Building your cockpit

9Flight layout editor

Building your own screen layouts: adding, moving, resizing and styling tiles, linking portrait and landscape pages, and sharing layouts.

Limited offline

Start from a ready made layout#

You do not have to build a cockpit from an empty page. The layouts below are complete, tested pages you can install in a few seconds and then adjust, which is a much easier way to start than choosing between 58 tiles with nothing on screen.

  1. Open Settings, then Flight layouts.
  2. Press Import layout from QR.
  3. Point the camera at the code for the layout you want.
  4. The app confirms with Imported layout: <name>, or Imported n linked layouts when the portrait and landscape pages travel together.
  5. Open it in the editor and change whatever does not suit you.

Good to know

Importing a layout by QR needs no internet connection. Two phones side by side on launch can exchange a cockpit with no signal at all.

Caution

An imported layout is added to your pages. It does not replace what you already have, so nothing you built is at risk from trying one.

Comp L
Landscape
Competition 19 tiles

A full competition cockpit for landscape flying. Airspace distances, target bearing and distance, speed to fly, arrival at the next turnpoint, the side view with the terrain ahead, the thermal assistant with wind, and ground speed and altitude along the bottom edge.

Scan to import

Tip

Once you have a layout you like, share it back. Generate its QR code with Share layout via QR and your flying friends can have the same cockpit in seconds.

Layout pages#

A layout page is one screenful of cockpit. You can have as many as you like, and switch between them in flight. Most pilots end up with two or three: one for cruising, one for thermalling, and one stripped back for competition.

Where Settings › Flight layouts

Pages are kept in two lists, Portrait layout pages and Landscape layout pages, because a layout that works upright rarely works sideways.

  1. Open Settings, then Flight layouts.
  2. Choose the Portrait or Landscape tab.
  3. Press Add new page.
  4. Give it a name. The hint suggests XC, Live, Comp, Minimal.
  5. The page opens in the editor.
Fig. 9.1The layout pages list, with tile counts and the linked counterpart shown per page.
Rename page
Change the name without touching the tiles.
Reorder page
Change the order they appear in when you switch layouts in flight.
Delete page
Removes it permanently, after a confirmation.

Linking portrait and landscape#

Link counterpart layout pairs a portrait page with a landscape page. When the device rotates, the app opens the linked page automatically instead of picking whatever comes first.

  1. On a page, press the Link counterpart button.
  2. Choose the page for the other orientation, or No linked counterpart to unlink.
  3. The page then shows Linked to <name>.

Tip

Build the portrait page you want first, then build its landscape twin with the same tiles rearranged, and link them. Rotating the phone in flight then feels like the same cockpit, not a different app.

Working in the editor#

The editor is a live preview of the flight screen. What you see on the canvas is what you get in the air.

Fig. 9.2The layout editor. The toolbar can be hidden to see the full canvas.
  1. Press the + button to open Add tile and pick a metric.
  2. Drag the tile anywhere on the canvas.
  3. Tap a tile to open Edit tile and change its metric, style or size.
  4. Press save when you are happy. The app confirms with Layout saved.
Snap to grid
With the grid on, tiles snap to fixed positions. With it off, you place them freely.
Center guides
Drag a tile near the horizontal or vertical center and it snaps to the page center, with a guide line to confirm.
Resize a tile
Long press the tile, then drag a corner. The tile keeps its shape.
Hide toolbar
Collapses the tools so you can judge the layout as it will really look.
Help
Editor help explains each tool in place.

Caution

Leaving with unsaved work prompts Save changes? with You have unsaved layout changes. Nothing is written until you save.

Styling a tile#

Edit tile holds everything about how one tile looks. This is where a layout stops being a grid of numbers and starts being readable in glare.

Tile type
Which metric the tile shows. You can change it without deleting and re-adding.
Custom label
Replace the default label with your own wording, or shorten it to save space.
Style
Black background / White background / No background (white text) / No background (black text)
The quick preset for how the tile sits on the map.
Background color
Automatic or custom
Overrides the preset with a color you choose.
Background opacity
How much of the map shows through the tile. Lower it for tiles floating over the map so you keep spatial awareness, raise it for the numbers you must read instantly.
Text color and border
Text color, border color and border width.
Font scale
Makes the value larger or smaller inside the same tile. Push it up on your two or three most important numbers so they can be read without focusing.
Lock
Prevents the tile from being moved accidentally while you edit the rest.
Side
Left / Right
For the linear vario, linear L/D and linear speed to fly bars, which edge of the screen they mount on.

Tip

Design for the worst case, not the desk. High contrast, few tiles, big digits. In strong sun with a wing overhead you will read three numbers well, not twelve badly.

The side view tile#

The side view is resized differently: long press it, then drag any edge or corner. It does not keep its aspect ratio, because you usually want it wide and short.

Metrics while circling
Up to 3
Extra values drawn large inside the side view tile while you are thermalling. Tap to add or remove, in the order you want them. Put your climb average and altitude here. While circling they become big and tappable, which is exactly when small tiles are unreadable.

The Flight Radar tile#

The radar carries four values: wind, target distance, shortest distance and vario. Two options decide which of them you get and where they sit.

Corner values
Per corner: None / Wind / Target / Shortest distance / Vario Default: Wind top left, Target top right, Shortest distance bottom left, Vario bottom right
One dropdown per corner, so you choose what each of the four corners shows. Set a corner to None when you do not fly tasks and the target and shortest values would sit empty anyway.
Value placement
In the corners / On the arrows Default: In the corners
In the corners keeps the wind, target and shortest values in their fixed blocks. On the arrows attaches each of them to its own moving edge arrow instead. On the arrows when the tile is small and you want the middle clear. In the corners when you read the numbers more than the picture, since a value that does not move is faster to find.

Caution

The vario is the exception: it always stays in a corner, even on the arrows. So if you pick On the arrows and no corner is set to Vario, the climb value does not show at all.

Map area and style#

The Map button in the editor toolbar controls how much of the screen the map takes and what it looks like.

  1. Press the map settings button.
  2. To move or resize the map, long press it in the preview, then drag it or drag an edge.
  3. Set Map style to Automatic or pin this page to one style.
  4. Set Initial zoom to Automatic or a fixed level for when the page opens.
Map style
Automatic, or one of your enabled styles Default: Automatic
Pins this page to a specific base map. Pin a thermalling page to the dark style if you find it easier to see the track over it.
Initial zoom
Automatic or a fixed level Default: Automatic
The zoom the page opens at.

Customizing the puck#

Customize puck changes the marker that represents you on the map.

Shape
Dot / Arrow / Paraglider Default: Dot
How you are drawn. Arrow when you want heading at a glance. Paraglider when you want to see your own wing design.
Fill color
The main color of the puck.
Border color
The outline, which is what keeps the puck visible over a busy map.

Note

The paraglider shape uses the wing and pilot you built in Pilot profile. It shows your wing while flying and your pilot on the ground.

Buttons and banners#

The floating controls are part of the layout too. You place the back button, the record button and the banner area exactly where you want them on each page.

  1. Drag the Back button, the Record button or the banner preview to a new position.
  2. Tap one to reset it to its default place.
  3. Use Banner size to make alert and info banners bigger.

Tip

Banner size is per page and is the setting most pilots wish they had found sooner. If you have ever missed an airspace warning, make the banner bigger on the pages you actually fly.

A page that appears while thermalling#

Any page can be marked as your thermal page. The app then switches to it automatically while you circle and switches back when you fly straight, described in the editor as Switch to this page automatically while thermalling, then back when flying straight.

Use as thermal page
On or off Default: Off
Marks this page as the one to show while circling.
Zoom level
The map zoom to use on this page while thermalling. Zoom in more than your cruising page. In a climb you care about the core, not the valley.
Thermal assistant
Default / On / Off Default: Default
Whether the thermal assistant is forced on or off for this page.

Tip

Build a small thermal page with climb average, altitude, the thermal assistant and a bigger map. Circling is the one time you can afford to lose the cruise numbers entirely.

Backing up and sharing layouts#

Layouts take real effort to build, so there are two ways to keep them and pass them on.

Cloud templates
3 slots
Save up to 3 versions. Upload overwrites a slot. Upload the layouts on this device into a named slot, or download a slot back down. Upload before you experiment, so you can get back to a layout you liked. Also the fastest way to move your cockpit to a new phone.
Share by QR
Turn a layout into a QR code another pilot scans with Scan layout QR. Use it on launch to hand your layout to a friend. Linked portrait and landscape pages travel together.

Caution

Downloading a cloud slot replaces all your current local layout pages, and the app warns you before it does. Uploading overwrites whatever was in that slot.

Note

Cloud slots need a connection. QR sharing does not: two phones side by side can exchange a layout with no signal at all.

Upload and download your flight layoutsWatch on YouTube Build your perfect flight screenWatch on YouTube