PROVING GROUNDS
TASK FLYING AND RECOGNITION WITH THE NOVICE GLIDER PILOT IN MIND
FLY DELIBERATELY. FLY TASKS.
The Proving Grounds platform provides a unique, low maintenance approach to member development.
Pilots fly fixed tasks and email their traces to a customized ‘bot’ for their club which returns time & average speed for successfully flown tasks automatically.
Pilots record their specifics on magnetic slips, then order the slips from fastest to slowest on beautiful, stainless steel task boards.
All you have to do is define the right tasks for your club. We ship you task sheets (laminated and loose), ranking boards, magnetic slips, a holder for the task sheets, even some felt tipped markers. All that’s left for members of your club is to fly a task and record a result – for years to come.
Turn your glider pilots into soaring pilots and retain new members!
Soaring Society of America
NAC - USA
The Growth and Retention committee of the Soaring Society of America is pleased to support chapters and commercial operators subscribing to the Proving Grounds by rebateing all costs for configuration, the physical trophy kit, support materials, and shipping.
Soaring Association of Canada
NAC - Canada
Through the sporting committee of the Soaring Association of Canada, any interested Canadian gliding club that configures a Proving Grounds to support novice pilot development will have setup, shipping and three years of subscription costs covered by SAC.
Rideau Valley Soaring
Uli Werneburg
With a late start to the Proving Grounds season at the end of August we have already made 9 flights around our short task with respectable speeds by members with club gliders and private owners.
Edmonton Soaring Club
Dr. Jason Acker, CFI
In only 3 weeks, I have seen members who where very happy to spend hours in the local club thermals, decide to venture out and attempt one of the triangles…. only to have their first successful landout. Giving our members a common cross country goal, appears to have been the missing piece that our cross country program needed at ESC!
The Kits
The physical kits for the Proving Grounds include all you need for out of the box success with the platform. Board, slips, task sheets, even felt tipped markers.
The Bot
Tasks are configured for each club. Pilots mail their .igc traces to the 'bot', it's evaluated and a score (time, speed) is returned within seconds.
The Tasks
Tasks should support the local pilot to start with successive triangles which build on each other for safe first steps away from the club.
HOW CAN THIS HELP YOUR CLUB?
Is your club like our club? We effectively have two distinct types of members, the tenured, recurring, over burdened, skilled members, and the perpetually rotating parade of new members who can’t seem to connect with the magic of soaring.
The Proving Grounds is (especially) for the later group of members – the local time builders, the aspirational XC pilots, those unsure of what’s next. When these members accomplish a milestone, it’s often overshadowed by the accomplishments of their mentors. When these members run out of milestones, where do they go?
With standard tasks over considered terrain, pilots discus landout options, develop a common language around task flying and accomplishing an objectively small achievement earns public recognition, followed by the next safe step to support growth.
Member retention, social competition, automated, enabling, safe – we hope you’re as excited about using the platform as the clubs already using it already are!
WHO'S FLYING TASKS?
You’ll find gliding clubs using the Proving Grounds for all sorts of purposes at many clubs – for fun, for competition, as the core element of the XC development program.
Launched across Canada in 2019, we are ready to configure a system for any English or French speaking club in the world (or elsewhere with language support).
See who is using the Proving Grounds, learn about these clubs and how their tasks are configured on our blog, then follow up to establish an installation for your club!
Providing national support to all member clubs through a National Airsport Control (NAC) is an effective way to empower member clubs with a resource to support novice glider pilot development which is low cost, no maintenance, and easy to setup.
Help your member clubs help their glider pilots become soaring pilots to sustain the sport.