Radio Requirement and Promotion of Regular Level Reports

Discipline

Paragliding XC

What do we want ?

Regular level reports (L/reports) should once again become standard practice so pilots warn each other from dangerous situations and stop tasks before incidents happen.

No 'hidden' reports trough buttons on flymaster devices that pilots do not get informed about.

How do we achieve that ?

Introduction of a mandatory radio requirement with easy-to-use devices, ideally featuring a Bluetooth push to talk button for hands-free operation. Alternatively devices like milo that can even be used completely without pushing any buttons could be an option.

If necessary, introduction of a mandatory L/report requirement in the competition rules. If necessary, penalties for those who flew trough unsave areas and did not report about it. Example: 1st time - warning, 2nd time 1 point, 3rd time 100 points ,...

Clear reminder during the briefing about the importance and proper execution of L/reports.

Issue category :

culture

rules

Safety

Comments

CIVL Delegate

By Julien Garcia on Thu, 23 Oct 2025 - 15:15

Spot on ! I'd like a Meet Director or Safety Director to be able to nominatly call any pilot for an answer. If both are in direct line without terrain interférence the pilot shall be able to reply even just to say : "wait it's sketchy". We curently ask our student more than we do for top comp Pilots.

By neliob on Thu, 23 Oct 2025 - 17:44

One ideia is to have the task automatically stopped after a certain percentage of pilots or team leaders call level 3,
independent of the Meet Director or Safety Director.

Organiser

By Karlis Jaunpetrovics on Wed, 29 Oct 2025 - 14:04

This opens up the possibility of pilots influencing task, say if they get stuck in a bad spot, or are stuck in a lee side and loosing time. They can report level 3 as a group and force the task to be stopped.

Personally as a Safety director I have always have stopped the task before we have had many level 3 reports. Which we ask pilots to report status every task multiple times a task. They can do this over radios or the Flymaster live tracker.

Organiser

By Maxime Bellemin on Thu, 23 Oct 2025 - 17:48

GPS Trackers are provided & distributed by organizers to pilots. They are great, quite often.
VHF Radio devices are to be bought & brought by pilots. They are shitty, quite often.

In my very first PWC, in Japan, a looong time ago, radio devices combined with a GPS unit inside had been distributed to us. That solved many issues.

Equipment provided by organizers is tested, working, and mandatory to be used by the pilots.

Why not imagining a proper communication system provided & distributed by organizers to pilots?
Why not explore communication means other than VHF, such as Zello or mesh-radio systems?

PWCA Board

CIVL Delegate

By eduardosanchezgranel on Fri, 24 Oct 2025 - 04:51

Hi Jonas,

You seem to have a bad concept of what you call "hidden reports".
But you must know, this system was born out of a problem of lack of reporting levels, or lack of accurate reporting.
Pilots are many times reluctant to report for different resons, sometimes there is a kind of "herd behaviour" in which pilots report a level heavily influenced, one way or another, by the report of a "well known" pilot (or avoid reporting in the same situation), radio VHF reports are sometimes lacking information such as who is reporting, his position, his height, and even if clarifications are requested, sometimes they do not come easily.

So this system of easy reporting levels without the problems cited above, is a big step forward to the eyes of many experienced organizers and pilots.
The only problem with this system is when there is lack of cell coverage (loss of signal). That is why VHF radios cannot be discarded.
A good MD could, on a day where there are some concerns about levels (wind, T-Storms, etc,) , and live tracking is failing in some areas, communicate on VHF radios the situation of signal loss, and ask for radio level announcement in those stages.

By tomslejko on Fri, 24 Oct 2025 - 20:42

There is also a problem with reporting level 3 when the conditions are really sketchy; using the radio while trying to fly a wing out of shitty situation can often be dangerous! Mandating the pilot to let go of the controls (brakes) in order to communicate the level will decrease the overall safety. In this way the trackers are better suited since they require less pilot input.

By Jonas Prüssing on Sun, 26 Oct 2025 - 16:02

Maybe I didn’t explain it clearly enough, but what I’m looking for is a solution that allows you to communicate without taking your hands off the brakes. Live trackers don’t provide that functionality.
The only viable options seem to be something like a Milo or a similar voice-to-voice communication device with smart noise-cancellation algorithms, or a setup using a Bluetooth push-to-talk button mounted on your gloves — so you can always talk while keeping your hands on the brakes.

By thibaultrohmer on Sat, 25 Oct 2025 - 01:49

Safety briefing should encourage pilots to report level 2 and 3 to give info to organization.
It doesn't means task is gonna be stopped.
Just giving live info. about an area.

In FAI 2 comps, i often hear that "if you push level 3 you go land"
I think this sentence should be avoided because people thus never call level 3 and report nothing.
A set of guidelines should be written to explain why it's good to report level 2 or 3, and what you can do in that case.

Regarding the new flymaster devices with reporting level 2 or 3: it's a great improvement!
I wish people would use it more. It does not reveal anything on radio, you can push it several times during the task, ... and it gives valuable info to organization.
They also allow safety director to send messages to pilots (ex: task stopped, helicopter incoming, ...), with a better guarantee of communication than radio as the device will ring until acknowledgement.
Presentation of the device during comp. briefing is sometimes lacking yes. But you'll get used to it, just ask around.
Some meet directors now have some video demoing the behaviors and buttons.