SAFA Skysailor Magazine

50 SKY SAILOR March-April-May | AUTUMN 2026 perspective, it feels more stable, under the hood it’s a completely different set-up. Also, the account system. You create a Squiggly account and link your trackers to your profile, which enables the multi-track- er set-up. I’m working on Squiggly’s own native tracking as well (essentially a phone- based tracker) which will further reduce dependence on third-party systems. What surprised you most about the rebuild? Ham: How quickly one feature turns into five! You think you’re adding something simple (like organising pilots by site) and realise you need a whole site database. So I build a feature of syncing with the database on ‘Paragliding Earth’. We also needed better track classifica- tion. When a GPS point comes in, you have to decide: Is this person flying? Driving? Walking? Because people don’t just turn trackers on before flying. Sometimes they’re turned on at home and left on. Other times they’re turned on mid-flight, or at home. To build something properly, you end up building all the supporting systems too. For Squiggly 2, a lot of the work has been laying foundations for future features What major challenges did you encounter? Ham: There was a push to get Squiggly 2 ready for State of Origin last year. It was one of those famous Manilla round-table all-nighters. Laptops out, code everywhere, people came and went, walk past, look at the screen, offer a completely unhelpful opinion, then hand me a beer. We didn’t make the deadline. Painful, but fair. Live tracking is one of those things where ‘nearly ready’ isn’t ready. If people The long road to Squiggly 2