Navigation and safety

13Airspaces

Installing airspace datasets and your own files, choosing which classes matter, and tuning the warnings you get in the air.

Download once, fly offline

How airspace works in the app#

Airspace comes from files stored on your phone. Once a file is installed and enabled, everything after that is local: the shapes are drawn on the map and the warnings are calculated on the device, with no connection needed.

Where Settings › Airspaces

Important

Airspace data can be wrong, incomplete or out of date, and the app cannot know when it is. It is a warning aid. Checking the official source for the country you fly in remains your responsibility.

Installing airspace data#

There are two sources: the SkyTrackPro datasets, which are curated and versioned per country, and your own OpenAir files.

  1. Open Settings, then Airspaces.
  2. Open the SkyTrackPro airspace list and search for your country by name, code or version.
  3. Download it. It appears under Airspace files with an Updated date.
  4. Make sure its switch is on. Only enabled files are used for warnings and map display. To remove a file later, swipe it left.
Fig. 13.1Airspace settings, with installed files at the top and the class filters below.

Note

Check for updates looks for newer versions of the datasets you have installed. If everything is current it reports Airspaces are already up to date.

Adding your own file#

  1. Press Add airspace file.
  2. Pick the file from your device.
  3. The app confirms with Airspace file imported.

Caution

Only OpenAir files are supported, with the extensions .txt, .air or .openair. Anything else is rejected with Only OpenAir airspace files are supported.

Tip

Competitions often publish a task specific airspace file. You can add it straight from the competition files list, which is covered in Competitions.

Airspace classes#

Not every airspace matters to every pilot. The class filters, described as Turn off entire classes to hide them everywhere and stop related warnings, until you turn them back on, let you remove whole categories from the map and from the warning engine.

Class Typically
Prohibited (P) Never enter. Keep this on.
Restricted (R) Entry subject to conditions. Keep this on.
CTR Control zone around an airport, from the ground up. Keep this on.
Controlled (TMA / C / D / E) Controlled airspace with a floor, often above your usual working height.
Control areas (CTA) Larger controlled areas.
Heliports Helicopter landing sites. Often numerous and low priority for free flight.
Other / informational Advisory and information areas that are not restrictions.

Important

Turning a class off removes its warnings entirely. Only switch off classes you are certain do not apply to where and how you fly. Prohibited, restricted and CTR should stay on.

Tip

Heliports are the usual candidate to turn off. In some countries there are so many that they clutter the map without telling a free flight pilot anything useful.

Altitude reference#

Max controlled altitude
Meters Default: 3950 m
Airspaces above this altitude may be ignored or shown less prominently. Raise it if you fly high, in the Alps or in the Andes, where controlled airspace above 4000 m is genuinely reachable. Lower it if high airspace is clutter where you fly.
Sea level pressure (QNH)
hPa Default: 1013 hPa
The reference pressure used to turn barometric altitude into a height that can be compared with airspace floors and ceilings. Set the local QNH from the briefing or the nearest airfield when airspace limits matter, for example under a low TMA floor. Standard is 1013.

Caution

A QNH that is 10 hPa out moves your indicated altitude by roughly 80 m. Under a low airspace floor that is the difference between legal and not.

Alerts and alarms#

Show airspace alerts
On or off Default: On
Shows warnings on screen when you approach or enter controlled airspace. Leave it on.
Sound alarms
On or off Default: On
Plays an audio alarm when an airspace warning triggers. Leave it on. A visual banner is easy to miss when you are looking at the wing or the terrain.
Warning distance (horizontal)
Meters Default: 250 m
How far before a lateral boundary the warning starts. Increase it if you fly fast wings or want more room to react. Decrease it if you routinely fly close to a boundary legally and the constant warning becomes noise.
Warning distance (vertical)
Meters Default: 150 m
How far before a floor or ceiling the warning starts. Increase it if you often climb up to a floor in strong lift, where 150 m is only a few seconds.

Tip

Set the vertical distance from your climb rate, not from a feeling. At 5 m/s, 150 m is thirty seconds. If you regularly climb faster than that under a floor, give yourself more.

What the warnings look like in flight is covered in The flight screen.

The visible airspaces sheet#

In flight, Visible airspaces lists everything currently around you, with its class and its height band. It is the answer to "what is that shape on the map".

Fig. 13.2The visible airspaces sheet, with the class and altitude band for each entry.
Show on map
Highlights that airspace so you can see which shape it is.
Disable for today
Removes it from the map and stops its warnings until the end of the day.
Enable (today)
Brings a disabled one back.
Disabled today (n)
A section at the bottom listing everything you have switched off, so nothing stays hidden by accident.

Caution

Disable for today is for airspace you have deliberately decided to fly beside, for example a zone you have clearance for. It expires by itself at the end of the day so it cannot silently follow you into tomorrow.