Squairs

What is a Squair

The whole world is divided into regular squares, which we call Squairs. In our latitudes they measure approximately 3 × 3 km. The name comes from combining the words square and air – hence Squair.

The basic idea is simple: a pilot collects Squairs by flying into them. The goal is to collect as many as possible. This should motivate the pilot to not just fly around the chimney, but to discover new places.l

How collection works

Each flight uploaded to PPGlog is analyzed and the system calculates which Squairs the pilot has entered. At the same time, an overall score is kept, counting all unique Squairs across all flights. Each square is counted only once, so repeating the same route will not increase the total. The overall score grows only by flying into new Squairs.

Enable and disable

Squairs are counted only for pilots who want to participate. In the My settings section, the feature can be easily enabled or disabled.

Statistics and visualization

Squairs appear in flight details as well as in pilot statistics, and they can also be visualized as a layer on the map.

Planner

There is a flight planner available that allows you to easily plan your flight on a map with a visualization of your sqairs. You can conveniently prepare a route based on where you’re still missing some sqairs.

Privacy matters

Flights can be set as public or private. For each pilot, two values are tracked: the total number of Squairs (from all flights, including private ones) and the number of public Squairs (from public flights only). Other users see only the public count, while the pilot can view both. On the map, private Squairs are displayed in a different color.

Technical background

The division into Squairs is based on map tiles – the method commonly used for online maps. The world is projected into a square grid (known as the Web Mercator projection), and each “tile” has a fixed size depending on the zoom level. For Squairs we use the division corresponding to zoom level 13, which equals roughly 3 × 3 km in our latitudes. The size varies with latitude – nearly twice as large at the equator, much smaller near the poles. Compared to the Squadrats game, Squairs are chosen to be about twice as large, because motorized paragliders fly faster and higher, covering a bigger area in one flight.