What it does
Many competitions give every pilot a Flymaster live tracker. CompBuddy reads those trackers through the Flymaster API and turns them into a live picture for the safety and retrieve team: who's flying, who has landed, who needs a retrieve, who called a level or SOS — and who has their tracker, and who has brought it back.
The CompBuddy server polls Flymaster every minute between 09:00 and 21:00, and hourly outside those hours.
Who can use it
- Meet directors and admins — the Status tab in the bottom bar.
- Any staff member with the Tracker Management extra function — ☰ → Tracker Management. Ideal for whoever runs the tracker desk.
- The retrieve coordinator — the Pilot Status section and the map of the Retrieve Manager.
Setting it up
- Flymaster groups — in Competition Settings, enter the Flymaster Live group ID and API key for the pilots' trackers, and, if staff carry trackers too, for the staff group.
- Pilot tracker serials — in the Pilots tab, Import tracker CSV takes rows of
pid,tracker_devicesnand assigns all serials in one go. Single serials can be set or changed in a pilot's Pilot info (tap the tracker icon). - Staff tracker serials — in the staff editor, Tracker Device Serial. Drivers with a tracker show up on the retrieve maps with their vehicle.
Handing out and collecting trackers
The Status screen has two scan buttons in its top bar:
- 🤝 Hand out trackers — the pilot's status becomes Tracker handed out.
- 🏠 Return trackers to HQ — the pilot's status becomes Back at HQ, and they're grouped into the HQ marker on the maps.
Both open a continuous scanner. Point the camera at either the QR code on the pilot's phone or the barcode label on the back of the tracker — CompBuddy recognises which one it sees. After each scan a confirmation shows the matched pilot; dismiss it to scan the next one.
- A tracker barcode is matched to the pilot that serial is assigned to, so the serials have to be imported first.
- Trackers can only be handed out to pilots who have been checked in at the registration desk.
- Scans work offline and are sent when the connection is back.
tracker_scan.jpgtracker_scan_confirm.jpgThe Status screen
One square per pilot, labelled with the pilot number, coloured and marked with an icon for their current status. It refreshes every 30 seconds; the time of the last update is shown at the bottom, and the refresh button fetches immediately.
- Pilots with something to report are sorted to the top; the rest follow by pilot number.
- The border grows thicker the longer a tracker hasn't been heard from — up to 15 minutes.
- A coloured dot means the position doesn't come from the Flymaster tracker itself: Flarm, inReach, SPOT or Telegram.
- Boxes at the top count today's level calls.
- A separate Staff Trackers section lists staff carrying a tracker — reporting, or no signal yet.
tracker_status.jpgPilot statuses
Some statuses come from the tracker itself, others are set by staff in CompBuddy:
| From the tracker | Set by staff |
|---|---|
| On the ground · Flying · Landed Need retrieve · Retrieve cancelled Level 1 · Level 2 · Level 3 SOS · SOS cancelled No data yet |
Tracker handed out · Back at HQ Assigned to vehicle · In vehicle · Removed from vehicle · Retrieved Self Retrieve · Landed In Goal Absent · DNF |
A pilot's tracker report
Tap a square (or a pilot on the tracker map) for the full latest report: status, battery, tracker name and serial, position, altitude and height above ground, climb rate, speed, heading, last fix, last seen, GSM signal and the position source — plus today's history of status changes.
Two switches at the top let you mark the pilot Abs (absent — not flying today) or DNF. Meet directors and admins can jump to the pilot's full info from here.
tracker_report.jpgTracker map
The paraglider icon in the Status screen's top bar opens today's task map with every pilot's last tracker position — flying pilots as heading arrows coloured by climb and sink — plus level calls, SOS, drivers with their vehicles, other staff trackers and HQ. It refreshes every 30 seconds. The symbols are explained on the Driver page.
tracker_map.jpgLevel calls
Pilots can report flying conditions from their tracker in three escalating levels:
- Level 1 — lowest concern (green).
- Level 2 — (amber).
- Level 3 — most urgent (red).
Each call is drawn as a numbered circle at the place it was made — which can be far from where the pilot is now. Tap one to see who called it and when. Level calls appear on the tracker map, the retrieve maps, the public task map, and the day's task image after the day is over. The Status screen counts them per level.
SOS
When a pilot triggers SOS on their tracker, every meet director, admin and master in the competition gets a full-screen alarm in CompBuddy. It re-alerts everyone about every 20 seconds until someone taps Acknowledge — Stop Alarm, which stops it for all. Dismiss only closes it on your own phone. If the pilot cancels the SOS on their tracker, the alarm stops too.
SOS markers are always visible on every map — no filter ever hides them.
sos_alarm.jpg