Paragliding Community

Welcome to the Indian Paragliding Community Meshtastic users site. Discover how we're leveraging technology to enhance pilot safety and improve search and rescue efforts. On the top left side of all the pages of this website are links to the other important information about the community, what it is doing and how you can be a Partner and the technology we use. Please go through whatever is of interest to you.

Background

Personal Trackers based on LoRa technology are a very practical way for Paragliding Pilots to share their location with other Pilots who fly with them in the same sites. Throughout 2024 we carried out trials in the Dhauladhar Range, with some home-made and other commercially available trackers using the Meshtastic App and firmware to see how this would work for us. We have had some Community Hubs working all through that period and continue to do so till date. These have proven highly effective for tracking pilots and providing communication where cellular or satellite coverage is unavailable. Unlike satellite communication—which is heavily regulated and illegal for private use in India—LoRa technology offers a free, license-free solution.

LoRa (Long Range) is a low-power, long-range communication technology operating in the unlicensed ISM band. When paired with the Meshtastic app on Android and iOS, it enables pilots to share their location over a decentralized mesh network, with each device extending the network's range.

Communications between pilots is done with each pilot, carrying on their person, their personal Meshtastic device. These devices can either be home-made, do it yourself or those that are available in the market . Most of these devices connect to the users Smartphone via Bluetooth. Most of the display of messages, locations and the controls for the devices by the Meshtastic app are available on the Smartphone via the Meshtastic App. In India, Meshtastic operates legally within the IN region, using the 865 – 867 MHz ISM band, which is license-free for low-power devices such as LoRa modules. The Meshtastic app has software by which it can talk to the device and set the various parameters. On the devices themselves, the Meshtastic firmware take care of broadcasting the location of the pilot, which can either be sourced from the inbuilt GPS sensors or in many cases from the pilot's smart phone. These devices mostly have batteries that could last from a minimum of one day to nearly a week, depending on the design and the size of the battery. Bircom has some hubs where the signals are deciphered and sent to a central location via an internet link. The Smartphone Meshtastic App has Maps provided for the display of the location of other persons who carry those devices. The location and many more details of the devices can be seen on the tracker provided at the links given above. These sites are provided by and managed by the members of the community. Please see the Partners Page on this website for credits.

Details of Meshtastic are provided on a seperate page which you can go to from the menu provided on the top of this page.

Over the past many months of testing, we've had the pleasure of sharing our findings with the local government participants who play a key role in supporting paraglider pilots. Their enthusiasm for enhancing safety is inspiring, and their continued involvement will be instrumental in advancing Tracker usage for pilot safety. Given that this is a community-driven initiative, their participation is invaluable. There have been discussions about potentially making these LoRa Devices a requirement for pilots flying here, though the outcome is still to be determined. In the meantime, pilots visiting the Dhauladhar Range would benefit from bringing these affordable Meshtastic Trackers along.

Community Hubs in Bir and Dharamshala

From the beginning of 2024, community members set up solar-powered LoRa repeaters across key points in the Dhauladhar Range, ensuring continuous coverage even with low pilot activity. Community Hubs in Bir and Dharamshala collect location data and send it to a central server. We are currently working on secure, long-term data storage and privacy protection measures. For the Season of 2025 we hope to organize three more Community Hubs at Kullu, Joginder Nagar and Palampur. It is expected that these Community Hubs will fully participate in the Search and Rescue work of the community as a whole.

In order to give this infrastructure a permanent shape, a non-profit under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, has come into shape and is named "BIRCOM SEARCH AND RESCUE FOUNDATION". Its just in its infancy and more details will be available as things progress. Many people have shown interest in contributing to the cause. This Non-Profit will give them such an opportunity. This requires permissions and recognition from the Income Tax authorities and also permission from the Government for receiving funds from Abroad. In addition to tracking, this non-profit will explore ways to expedite the Search and Rescue efforts for persons in distress, in locations that are not easily accessible. These initiatives are a result of the community discussions that took place in the 2024 season in Bir and the problems that presented themselves in the organisation of the rescues.

The progress so far has come about by the efforts of many Indian Pilots as volunteers. We thank all those who give their time and effort for this public service as no monetary gains are there for them and they are doing all this for public good. Thank You all. We continue to mention some prominent participants in a Partner Page on this website

How do I contribute to the community?

1. Please follow our progress on the page as we will be providing more details as we continue to grow.
2. You can donate to the help in the imprementation of the projects of the community.
3. Volunteer to become a Community Partner. Please click the Menu Page for Parners on the top left of this page.
4. Please contribute your ideas and views to us at support@mail.bircom.in. We do not promise to reply to each mail but do promise that a senior member of the community will read the mail and take note of it.

Give us your views on support@mail.bircom.in.