Got a satellite tracker?
Nobody wants to be your emergency contact?
Join Syncing Pilots!
“I got my satellite tracker and started setting it up. Then I realized I didn’t have any friends or family who wanted to be notified if I was ever in trouble. That’s why I created Syncing Pilots.”
Syncing Pilots puts paraglider pilots on a live map. We pull GPS data from satellite trackers — Garmin inReach and SPOT devices — and display it in real time. Watch friends fly, plan a retrieve, or follow a group remotely. No cell coverage required.
Features
Live map
Watch pilots fly. New positions usually appear within about 15 minutes of a tracker sending them, and the map refreshes itself every 30 seconds.
Track playback
Full flight paths with altitude, speed, and course. Filter by time to replay a day’s flying.
Collections
Curate your own private lists of pilots and watch each list on its own live map. Only you can open them.
Groups
Flying clubs, schools, and site communities. See members on the map and in your feed.
Following
Follow individual pilots for a personal feed. Just the flights you care about.
Activity feed
New flights, pilot claims, group updates. See what’s happening across the community.
Locations
Launch sites, LZs, and flying areas. See which sites are active right now.
Elevation & AGL
We add height above ground to each point once terrain data for that spot is in, and use it to tell flying from on the ground.
Bird name privacy
Visitors who aren’t signed in see every pilot under a bird name, so pilots’ identities aren’t public.
Why bird names? Visitors who aren’t signed in see every pilot under a bird-themed alias — like Spotted Redshank or Blue-footed Booby — so pilots’ identities aren’t public. Signed-in members see registered pilots’ real names.
How it works
Your tracker sends a ping
GPS coordinates are transmitted via satellite to Garmin or SPOT’s servers. Typical intervals: 2–10 minutes.
We pick it up
Our sync service checks feeds on a schedule. Pilots actively tracking are checked first.
Position appears on the map
Points are stored with altitude, speed, and course. We calculate height above ground to show flight state.
Your browser refreshes
The map and feed auto-update every 30 seconds. No need to reload.
What the icons mean
Each pilot shows two icons: what they’re doing and how fresh our information is. They’re independent — “in flight, no contact” is possible. You’ll see them beside each pilot in the list, and as filters at the top of it.
Flying or on the ground
In flightgreen plane, pulses when Live
Latest position is at least 30 m (~100 ft) above the ground — or above 20 m while a flight we’ve detected is still going.
On the groundgrey mountain
Latest position is less than 30 m above the ground — or 20 m or less if they were flying.
Probably landedgrey landing plane, once the tracker has gone quiet
The tracker went quiet (No contact or Track ended) right after a position that read in flight but was low and descending: no higher above the ground than the pilot had dropped since the position before, so at that rate they were down before the next report was due. Most pilots land and switch their tracker off between two reports, so that is far more often someone standing in a field than someone gliding out of coverage — but it’s a guess: if the next position comes from the air, they show as flying again. While the tracker is Live, the latest position alone decides.
Height above ground = the altitude your tracker reports minus the terrain elevation at that spot (USGS 1 m data in the US; ~30 m terrain data elsewhere; ~90 m as a fallback). It’s an estimate: a hiker on a steep slope can briefly look airborne and someone scratching very low can look landed. Between 20 and 30 m we keep what our flight log (below) says, so a pilot soaring low along a ridge doesn’t flicker to “on the ground”. If we don’t have terrain for the newest point yet, we use the flight log too.
Signal
Livegreen radio
Newest position is under 30 minutes old. If your tracker reports less often than every 10 minutes, we wait for 3 of its usual intervals instead — a tracker set to report every 30 minutes stays Live for 90 minutes.
No contactgrey radio, crossed out
30 minutes – 3 hours since the newest position and the tracker hasn’t said it stopped — usually out of coverage or paused. For a slower tracker it starts once 3 of its usual intervals pass without a position, and lasts until 6 have.
Track endedgrey map pin
The tracker turned tracking off (inReach) or sent STOP / power-off (SPOT), a new session started, the pilot trimmed the track, or nothing for 3 hours (6 usual intervals for a slower tracker, at most 24 hours). Shows the last known position.
Safety messages
Pilot asked for helpred row, SOS or HELP badge, red halo on the map
inReach: a message to MapShare whose first word is SOS or HELP, in any capitals — “HELP!” or “SOS broken leg” — or that carries [SOS] or [HELP]. SPOT: the Help button.
Device SOS — sent to rescue centrered row, SOS badge
An inReach in SOS mode. Your inReach has already alerted Garmin’s rescue centre; we show it here too. SPOT’s SOS button alerts SPOT’s rescue centre (GEOS) only: SPOT doesn’t publish an SOS in the shared feed we read, so it doesn’t show here. SPOT’s Help button does.
Non-emergency helpamber row, AID badge
An inReach message to MapShare whose first word is AID, e.g. “AID need a ride”, or that carries [AID]. An AID followed within 3 minutes by LOK or PUP looks like a test of your presets: we record it but alert nobody. If you really need help, don’t send LOK or PUP after it.
Landed OK / Picked Upgreen ✓ pill
An inReach message to MapShare whose first word is LOK (Landed OK) or PUP (Picked Up), e.g. “Lok, all good”, or that carries [LOK] or [PUP] anywhere: “Sam Lee, landed safely [LOK]”. RET right after LOK asks for a retrieve and NR says you don’t need one: “LOK. RET.” shows as “Landed OK · needs retrieve”. SPOT: the OK/Check-In button (Landed OK), or a Custom message written the same way.
inReach messages count only when MapShare is one of their recipients: Garmin only shares the text of messages sent to MapShare, so a message that goes only to a phone or email never reaches us. We read the code only where these two rules put it, first or in [brackets], never what a message seems to mean: “Need help” raises no alert. A competition number in front of the code is fine: “#1101 LOK - Name: [your name] - …”. Recommended presets. Repeats within 2 hours count as one alert until someone acknowledges it. After that, a new SOS or HELP raises a new alert, unless it is your device repeating the same emergency within 30 minutes with no Landed OK or cancel in between (a cancel we can see: SPOT’s HELP-CANCEL, or an inReach fix sent outside emergency mode). LOK, PUP or SPOT’s OK/Check-In closes earlier alerts; otherwise they close 48 hours after the last help message. Syncing Pilots is not a rescue service: in an emergency, use your device’s SOS button.
How we detect flights
A flight starts after at least 1 minute more than 30 m above the ground and ends after at least 5 minutes at or below 20 m. The 20–30 m gap stops a pilot scratching near launch from flickering. If the tracker goes quiet for 3 hours or more mid-flight (longer for trackers that report less often), we take it you landed and switched off: the flight ends at its last position before the silence. Shorter gaps, like a valley without coverage, don’t end it. If we don’t have terrain for at least half a track, we wait rather than guess.
How “live” is live?
Your tracker sends on its own schedule (commonly every 2–10 minutes). While you’re tracking we check for new positions about every 10 minutes, or right after each expected ping if your tracker sends less often. If we haven’t heard from your device for 2 hours we check every 30 minutes, so the start of a new flight can take up to about 35 minutes to appear. Your browser refreshes every 30 seconds. We learn each tracker’s usual interval from the spacing of its recent positions, so a tracker set to report every 30 minutes (or every few hours) isn’t shown as “No contact” between reports when everything is working. It is learnt from the current session only: until your tracker has sent a few positions since it was switched on (or after a break of several hours), the 30-minute rule applies. If you shorten the interval at launch, the new interval counts from your second position after the change.
Hidden location: if a track starts or ends inside a pilot’s privacy zone, it’s hidden from everyone else.
Sync tiers
How quickly your position appears depends on how recently your device sent data.
Tracking
Checked right after each expected ping, at most every 10 minutes
Your device sent data in the last 2 hours
Active
Checked every 30 minutes
Your device sent data in the last 10 days — or you're a registered pilot
Idle
Checked every 2 hours
No data for 10 days to 90 days
Dormant
Checked every 1 day
No data for over 90 days
Tiers change automatically: once your device starts sending, you move to Tracking at our next check — within about 35 minutes from Active; from Idle or Dormant, at that tier’s next check (see its interval above). Registered pilots never drop below Active.
Set up your device
Satellite trackers keep broadcasting your position even without cell service. Enable sharing and your device will be automatically discovered.
Supported models
Any Garmin device with inReach satellite communication: inReach Mini, Mini 2, Explorer+, SE+, GPSMAP 66i/67i, Montana 700i/750i.
Enable MapShare
Log in to explore.garmin.com
Go to the MapShare tab in your account settings
Toggle MapShare to "On" and set your MapShare address
Leave the MapShare password off — we can only read public MapShare pages, so a password stops your tracking and alerts here
Preset messages
Send with one button press. Configure in Garmin Explore under Messages, and add MapShare as a recipient on each one. Garmin only shares the text of messages sent to MapShare, so a message that goes only to a phone or email never reaches us.
Landed OK
I've landed safely.
Picked Up
I've been retrieved.
Need Assist
I need help (not SOS).
A message sent to MapShare whose first word is SOS or HELP, in any capitals (“HELP!”, “SOS broken leg”), or that carries [SOS] or [HELP] anywhere, raises an alert here too. When you type one, add MapShare as a recipient (other recipients can be on it as well). How these show up · Recommended wording
Set up your tracker
A few minutes of setup makes your tracker far more useful to whoever is looking out for you.
Messages we understand
Two simple rules. A message that follows either one shows up here as what it says; anything else is shown as an ordinary message.
- Start the message with the code. A competition number may come first: “#1101 LOK - Name: [your name] - …” or “1101 LOK”.
- Or keep your own wording and add the code anywhere in square brackets: “Sam Lee, landed safely [LOK]”.
- LOK
- Landed OK
- PUP
- Picked up by the retrieve
- AID
- Need assistance, not an emergency
- HELP
- Emergency
- SOS
- Emergency
Right after LOK, RET asks for a retrieve and NR says you don’t need one: “LOK. RET.” shows as “Landed OK · needs retrieve”, “LOK. NR.” as “Landed OK · no retrieve needed”, and “Sam Lee, landed safely [LOK RET]” works too.
Preset messages (inReach)
Copy these into Garmin Explore, with your name and phone number, so whoever reads one can call you. Add MapShare as a recipient of every preset: otherwise we never see them.
Landed OK
LOK - Name: [your name] - Phone: [your phone] - I have landed safelyPicked up
PUP - Name: [your name] - Phone: [your phone] - I have been picked upNeed assistance
AID - Name: [your name] - Phone: [your phone] - I require assistance
SPOT: the OK/Check-In button is Landed OK and the Help button is HELP; a Custom message is read by the same two rules. Competitions: nothing to set up here. Ask pilots to start each preset with their comp number and code (“#1101 LOK - Name: [your name] - …”), or to add [LOK], [PUP] or [AID] to the presets they already use.
When you fly
- Set the tracking interval to 2 minutes if your plan allows it. The longer the interval, the bigger the gaps in your track, and the later a problem shows.
- After landing, press Stop Tracking rather than switching the device off. Stop Tracking sends a last position from the ground and ends your track. Switched off, your last position may still be in the air, and you can show as still flying and out of contact.
- SOS on your device alerts Garmin’s or SPOT’s rescue centre. We also show an inReach SOS here as “Device SOS — sent to rescue centre”. SPOT’s SOS button alerts SPOT’s rescue centre (GEOS) only: SPOT doesn’t publish an SOS in the shared feed we read, so it doesn’t show here. SPOT’s Help button does.
Once sharing is enabled, visit Settings after signing in to claim your pilot profile.
Sponsors
Organizations that support Syncing Pilots.
Northwest Paragliding
A leading paragliding school in the Pacific Northwest, offering instruction from beginner through advanced. Their experienced instructors and guides have introduced hundreds of pilots to free flight.
nwparagliding.school →Want to support Syncing Pilots?
Become a sponsorBuilt for the community
Syncing Pilots is built by paragliding pilots, for paragliding pilots. Safety and community are at the heart of everything we build.
We only access data that pilots have made public through their device’s own sharing settings. If your MapShare is private or your SPOT feed is disabled, we can’t see your data.
Support
We’re a small team — we read every message.
Contact us
support@syncingpilots.comClaim your profile
Visit Settings to link your pilot profile. Verify device ownership for a Verified badge.
Report a problem
Wrong data, incorrect claims, or bugs — email us with details.
Acknowledgements. XCFIND, built by David Wheeler, was for years a way for free-flight pilots to find each other’s live trackers, and the community relied on it. We appreciate that work.