Paragliding Tracker: Wingman 4+

Pleasantly surprised

Initially I wrote a very harsh review sighting no support for 3D flight tracking and missing data for one of my flights but I sent an email to John the Wingman creator and explained the issues and he promptly responded. Just getting an immediate response was enough for me to take a second look. It turns out he is continuing to improve the app and plans to add 3D support as soon as possible. He also explained that sometimes data can be lost if the phone is shielded from the satellite signal. He intends to resolve this by introducing a sensitivity setting allowing the user to reduce the signal accuracy which will increase signal reliability. Also, he told me about a new feature he is developing that will allow users to share their flights with other pilots. So, what started out to be a complaint has now become kudos. Thanks John!

Developer Response ,

You are welcome! Thanks a lot for this review, much appreciated. Great things are indeed coming, can't wait to release them (it's a lot of work, but I'm commited :-)). Fly safe, and all the best for 2024!

Helpful app

I’ve been pleased with this app. I have, however, experienced a couple of issues that I’ve reported, but so far remain unresolved. The auto-launch and auto-land features work well for the first flight. I was told that the program will recognize a second launch automatically and begin to log the second flight, and that this should be the behavior for all subsequent flights. I haven’t been able to get the app to do this; not on my iWatch or my iPhone. This is an annoyance when ridge soaring and top landing. The second issue is that the app is suppose to sync with all my devices. The only way I can get a flight log onto my iPad is by uploading/downloading a .gpx file. I’ve had syncing issues before between my iPhone and iPad in general but have always been able to figure out why. I’m stumped though with Wingman. I very much appreciate that John is constantly working to improve the app. However, ensuring that the advertised features are functional for the user needs to be a priority. In the past John has been very responsive to emails, so I’m hopeful that he can help get these issues resolved for me.

Wingman on Apple Watch Ultra

I’m a newbie paraglider so I don’t have much to compare it to, but so far so good using the Apple Watch Ultra as my Vario! I’ve compared the sensitivity / accuracy to my mipbip, and wingman on the Apple Watch Ultra seems to be just as good if not more sensitive.

Only complaint right now is that if my watch dies during a flight, it seems like the data doesn’t save?

Fwiw I don’t have any app development experience but I’m a quite capable data science / ML / stats / data viz person and id be interested in contributing on the analysis and live flight data viz side! In particular id be interested in trying to work in weather model / live weather station info, and potentially info from other pilots that are currently flying with the app in the same zone. I feel like there is alot of room for more data fun in paragliding devices.