Pilot Beta Programme

Fifty pilots fly with ParaBaro and help us record what happens inside a paraglider wing. Here is what that involves.

The pressure inside your wing, recorded at two points on every flight — a magnet-coupled pair of modules at each point, four modules in the kit.

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After every flight

This lands in your logbook, for every flight you fly.

Not a track and a duration. Your whole day, read back to you — where the air was working, every climb you found, and the wind at each height you flew through.

A 217 km flight along a mountain range, drawn on satellite imagery. One circle marks each climb the pilot found: the size of the circle is the height gained in it, up to 844 m, and its colour is the average climb rate, blue at about 1 m/s through to red at 3 m/s. — **Where the air was working.** Warm is air that lifted you; cool is air you paid to cross.

Two stacked charts covering one five-hour-forty flight. Above, height above sea level against time, with every climbing stretch filled orange and the high point of the day marked at 2,917 m. Below, distance from launch against time, running out to 66.6 km and back to zero. — **The whole day in one line.** Every climb counted, every glide measured.

Left, a compass rose: one petal for each of seven altitude bands, pointing at the direction the wind came from, its length the wind's strength. Right, the same seven bands as a bar chart from 1,353 m up to 2,719 m, each labelled with its wind speed — 2 to 8 km per hour — and the compass point it blew from. — **The wind at your altitude, from your own flight.** Recovered from the drift of the circles you flew — no wind sensor, no forecast. The wind below cloudbase is rarely the wind at launch, and now you can see the difference.

The same flight in three dimensions over satellite terrain: a sawtooth of climbs and glides rising to roughly 1,600 m above the launch field, running from a launch marker on the left to the turn point 66.6 km away on the right. — **Your flight where it actually was.** Real terrain, real heights — not a line on a flat map.

Every figure above comes from real beta flights. Our evidence base is still small, and we say so. Satellite imagery © Esri, Maxar.

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Pricing

What it costs.

Beta-tester price

£199

inc. VAT · £165.83 + VAT

Regular price

£395

inc. VAT · £329.17 + VAT

Beta unit

Yours

on delivery, with nothing to fly off

Beta testers pay £199 including VAT, once — £165.83 plus VAT at 20 per cent. The regular price is £395 including VAT — £329.17 plus VAT at 20 per cent. The beta-tester price is subsidised and is for a capped first cohort. The unit is yours the day it reaches you: there are no hours to fly off, no balance to clear and nothing you owe us afterwards. Both prices are stated plainly; nothing is crossed out.

What the beta-tester price of £199 covers, and what it does not:

What you get	A ParaBaro Bridge (no screen) and four wing modules — a magnet-coupled pair at each of the two measurement points — shipped to you.
When it is yours	On delivery. Title passes when the unit reaches you, and it does not depend on anything you do afterwards.
What you owe after that	Nothing. No hours, no uploads, no balance, no subscription. If you never send us a flight you still own the unit.
How a place is decided	On your application, before you are asked to pay. The cohort is capped and we read every application.
Why it is this price	It is subsidised. We want the recordings more than we want the margin, and we would rather say that than dress it up as a discount.

Sending us your flights is a separate, optional thing — it is the contributor programme, and nothing you own depends on it. Full terms — delivery, warranty, data rights — are on the beta rules.

The arrangement

What the beta involves.

The beta runs on a simple arrangement. You fly with ParaBaro on your wing. We share the pressure data with you. You tell us what you felt in the cockpit. ParaBaro records; the debrief is the conversation between what the wing was doing and what you were feeling.

Pressure data on your own wing.

Every flight, recorded at two points on your wing. After each block, we share the traces with you.

Firmware updates throughout.

You receive every firmware release during the programme, including features developed in response to pilot feedback.

A direct line to the team.

This is a 50-pilot cohort. When you have a question or find something odd in the data, you reach the team directly — not a support queue.

What we are asking for

What we are asking for.

The programme produces useful data when pilots fly their normal routines, not staged ones. What we need is straightforward.

Flight hours with the device. You fly as you normally fly. The sensor modules fit to your wing before you go up and can stay in place between flights. Each module weighs approximately 20 grams; the four modules add approximately 80 grams, split between two points on the wing. No modifications to the wing are made.

Your flights, sent after you fly. The Bridge records your GPS track together with the pressure in your wing, so each flight arrives as one record.

A short debrief per block. Not every flight. A debrief when we review a block of flights together — roughly every four to six weeks. You tell us what you noticed. We show you what ParaBaro recorded. That conversation is where the data gets better.

Feedback when something does not work. Firmware issues, connectivity problems, data gaps. You report what you find; we fix it.

It is a recorder, not an instrument. It gives no warnings in flight. Fly your normal instruments and your normal judgement.

The process

What happens after you apply.

1

You submit the application. You will see a confirmation on this page immediately and receive an email from us within a few minutes. If you do not receive the email, check your spam folder and write to info@aviometrics.com.

2

We read your application personally. We review every application by hand — the scoring we use internally is for prioritisation, not for automated rejection. Within 7 days from submission, you will receive a direct reply, even if the decision is not yet final.

3

You hear whether you are in. Within 14 days from submission at the latest, we will tell you clearly: you are in, you are on the reserve list, or we cannot include you in this cohort. If we cannot include you, we will say why and, where we can, point you to what would change that.

4

If you are in: we agree a ship date for your kit, sort out the payment, and you receive a device setup guide and a brief call with the team before your first flight with it.

5

If you are not in this cohort: your application stays on file for the next cohort. We will write to you when the next wave opens, before it is announced publicly.

Apply now

Apply for the Pilot Beta.

Create an account and apply Sign in to apply

We ask you to register before submitting because your application is linked to your flight data from day one. That is a mechanical detail of how the platform works; it is not a commitment to send us anything.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions.

Do I need to be an advanced or competition pilot to apply?

No. We are selecting for a mix of experience levels, wing classes, and flying sites — a diverse cohort gives us better data than fifty identical pilots. We do look for pilots who fly regularly and can commit to uploading data after flights. If you fly three to five times a month in season and you are curious about what your wing is doing, that is enough.

Do I have to fly a set number of hours?

No. The unit is yours on delivery and there is nothing to work off. If you fly it for a season and never upload a single flight, you still own it. There is a separate contributor programme for pilots who want to send us their flights, and joining it or leaving it changes nothing about what you own. The details are in the agreement you sign before your unit ships.

How does the device attach to the wing?

The sensors fit as two magnet-coupled pairs at about 60% of the way out along each side of the span, on the bottom surface. Each pair has one module inside the cell and one on the outside directly opposite, held together magnetically through the fabric — the internal module slides in through the open leading-edge cells. Nothing clips to the risers and no modifications to the wing are made. Attachment and removal takes two to three minutes. We send a setup guide when you are accepted, and the team walks through it with you on a call before your first flight.

Is the application open to pilots outside the UK?

Yes. We are selecting pilots across Europe and further afield. The device ships to your address; shipping costs and import duties (if applicable) are discussed at acceptance. We have no country restrictions on the application.

I submitted an application but did not receive a confirmation email. What should I do?

Check your spam folder first — transactional email from small senders often lands there. If it is not there, write to info@aviometrics.com with your name and the email address you used. We will confirm whether your application came through and, if not, send you a fresh link. We do not lose applications silently.