Getting started

1Introduction

What SkyTrackPro is, the four ways pilots use it, how the app and the website fit together, and how to read this manual.

Mixed, see chapter

What SkyTrackPro is#

SkyTrackPro is a flight computer and flight assistant for paraglider and hang glider pilots. It records your flight, shows the numbers you need while you fly, warns you about airspace and obstacles, guides you around a cross country plan or a competition task, and shares your position live with the people who care where you are.

The app runs on iOS and Android and is designed to be usable with gloves on, in bright sun, with the phone strapped to a leg or a harness. Everything you see in flight is on a screen layout that you build yourself, so the app shows your numbers, in your positions, at your sizes.

Fig. 1.1A flight in progress on a competition layout. Every tile, the map size and even the start countdown banner position were placed by the pilot in the layout editor.

Note

SkyTrackPro is an aid, not an authority. Airspace data, terrain elevation and obstacle data can be incomplete or out of date. You remain responsible for staying clear of airspace and terrain, and for checking the official sources before you fly.

Four ways pilots use it#

You do not have to choose one of these up front. They layer on top of each other, and every one of them still records a normal flight to your logbook.

Free flight
Start recording and fly. The app tracks your position, altitude, climb rate and statistics, and warns you about airspace. Nothing else is required.
Cross country
Turn on the XC Guide and the app builds a plan around an open distance line, a flat triangle or an FAI triangle, then tells you where to turn and whether the shape still closes.
Task flying
Load a task with a start cylinder, turnpoints, an end of speed section and a goal. The app handles the start window, the optimized route, arrival height and the final glide. See Tasks.
Live tracking
Publish your position while you fly, so friends, a club, a retrieve driver or a competition organizer can follow you. See Live tracking.

Tip

Recording a flight never depends on any of these. The track, the statistics and the IGC file are produced on the phone, with no connection and no account check in the air.

The app and the website#

SkyTrackPro has two halves. The app is what you fly with. The website at skytrackpro.app is where the shared and social parts live: your online logbook, public flights, competitions, live maps, buddy groups, XC challenges and leagues.

Your account links the two. You sign in once in the app, and from then on the app can upload flights, pull competition and task data, publish live positions, and back up your settings. The sign in survives being offline, so a lost connection at launch does not sign you out.

Lives on the phone Lives on the website
Flight recording and the track database Your public profile and online logbook
Local tasks and waypoint lists Competitions, public tasks, task sharing
Routes and tasks you saved to the device The XC Planner for planning your next cross country
XC challenges, leagues, records and the community feed
Screen layouts, gliders, all settings Layout template slots and the settings backup
Downloaded maps, airspace and obstacle files The source catalogs those files come from
The IGC file of every flight Uploaded flights, photos and XContest publishing

Finding your way around#

The app has six tabs along the bottom. They stay loaded, so switching between them does not lose what you were doing.

Flight
The pre flight page. Pick a layout, a glider and optionally a route or a task, then start the flight.
Logbook
Every flight you have recorded, with statistics, replay, export and upload.
XC
Cross country routes, challenges, leagues, records and the community feed.
Tasks
Local tasks on this device, your tasks and public tasks from the website, and your waypoint lists.
Competitions
Competitions you can enter or follow, with their tasks, files, news and operations.
Settings
Everything configurable, grouped into Account, Flight, Navigation and safety, and App.
Fig. 1.2The six tabs. A green dot on Settings means always active live tracking is running.

How to read this manual#

Chapters follow the order you would meet the features in: set the app up, fly with it, then configure it more deeply. A few conventions repeat throughout.

Control name
Text that appears exactly like this in the app, on a button, a switch or a row.
Value
A value, a number or an option you choose.
Where box
The path to a setting, starting from the tab it lives in.
Numbered steps
Do these in order to get the described result.
Fig. 1.1
A screenshot. Click any screenshot to see it full size.
Where Settings › Maps › Download maps

Note

One app wide convention worth knowing before you start: most lists delete by swiping the row to the left. That covers flights, local tasks, waypoint lists, saved XC routes, offline map regions, airspace files, obstacle files and ActiveLook screens. The exceptions are gliders and layout pages, which have their own remove buttons.

Each chapter header carries a connectivity badge, because for a flying app the difference between "needs a signal" and "works anywhere" matters more than almost anything else.

Badge Meaning
Works offline Nothing in the chapter needs a connection once the app is installed and you have signed in once.
Download once, fly offline You prepare it with a connection at home, then it works with no signal in the air.
Limited offline It works without a connection, but with reduced data or a delay until the signal returns.
Needs internet It only works while the phone has a connection.
Mixed, see chapter The chapter covers several features that differ. The detail is in the text.

Tip

Chapter Internet connection collects all of this into one table, plus a checklist of what to prepare before you fly somewhere with no coverage.

SkyTrackPro on YouTube: short demos of most featuresWatch on YouTube