Cid Maestrini <<cidmaestrini>>,
who will be scoring the 2017 Worlds in Brasilia writes:

On the 2017 Worlds Local Regulations, chapter 18 - Live Tracking,
we state "Every pilot will be responsible for using and properly carrying in
flight the Live Tracking devices handed by the organization, returning them back
in good conditions."

"The tracklogs of the Live Tracking devices will be used as the primary source
of scoring.”

The tracklogs to be used as primary scoring will be generated by Flymaster, at
their server. It's a specific interface for their Live-Tracking devices.

These devices can also be registered on the Airtribune site, if that is the
Live-tracking system being used by a competition, as it is open to any type of
tracking devices such as smart phones, SPOT's, Flymaster Live Trackers,
anything.

The live tracking system to be used at this competition will be the Flymaster
one, including the interface with their server, which proved to run efficiently
on the Pre-Worlds, and also on later paragliding and hang gliding competitions
here in Brazil. We will not accept other Live Tracking devices for official
tracking and primary scoring, only those provided by the organization. Same
reliable standards for every pilot. That's the system already well proved last
year on the test event, and we see it as the best way we have at the moment to
ensure the best fair conditions for precise equal measurement of flight
parameters to compare pilots performances, and also a reliable and efficient
scoring process between the scorer and the server that provides the
live-tracking and tracklogs.

The dedicated Flymaster system (devices and server interface) is proven of great
reliability, as explained before, and also for one extra good reason: It can
transmit via all mobile networks at any time time, anywhere. It was designed
this way and has commercial agreement with all those companies, so it keeps the
transmission flowing almost spotless for the live positioning, and also more
reliable transmission as it has not to store long tracklog data as it is the
case sometimes when a smart phone linked on only one network gets out of area
for a while, or transmits a packet on a poor signal.

Surely, faults can always happen in any device, for different reasons, but we
have a very good record on this system. That's why experienced pilots will
always use good quality properly charged instruments of their own, to present a
reliably acceptable back-up tracklog in case they have any failure on their
automatic tracklogs generated by the organization via the Live-Tracking System.

It might be that smart phones and Airtribune become adopted for primary scoring
on future Cat. 1 events, but not on this one.

Yes, we know that some hang gliding and paragliding competitions are already
using Airtribune Live Tracking, even for scoring, based on pilots smart phone
devices apps transmitting their tracks.

This can be a nice improvement on competitions, seen that those devices are
already widely owned and used by almost anyone nowadays.

You see, this is an area on constant evolution, and we are getting good results
from various venues. Smart phone sensors seem to be accurate, but there are too
many differences on so many models of smart phones on the market. Possibly, the
GPS receptors used on most of them are of the same few types of manufacture. As
for barographic sensors, which not many smart phones have, differences are
possibly bigger. Said that, CIVL position seems at the moment to be the one of
accepting tracklogs generated by smart phone apps as a back-up in case the
primary scoring source fails on the pilot's flight. As for live tracking
transmission, processing power and state of functionality based on possibly too
many apps and other stuff running on any pilot's smart phone and model, are too
many variables that can still affect good reliability .

On Cat 1 competitions, live tracking is already mandatory, as well as barometric
measurement for altitudes. We will use the Flymaster Live Tracking devices as
primary scoring. That way, every pilot will have the same equipment, from same
manufacturer, same sensors, same charging, same everything for all the
competitors, provided by the Organization. This was tested, proved and approved
last year, so we will have a reliable primary source of scoring, with no kind of
faulty gaps on pilots' tracks. Those devices give GPS and barometric accurate
measurements every second. In case of any failure of a pilot's primary device
tracklog, his or her main flight instrument tracklog will be checked,
preferably, and smart phones tracklogs will also be accepted as back-up, but
those tracklogs need to meet minimum criteria to be accepted as specified on the
FAI sporting code, so they will be carefully checked.

On a competition this important, we will instruct all pilots on how to position
the live tracking devices on their equipment in order to avoid transmission
failures, and we recommend that they use good quality flight instruments for not
risking faulty tracklogs in case they need to show backup.