The Open Glider Network grows because clubs, shops, huts and enthusiasts put a receiver on a roof. A receiver costs a few hundred euro, runs from a mains socket or a small solar panel, and every new one makes the picture of light aviation in its valley a little more complete. This page helps decide where the next one does the most good. It is part of the ground stations section and follows section 10.5 of the method.
The map divides Europe into cells of a quarter of a degree, about 28 km by 19 km in the Alps. In each cell it asks how much of the time the aircraft whose losses come mostly from coverage, the probe, were without radio signal while flying. For free flight the probe is the paragliders and hang gliders that carry two or more radio systems; for gliders it is the gliders themselves. The share of probe time without signal is then applied to all the flying of that family in the same cell and the same band of height above the ground. The result, in hours over the last 28 days, is the flying in the cell that went without signal, estimated for every aircraft of the family from the probe's share; a network that heard the cell fully would have made it visible. Darker cells are the places where a new receiver would add the most.
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The map
Click a cell for its figures and the ground stations within 30 km of its centre. Cells with too little probe flying are left blank: a band counts from 2 hours of probe time and 5 probe aircraft-days among the systems that pass those floors, and the hours and shares shown are theirs.
The ten cells with the most flying not seen
Reading the map
The measure compares like with like. A paraglider pilot’s body shields the radio for part of every circle, so free flight loses signal even under good coverage; using as probe the aircraft with two radio systems, and gliders with their antenna in the fin, takes most of that effect out of the comparison. What remains is mostly the coverage of the place. A cell where the probe is heard from the lowest band upwards is well served. A cell where it is heard only above 600 m or 1,200 m is a place where the low flying near the slopes and the landing fields is not seen, and a receiver on the site itself would hear it.
The map has limits that are worth knowing before building anything. Flying that no network hears at all, by radio or app, leaves no track and cannot be counted. A cell where the probe never flies stays blank even when plenty of aircraft with a single radio system fly there. And the best site within a cell, a ridge, a hut or a roof with a view of the launch, is for the club to find; the lowest band heard is the guide to how low a station there needs to reach. The ground stations already nearby are listed in each cell, with their names as the OGN shows them, so that an existing station can be improved before a new one is added. The stations page says how.