Check'in GPS Free-Flight Verification System Christian Quest (cquest@cquest.org) - 10-Jun-2001
Why CheckIn ? "GPS flight verification must simplify the work of competition organizers and pilots."
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Content |
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GPS instead of films... |
Paragliding (and Hangliding) competitions mostly consist of a list of turn points that pilots must "turn".To check that the pilots indeed turned the point, the classical evidence system is based on pictures taken by each pilot during his flight using a 35mm camera.
This means that the pilot must take some pictures during the flight, give his film after the task, then the film needs to be processed and visually checked.
All this has a cost (films, film processing) and takes time (film processing, film checking) and does not provide a high accuracy (visual film checking can be very inaccurate).
The Global Positionning System (GPS) allows recording of each pilot flight using a simple GPS receiver and a built-in track log recording feature.
After the task, the pilot brings his GPS receiver during the run report, the "track log" is transfered to a computer in order to check the pilot's flight.
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Past experiments |
Several experiments have been done during 1999.The first one started at the French Paragliding Championship in Annecy, in July 1999.
The goal of this first experiment was to collect real flights to have enough data to verify that the track logs were usable for turnpoint verification.After collecting some competitor track logs, it took one week to analyse the collected data and determine that they were usable for turnpoint checking. Some additional test regarding GPS position error were also conducted during that week.
The second experiment took place at the Morzine PWC competition in July 1999. The goal of this experiment was to collect more data, and compare the results with the classical photographic evidences. The results confirmed that the precision was similar.
The third experiment took place during the final PWC competition in La Bresse in August 1999. The goal was to test the program for "real", during run reports. The program was adapted to allow to simultaneously transfer track logs from more than one GPS. More pilots took part to the experiment as some printed results were displayed after the run report.
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Current use of Check'in |
Since the beginning of 2000, Check'in has been used in several competitions all around the world. In some cases it was just to test it, in others, it was the primary evidence system.PWC (Paragliding World Cup):
- Governador Valadares - Brazil : First official use of Check'in in an international paragliding competition. The result is very positive, most run reports were done in a couple of hours for more than 120 pilots. Only a few films needed to be checked.
- Sierra Nevada - Spain : Past experience in Brazil allowed to accelerate run report (less than 2 hours for more than 125 pilots reporting, with just one computer and one person in charge of GPS checking) and provide provisional results in very short time.
- Other PWC events : CheckIn has been improved on every event (Portugal, Mieussy, Chamonix) and is now fully functionnal.
Other paragliding competitions or countries where Check'in has been used or tested:
Australia
tested during a PrePWC in February 2001
Austria
Used for seasons 2001 and 2002
Canada
England
France
CheckIn has been used during the french championship in Reunion Island.
The FFVL (French Federation) will officially use CheckIn in the 2001 season for its competitions.Germany
The DHV has tested Check'in in several competition thru the early season.
Check'in has also been used in the European Paragliding Championship in Garmisch in July/August 2000.
The DHV will officially use CheckIn in the 2001 season for its competitions.Greece
CheckIn has been used in the Women Hang-Gliding Championship and the PWC 2001 in Konitsa and some other competitions.
Italy
The FIVL (Italian Federation) will officially use CheckIn in the 2001 season for its competitions.
Japan
Lituania
Mexico
Used during pre-PWC in 2001 and PWC 2002 in Tapalpa.
Norway
South Africa
South Korea
CheckIn has been used in the PrePWC Open in November 2000 (first tests with Race2000).
Spain
Paragliding World Championship 2001 during the 2nd World Air Games.
Switzerland
CheckIn has been tested during the Swiss hang-gliding championship. The FSVL/SHV will officially use CheckIn in the 2001 season for its competitions.
and maybe more !
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Check'in design goals |
Check'in has been written with these main goals in mind:
- simplify flight verification for both the pilot and the organizer
- conforms to FAI sporting code and PWC rules and other local rules
- save time and money by reducing hardware and people needs during run reports (handle several GPS at the same time, reduced human actions to save time and reduce organization needs)
The current version has been used in PWC competitions and only one person and one computer was needed to do the run report of 120 pilots in less than 2 hours.
With the current version of Checkin, during runreport (the critical moment) you simply plug the pilot GPS, press 1 key and read the result after download... nothing else to do !
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Check'in current features |
Check'in has been developed with the following goals :
- easy to use and setup (should I say "idiot-proof" ?)
- handle all GPS related organization tasks (pilot registration, provide official waypoints list to pilots, identify pilot GPS automatically, keep track of GPS serial numbers, etc)
- handle communication simultaneously with up to 4 GPS receivers (most Garmin models, Aircotec's Top Navigator with Y2K update and the new MLR SP24XC specially designed for free flight and flight verification) to speed-up run report and reduce hardware and human needs
- give results instantly during run report (no need for pilots to leave their GPS and them back later)
- create and display a graphical view of the whole pilot track for "manual" checking (generally not needed during run report)
- create and display a graphical view each turnpoint separately (including FAI sector or cylinders) for "manual" checking (generally not needed during run report)
- handle runreport as efficiently and fast as possible to avoid having pilots lining up
- run on both MacOS and Windows
- import/export of data with Race 2000sp2 thru XML files.
What does Check'in checks and computes ?
- checks startpoint (including last time in startpoint with track interpolation/extrapolation)
- checks turn points (using FAI Sectors or cylinders)
- computes flight distance ("normal" task distance, distance on axis or free distance)
- compute time at goal (still EXPERIMENTAL) with goal line or goal cylinders
- computes best pilot position and the corresponding flight distance
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Future features |
The next major features will include:
- landing place and time checked with the track log and not only with the last marked waypoint,
- first pilot at turnpoints and other statistics,
- run report printing,
- etc...