There was no unfair advantage

All the Teams at the competition could within the rules access tracking information that was equivalent to the information that the Australian Team had.

The use of tracking data in international competitions was commonplace despite not being commonly known about. All pilots at the competition had access to the main advantages of tracking data, which was at the start – public OGN – and within a thermal or two of the glider – powerFLARM. In general, the advantage of tracking data is hugely exaggerated compared to the advantage of pilot knowledge and skill simply looking out the window. The amount of use of the information given over the radio by team base is in fact very little.

There was conjecture that Australia had a special system that used the tracking data as its basis.  The facts are that in the days leading up to the competition during the practice period, Matt Gage compiled several publicly available data sources overlayed on the same computer screen.  This included weather radar, updated weather models, and glider locations from Flarm via OGN, G TrackLive, and Flight Radar24.  On the screen, the gliders were shown separated by class and task (i.e. there were 3 screens for Club, Standard and 18m).

Once out of radio range from the Australian base at Lake Keepit, none of this information was available to the pilots and this was often for a large part of the tasks. 

 

Tracking data available

There is little practical difference between G-Track Live data and public OGN and no difference with private OGN.

  • PowerFLARM – on display in cockpit, up to 30km
  • Public OGN – relayed by radio from team base, line of sight and up to 60km from start
  • Private OGN – relayed by radio from team base, line of sight
  • Flightradar24 etc. – relayed by radio from team base, line of sight
  • G-Track Live – relayed by radio from team base, line of sight

 

Tracking data common place but not commonly known

The Australian team accessed tracking data just as most teams have at international competitions for many years. Since 2004, tracking technology has developed and so too has access to tracking data in gliding competitions. There has been much debate about whether this should be allowed, but it has never been against the rules. Most teams at international competitions have been covertly using private OGN for many years. There has been much secrecy and hiding equipment at competitions even though it has not been against the rules, partly for team strategy reasons but also because there has been a growing disapproval of the use of tracking data. The Australian Team happened to find publicly available data that was not password protected that gave equivalent information to private OGN.

One of the reasons for disapproval of the use of tracking data has been that the cost of private OGN is prohibitive for the less financial teams and those using private OGN do in fact have an advantage. The Australian teams competing at international competitions have suffered this disadvantage for many years. The advantage of private OGN has become less in recent times because of the increase in range of other sources of tracking information, including the large range that can now been gained from powerFLARM with a good aerial.

It is possible that the Australian team had some advantage over teams that did not have private OGN, but this advantage was within the rules. The teams that might not have been able to afford private OGN or had forgotten to bring their expensive OGN equipment with them, just had not managed to gain every advantage they could within the rules.

 

Tracking data advantage

The advantages of tracking are greatly limited when received over radio transmission from a team base. From the pilot’s perspective, the main source of tracking data that is useful is from a FLARM display using a powerFLARM with a good aerial. The range is typically 15km but can be 30km – up to two thermals ahead. The only other time that tracking data is especially useful is at the start. Public OGN can be helpful to pick up gliders pre-start that are at a further distance than powerFLARM can detect, maybe up to 60km. The quality of the information is hugely downgraded by having to receive it by radio from a team base. The radio can be very busy and information may not get through, the team base do the interpretation and can’t easily know what the pilot needs, there is a time lag to getting the information, it is a distraction for the pilot to have radio transmissions, the pilot might choose to be on another frequency (one Aussie pilot was on the US frequency for most of the competition), or the pilot might have a power problem and have to turn their radio off frequently (one Aussie pilot had to turn the radio off for a large portion of the flight to conserve power for almost half the competition).