The airspace in which we can fly is determined by different means. A lot of zones are clearly detemined by the AIP - Aeronautical Information Publication, either on a 24/7 base or on scheduled base. But there are also a lot of zones that are activated by NOTAM . It also happens that we can get an authorisation to fly by calling the control tower.

A certain number of initiatives to try to automatically decode Notam through algorithms exist. Such robots can provide Openair files that correspond to the active zones based on these algorithms. Unfortunatelly, as Notam are not always written the same way, there are always errors. This is the reason why a human validation of such files is recommended.

In Belgium, a small team of pilots organize themselves to validate and publish an Openair file each day. 

These files are published on a Google Drive folder.

AIR³ Manager can, automatically, get the latest Openair file published and store it at the right place in the XCTrack folder.

Without further manipulation, you have automatically the latest validated OA file before you take off.

Once requesting to download the latest Openair file, the app, will check, based on your google account, all the folders that are shared with you and that contain files with the required structure.

The OA files should be named with the following structure: OA.YY.MM.DD(_D).txt      _D: for files containing danger zones.

This means that this process is not only limited to belgian paragliders but it can work for any region of the world or for any sport that would require an Openair file.  The only need is to  have Openair files stored on a given Google Drive folder, shared with all the pilots willing to have access to such files. If paramotorists from Greenland have their own airspace constraints in their region, they can form a group of volunteers checking the airspace info and publish an Openair file on a given Google Drive folder and the system will work for them.

In order to not only limit the use of this app to AIR³ owners, another app (Openair Manager) has been developped in order to give access to that specific feature to anybody.

The Openair Manager can also work with another android App such as XCsoar, LK8000 or any other app that supports Openair format.

If you want to take advantage of the Openair Manager , click here