AeroCell C1 is a feather-weight airspeed, tracking and traffic unit that lives inside the wing, in a dedicated pocket on the centre cell's bottom surface, with only its compact sensor barrel outside, flush against the sail. Sealed, signed, and streamed live: to the pilot, to the scorer, to the race director.
Launch live demo Read the whitepaperThere is no verified airspeed measurement in paragliding competition. Speed is limited indirectly, by restricting the equipment, and that opens the door to hidden modifications while handcuffing designers.
Extended speed systems, tweaked trims and line changes are hard to detect at check-in and impossible to see in the air. A GPS track shows ground speed, never what the wing was actually doing through the air.
Because speed can't be measured, CCC constrains the hardware: capped speed-system travel, fixed riser geometry, banned trimmers. Designers optimise around rules built to prevent fraud, not around performance or safety.
Indirect limits don't stop the fastest gliders in the strongest air. A measured, task-level maximum airspeed protects pilots directly, where it matters, in the conditions of the day.
The 56 × 56 mm base plate sits in a certified pocket sewn onto the bottom surface of the centre cell. Only the 52 mm sensor barrel rides outside, flush against the sail on a 10 mm neck, its pitot port facing forward into air metres away from pilot wake and riser interference. All antennas live inside the case, so there is no wiring in the sail: the unit slides in and out of the pocket in seconds for charging and scrutineering.
| Weight (incl. barrel) | 68 g |
| Dimensions | 56 × 56 × 43 mm (base plate 16 mm) |
| Airspeed (IAS/CAS/TAS) | ±1 km/h, 50 Hz sampling |
| GNSS | L1/L5 multi-band, 10 Hz |
| Barometer | ±0.1 hPa, fed by probe static line |
| Traffic | FLARM transceiver, ADS-L ready |
| Live tracking | LTE-M / NB-IoT, 1 Hz + app relay backup |
| Pilot link | BLE 5.3 → XCTrack, SkyTrackPro, SeeYou, FlySkyHi |
| Battery | 28 h, USB-C, wireless check-in |
| Integrity | Secure element, signed IGC+ log |
| Environment | IP55, −20…+60 °C |
Riser-mounted probes sit in pilot-disturbed air (≈5% underestimation) and are trivially repositioned. A sealed pocket at the centre cell gives every pilot the same probe in the same airflow. Every unit is built and calibrated identically at the factory, so it does not matter which wing it sits on: readings are directly comparable across the whole field, which is all fairness requires. And above all it is out of the pilot's reach in flight: sealed at the wing, it cannot be tilted, shielded, unplugged or repositioned once airborne. And it's impossible to "forget" at home: no valid C1 stream, no valid task.
Not inside the wing: ram air keeps the canopy inflated near stagnation pressure, noticeably above ambient. The C1 housing is sealed against the pocket environment, and its barometer samples ambient static pressure through the static ports of the sensor barrel, exactly like the static line of an aircraft. One barrel feeds both airspeed and altitude.
Because every unit is identical and factory calibrated, no per-wing calibration is needed: the same instrument in the same standardised position gives directly comparable readings across the whole field, which is all fairness requires.
The C1 computes IAS/CAS/TAS on board and fans the data out: to the pilot for flying, to the race server for scoring, and to nearby aircraft for safety.
Why a limit, and why not a fixed one? The glider in this demo reaches 70 km/h at full bar; what top speed future CCC wings are certified for will be established by certification testing. The task limit sits below the certified maximum and is set each day by the meet director to match conditions: strong and rough, maybe 55; smooth glassy evening, 60. Set today's limit with the slider and watch both views react. Pilot P3 has a "modified" wing and can't resist pushing too hard.
Push the bar and watch the banner: scoring uses the 5 second rolling average of your IAS, so a brief spike is absorbed but sustained speed cannot hide. In this demo the wing reaches 70 km/h at full bar; the limit is a task rule, not a hardware stop.
Scored on the 5 s rolling average of IAS, in straight flight only (circling and spirals above 10°/s are exempt), with no grace timer to reset: rate = 0.01 × (km/h over)³ pts per second. 1 over costs 0.01 pts/s, nothing even summed over a 100 km task; 5 over costs 1.25 pts/s; 8 over costs 5 pts/s; average above limit +10 km/h in straight flight scores the task zero.
The exact rule, in five lines. v̄(t) is the 5 second rolling average of IAS from the sealed C1. Δv(t) = v̄(t) − (max_airspeed + 2 km/h), counted only when positive. Penalty = 0.01 × Δv³ points per second, integrated over the whole task and rounded to 0.1 pt. If v̄ ever exceeds max_airspeed + 10 km/h, the task scores zero. Straight flight only: while the 5 s mean turn rate is 10°/s or more (from GPS heading), the pilot is circling or spiralling and neither penalty nor ceiling applies.
Why there are no loopholes: there is no grace window, no event counter and no reset. Every second is scored by the same curve from the first, so there is no threshold to surf and no timer to game. A collapse or spiral exit is a short spike that the 5 s average and the +2 tolerance absorb almost for free; sustained speed cannot hide from an average. Thermalling circles (15 to 20°/s) and spiral dives (40°/s and more) are legitimate climbing and descent maneuvers, not racing, and the turn-rate gate exempts them automatically. The gate cannot be exploited either: staying exempt means holding at least 10°/s, and S-turns that sharp lose more ground distance to heading error than the extra airspeed can recover. Racing is straight, and straight flight is scored. The formula and the day's limit travel in the task definition file, the pilot's instrument shows the same v̄ live, and the scoring software recomputes the identical number from the signed IGC+ log, so the pilot's screen and the final score can never disagree. All constants are GAP parameters a plenary can retune.
| Pilot | IAS | Status | Penalty |
|---|
The meet director sets a maximum IAS per task, exactly like turnpoint radii or start times today. The scoring server enforces it automatically from the signed C1 stream. No protests, no juries, no tape measures at check-in.
max_airspeed = 57 km/h published with the task board, set fresh for every task: typically 55 to 60, always below whatever maximum speed the wing is certified for. The value is written into the task definition file and stamped into the IGC file header of every log, so each tracklog permanently carries the limit it was flown under. Strong day? Set it lower. Glassy evening? Open it up.
Scored on a 5 s rolling average with +2 km/h tolerance, in straight flight only: circling and spiral descents are exempt via a turn-rate gate, so escape maneuvers never cost points. Sustained excursions on course score an automatic, progressive GAP penalty computed from the same signed data every pilot and steward can replay. No grace timers, nothing to game.
With speed capped in the air instead of in the hardware, CCC can retire the anti-cheat geometry rules. Manufacturers regain trimmers, riser freedom and travel, and optimise for glide, stability and safety at the certified speed.
True airspeed on your instrument for the first time: better speed-to-fly, active piloting feedback, FLARM traffic in the gaggle, and the certainty that the pilot next to you flies the same limit.
One standardised pocket spec and calibration profile per wing model. Freedom to innovate on everything else. Faster, cleaner, safer CCC wings, sold on performance, not rule exploitation.
Live compliance instead of post-flight forensics. Integrated live tracking replaces separate trackers. A defensible, data-backed safety story for insurers, federations and hosts.
Hardware architecture, probe aerodynamics, calibration and sealing procedure, signed telemetry protocol, and the full GAP 2027 penalty model, for CIVL, manufacturers and meet directors.
Download whitepaper (PDF)