Your flights

10Takeoff sites

The map of launch sites, what each site page tells you, and the flight hub that collects every flight ever flown from it.

Open to everyone

The takeoff map#

Where Takeoffs

/takeoffs is a map of every launch site the site knows about, with a search box and a filter panel. It is public, and it is the quickest way to answer "where can I fly with this wind".

Takeoffs appear once you zoom in to regional level. The map opens where you last browsed takeoffs. On a first visit it goes straight to where you are if your browser already lets this site use your location; otherwise it opens on the whole world, asks, and moves to you once you agree.

Search takeoffs by name
Type at least two letters to find a site by name. When you already know where you are going.
Wind suitability
N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW
Only sites that work in the selected directions. Several can be ticked at once. The main filter on a windy day.
Disciplines / Features
Thermals, Soaring, Winch, Paragliding, Hang gliding
What the site is used for and how you get airborne there. Tick hang gliding if that is what you fly: not every paragliding launch works for one.
Level
The difficulty of the site. Worth checking before driving somewhere new.
Clear filters
Back to every site on the map. After a filter combination that returned nothing.

What a site page shows#

Selecting a site opens its detail card next to the map:

  • Elevation and GPS coordinates, with a copy button for the coordinates.
  • The detection radius, which is the circle used to decide that a flight started here.
  • Wind directions the site works in, and its style badges.
  • How many flights have been logged from it, and when it was first and last used.
  • Focus on Map to center the map on it, and Show Flights to open its flight hub.

Note

Takeoffs are matched to flights automatically at upload. If one of your flights ended up on the wrong site, fix the takeoff on the flight rather than here: see Your flight log.

The takeoff flight hub#

Where Takeoffs › Show Flights

Every site has its own page collecting every public flight ever flown from it. It is the local knowledge of a site, written by everyone who has flown there.

The header carries the site totals: number of flights, best XC distance, fastest flight and total airtime, plus the elevation, country and coordinates. Under it the flight feed can be sorted by newest, best XC or fastest, filtered by year and XC type, and searched by title, pilot or glider.

Tip

Sort by best XC and set the year to all, and you have the site's all time greatest hits. It is the fastest way to learn what a new site is capable of before you fly it.

Launches that are not a takeoff yet#

Hike and fly pilots often launch from a meadow or a ridge that nobody has flown from before. The analyzer still has to attach every flight to a launch spot, but a one off launch does not deserve a public takeoff page. So an unknown launch spot is recorded as a candidate: it has a placeholder name such as "Unnamed launch near Niesen", it stays off the takeoff map, the search and the counters, and the flight simply shows that name without a link.

A candidate becomes a real takeoff in one of three ways.

Enough pilots fly from it
Three different pilots, or five flights spread over three different days, promote the spot automatically. Repeat launches from the same place cluster onto one candidate, so the count builds up on its own. The usual path for a site that is quietly becoming popular.
You name it
Open Edit flight on your own flight. Under the takeoff field you see "This launch is not a known takeoff yet", a name box and Add as takeoff. The spot goes public with your name the moment you save. Naming a takeoff needs SkyTrackLight or higher, the same as editing one. You know the place and want it on the map now.
An admin promotes it
Administrators have a review queue of candidates and auto named takeoffs where they can promote, hide or merge a spot into an existing takeoff. Cleanup, duplicates, and naming spots that were promoted automatically.

Tip

If your launch sits within about 500 m of a known takeoff it is matched to that takeoff and no candidate is created, so a slightly different launch spot on a known hill does not clutter anything.

Takeoff records#

Takeoffs also carry record boards. The XC records page has site and takeoff boards showing the best flight ever logged from each place, per category and glider class. See XC records.