This is probably one of the more niche activities out there I know...
Many younger pilots are looking to track flights for the sake of record keeping or analysis. There are some options for general aviation but it is less suited to balloons as they do not typically carry built in equipment/gps as with aeroplanes.
A big part of ballooning is flying with others and there is a social element to find out 'where they ended up'. The infrastructure of devices like Garmin head units (in my case as a cyclist) and Strava's social features would in my opinion make for a good platform for our sport.
Technically, the activity type would have to have the following features:
- Speed in knots (and distance in nautical miles)
- the date should always be displayed with time rather than with distance.
- Elevation would be in feet. And max Rate of Climb (or Rate of Descent) would be a valued metric.
- The analysis could overlay altitude with Rate of Climb/Decent.
- Moving time and elapsed time would still be relevant as you might start the flight before launching.
- It would be useful to have a colour gradient to indicate altitude on the track map but that might be asking too much.
Thanks for reading!
Dave
