GliderLink - New goTenna app for Android launched!

#1

Hi meshers. I just released my app that’s built on goTenna Mesh. It’s called GliderLink. The app does location sharing for sailplane/glider pilots. I doubt there are many sailplane pilots on this forum, but in case you’re curious, it’s on Google Play.

Sailplanes have a special need for location sharing because they rely on natural air currents to lift them up, and finding these air currents can be challenging. Sailplane pilots often share information about where the lift is over the radio, but this can be frustrating and confusing. It can take a lot of words to explain where you are to someone who is too far away to see you. With GliderLink, all it takes is a glance at a screen.

When sailplanes are flying up high, we usually don’t get cellular reception, so an app like this can’t rely on an Internet connection to work. goTenna Mesh solves this problem by providing a peer-to-peer datalink in the sky - something that has never been available to civilian pilots until now!

This app is what I was testing when I set the current single hop distance record for goTenna Mesh: New range record 47.4 miles!. We may see a new record soon as more pilots start using it.

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Cheers,
Ben

New single-hop Mesh range record of 61 miles ground to air!
#2

GREAT job. Anytime you want to take me up, I’m ready.

#3

Very clever use case.

goTenna Mesh SDK Challenge (UPDATE: WINNERS ANNOUNCED!)
#4

@GliderBen Congrats! It looks fantastic. What are the most important feature requests you’re getting?

#5

Thanks! An iOS version is a common request. People are asking about meshing too. GliderLink exclusively sends shouts, so it would be awesome if they could be meshed in the future.

#6

I can see using this while hiking. I hike weeks with a group. Desire to knowing how spread out we and relative location is more a more frequent use than sending messages. We can spread out over 0.25-0.50 miles at times.

I have both Android and IOS devices, but my primary device is an iPhone 6s. So count this as another request. I could see others, in addition to hikers benefiting from this as well. For example Hunters, Boaters, etc.

I think shouts can be meshed in 5.0 version. If so, does anyone recall how many hops will be supported for shouts in the next release?

#7

Thanks for your interest in GliderLink, but I have to ask you to not use it for anything other than aviation. I don’t want glider pilots to think that a bunch of hikers on the ground are aircraft that they need to look out for.

#8

You could set up roles in the app so people can label themselves as gliders or hikers and thus not see each other. Though on the other hand you have to trust people use the app appropriately and don’t try to spoof themselves as aircraft. Something like this would be cool for things like our neighborhood cleanup to know who is where. So I vote to also be able to add new roles so that people can do something specific like emergency response locations.

Do you have the code in github?

#9

I am a pilot and this project looks very interesting for air to gnd contacts.

However, in my cockpit I use iOS with Foreflight on an iPad mini. It would be great to have this available on iOS instead of having another device in my cramped instrument panel. Either way, love the idea.

#10

Mesh 5.0 will do 6 hops, where they currently do 3, as posted here:

#11

Check out this sweet article about @GliderBen and GliderLink:

#12

@danielagotenna Outstanding article! I love it! Kudos to the author for telling the story accurately and making it fun. Dig the graphics!

#13

Since elevation info may be available through topo maps, might it be possible to also calculate rough altitude with the barometer that Android phones have, and tell if the subjects are in fact in the air or not?