Hi, I'm Simon. I'm relatively new to slope soaring, but 10+ years experience in web development allows me to build cool things that I think of. I fly with Rivington Soaring Association.
When I was new to Slope Soaring with Rivington Soaring Association, just knowing which slopes were suitable for which wind direction forecast was problematic. Fortunately my new club mates were helpful, but our slopes span some 360 square miles, so it's necessary to look up weather forecasts for each slope individually.
I quickly realised that creating a simple web based tool would be relatively straight forward, and once I had it working for me, I wanted to allow other RC enthusiasts to use it.
Quickly find which of your Slopes has suitable conditions for Slope Soaring
What is Weather Permitting?
Weather Permitting is a tool for obtaining weather forecasts for all "your" soaring slopes, without the need to look them up individually on BBC Weather, or another weather service. If you're a club member, you can view all your club's slopes, or if not, you can follow some from our directory.
We use weather forecasts to match up wind forecasts with suitable slopes from those you follow, and factor in probability of rain to automatically show you which sites are flyable on any given day.
Of course, you can also use Weather Permitting when you're travelling, or to find slopes for a club day out. You can even contact the Slope's club to get permission, or make arrangements.
How do I use Weather Permitting?
Using Weather Permitting is really easy. You can create an account on the website, or by texting us from your mobile phone on 01681 2920091. If you're a club member, find your Club and follow it by clicking the star next to it's name. You can also (or instead, if you aren't a member of a soaring club) follow individual slopes in the same way by searching on the Slopes page.
Once you're set up, you can view today's suitable slopes on the Where can I fly? page, where you can also can plan ahead by specify additional dates to check. You'll also be able to text 01681 292009 with something like "where can I fly today?", or "where can I fly this weekend?", and you'll get a reply with the 3 most suitable slopes.
The Future
I have grand plans for Weather Permitting. I have a proposed feature list a mile long, but here are just a few...
- Contact Clubs
- Post Photos and Videos
- Share where you intend to fly today with your club members
Tell me what you think
I love to receive feedback because it means people care about Weather Permitting, and the effort that I'm putting in to it. Even if all you do is drop me a line and say "thanks", or "doing x this way is dumb, do it likes this", that's great. If you've got feedback, I'd love to hear it Here.
1. If you choose to register by text message, we'll ask you a number of questions to get you set up, but you'll need to use the website to join your club, or follow individual sites. Until you're a club member or following other sites, you won't be able to ask where you can fly because we don't know where you want to fly.