Soaring Search Engine

New sites included

2009-02-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

Added a few new sites.

rogersoaring.blogspot.com/
moonrakersglidingclub.blogspot.com/
smith-soaring.blogspot.com/

RSS Feeder for WSC Forum

2008-06-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

Created RSS Feeder for Williams Soaring Club's forum. Subscribe to the following feed, and you'll get updates automatically in your RSS Reader.

http://www.soaringsearch.com/cgi-bin/wscforum2rss.py

OLC search

2008-04-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

Added a shortcut to search Online Contest database Here is the query form.

[olc <glider site>]

A onebox which has links to flights in OLC database flown at the location will be shown.

The keyword "olc" and glider site are case-insensitive.

Example
- [olc minden]

Web search option

2007-11-28T15:41:00.001-08:00

Added an option to do a Soaring Search or a regular Google Web Search.

For Sale search

2007-11-22T20:37:00.001-08:00

Added For Sale refinements label.

Now you can narrow your search to glider related "for sale" sites such as Wings and Wheels's wantads, SSA's Classified page, M&H soaring's Sale page, Craggy's Aero's Used Equipment page, Cumulus Soaring's classified ads page, Glider Forum's For Sale forums, DG-Flugzeugbau's Glider Market forum, segelflug.de's classified page, etc -- over 50 sites all over the world.

To use this feature, just click "For Sale" label after your search.

Examples
- [discus]
- [LS-8]

Moved to new domain

2007-11-21T21:03:00.000-08:00

Acquired the domain for Soaring Search Engine www.soaringsearch.com.

Shortcut to handicaps table

2007-11-15T13:37:00.000-08:00

Added a shortcut to glider handicaps. Here is the query from.

[handicaps]

A onebox which has links to SSA handicaps and IGC handicaps will be shown.

The keyword "handicaps" is case-insensitive.

Example
- [handicaps]

Sailplane Directory search

2007-11-11T00:59:00.001-08:00

Added Sailplane Directory search. Here is the form of query.

[<glider name>]

A onebox which has a link to Sailplane Directory entry of the glider will be shown.

Example
- [ask-21]

IGC Pilot Ranking search

2007-11-11T00:17:00.000-08:00

Added IGC Pilot Ranking database search. Here is the form of query.

[pilot <last name>]

A onebox which has a link to IGC Ranking System will be shown.

Example
- [pilot walters]

Distance calculator

2007-09-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

Added distance/speed calculation functionalities.

There are three forms of query.

[distance <waypoint 1> ; <waypoint 2>]

[triangle distance <waypoint 1> ; <waypoint 2> ; <waypoint 3>]

[triangle speed <waypoint 1> ; <waypoint 2> ; <waypoint 3> in <time in minutes> min]

The first form of query calculates the straight distance from waypoint 1 to waypoint 2.
The second form of query calculates the sum of the length of three legs of the triangle formed by waypoint 1, waypoint 2, and waypoint 3.
The last form of query calculates the speed you achieved to fly the triangle formed by waypoint 1, waypoint 2, and waypoint 3.

Currently, only waypoints near Williams Soaring Center are supported, but I plan to expand the database to other locations. Williams waypoint names were took from this page. I'd like to thank Peter Kelly and Jim Darke for providing this data. Note that you need to remove trailing "-XX" from waypoint name (e.g. AldrSpr-U8 -> AldrSpr).
Some waypoints can also be referred by commonly used names (e.g. AldrSpr can also be written as Alder Springs).

Waypoint names, as well as the keyword "distance", "triangle", and "speed", are all case-insensitive.

Examples
- [distance TreFrmGat ; BlkBute]
- [distance tree farm ; black butte] (same as above, but using common names)
- [triangle distance tree farm ; black butte ; diamond m]
- [triangle speed tree farm ; rumsey gap ; indian ranch in 70 min]

Contest ID search

2007-08-27T14:27:00.000-07:00

Added "Contest ID search" functionality. Here is the form of query.

[id <contest ID>]

A query that starts with "id" followed by a space followed by two to three alpha-numeric letters will trigger onebox which links to Soaring Society of America's Contest ID database.

Note that you need to have a SSA account and be logged in to look up the Contest ID database. If you are not logged in, you will be taken to SSA login page. After logging in, click browser's Back button twice and come back to the search result. Then, click the link to the Contest ID database again, and you will be able to information for the contest ID if it exists. The login process is necessary only once per browser session.

The keyword and contest ID are both case-insensitive.

Example
- [ ID GS ]

FAA registry number search

2007-08-07T14:28:00.000-07:00

Added FAA aircraft registry (N number) search functionality. Here is the form of query.

[<FAA aircraft registry number>]

If a query is a N-number, a onebox which has a link to FAA aircraft registry database will be triggered.

Example
- [ N120TA ]

Weather links

2007-08-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

Added onebox which links to Dr. Jack's BLIPMAP forcast, a very popular soaring weather forecast information. Here is the form of query.

[weather <location>]

A onebox that has link to RASP BLIPMAP or NUM/RUC BLIPMAP will be shown depending on the location.

Note that you need subscription to see some of the forecast. Subscription information can be found here.

The keyword "weather" and locations are case-insensitive.

Examples
- [weather Williams, CA] (a link to Williams RASP page will be shown)
- [weather nevada] (a link to California-Nevada NUM/RUC page will be shown)
- [weather hollister] (a link to Panoche RASP page will be shown)

Firefox search plug-in

2007-08-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

Created Firefox Search plugin for Soaring Search. Go to Soaring Search, and look for Soaring Search in the search engine dropdown list.

New sites

2007-07-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

Added the following glider sites to Soaring Search.

Individual's page
www.ranlog.com/ramsey/gliding.html
www.ranlog.com/pasco/tph98.html
www.soar-high.com/charlie/soaring.html
homepage2.nifty.com/JGAC/zerobase/
www.sonic.net/~pjkelly/

Cross Country
www.ranlog.com/pasco/tph98.html
www.ranlog.com/ramsey/tph500k.html

Racing
home.netcom.com/~pappa3
www.soar-high.com/soaring/Hilton/hilton_cup_2002.htm
www2.onlinecontest.org/bhc/
www.fai.org/gliding/bhc/
barronhiltoncup.org/

New sites

2007-06-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

Added hundreds of glider sites world wide to Soaring Search. Now searching over 1600 glider web sites. Let me know if any important sites are not showing up. My email address can be found in About Me profile page. Also, added Refinements Labels which allow users to narrow down search topics.

New sites

2006-10-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

Added about 50 glider sites in Japan to Soaring Search.

Launch

2006-10-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

Launched Soaring Search as one of the first Custom Search Engines.

This experimental search engine is based on Google, and oriented towards glider pilots, students, and instructors. This search engine gives higher rankings on glider related results than other similar sky sports such as hang glider, para glider, RC glider, etc.