 days.

 

Data sources

Paragliding Map consumes a huge amount of data from a number of sources, processes it, then displays it on the map. In fact, there is no other app or website where information from so many important data sources is displayed in one place!

 

• Flying sites

  Flying sites are imported from many sources, and duplicates are removed automatically. More sources are added all the time.

  • Paragliding Earth
  • DHV (German Paragliding and Hang Gliding Association)
  • FFVL (French Federation of Free Flight)
  • Flyland.ch (Official Swiss site database)

• Current weather

  Paragliding Map sources current weather information from NOAA and MADIS, which are U.S. government agencies who collect international weather information and perform quality assurance before releasing it.

  • NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association)
  • MADIS (Meterological Data Ingest System)
  • Holfuy, an amazing weather station used by many paragliding clubs around the world.
  • Pioupiou, a popular weather station on almost every popular launch in France.

• Forecasts

  Forecast information comes from WindFinder.com, which is an especially good choice because they pay extra attention to our most important weather phenomenon: the wind.

• Thermal hotspots

  As part of his Masters thesis, Michael von Känel processed hundreds of thousands of logged flights to determine where thermals consistently appear. Where pilots experienced repeated lift in the same location over many flights, Michael has marked these locations as thermal hotspots.

  • KK7

 

Free support

This product is fully supported by me, the paraglider pilot and software developer who wrote it. If you need help or have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me and I will sort it out for you. ;)

See you in the sky!

Craig