Building your cockpit

10Testing your cockpit on the ground

Debug mode, the demo flights and the simulators. How to fly your own layout through a synthetic XC or task flight before you trust it in the air.

Limited offline

Why test on the ground#

A layout looks fine in the editor and then turns out to be unreadable in the air, or is missing the one number you actually needed on final glide. The editor cannot tell you that, because in the editor every tile shows placeholder data and nothing is happening.

The app can fly a complete synthetic flight through the real flight screen, using your layout, your settings and your glider. Everything behaves as it would in the air: the map moves, the vario reacts, task banners fire, airspace alerts trigger and final glide resolves. You just do it sitting at a table.

Tip

This is the fastest way to improve a layout. Fly the same scenario twice, once with your current page and once with the change you are considering, and the answer is usually obvious.

Tool Best for Needs debug mode
Feature demo Seeing every tile and every banner with realistic values, and hearing the alert sounds. No
Demo flights Flying your own layout through a real XC or task scenario end to end. Yes
ESS and goal simulator Stepping through the final glide states without flying a whole task. Yes
Thermal assistant simulator Learning to read the thermal assistant before you need it. No
Flight replay Reviewing a real flight of your own with your current layout. No

Turning on debug mode#

The demo flights and the ESS and goal simulator are hidden until you turn on debug mode. They are hidden because they are diagnostic tools rather than everyday features, not because they are risky.

Where Settings › Other › Diagnostics and debug
  1. Open Settings, then Other.
  2. Scroll to Diagnostics and debug.
  3. Turn on Debug mode.
  4. Two new entries appear: Open active flight benchmark and Open ESS / Goal simulator.
Fig. 10.1Debug mode enabled. The demo flight and simulator entries appear underneath it.

Note

Debug mode also starts writing diagnostic logs. That is harmless, and it is what makes a support report useful if you ever need one. Leave Verbose logging off unless support asks for it.

Caution

You need to be signed in to run a demo flight. Without a session the app says You need to be logged in to run a benchmark.

Demo flights#

Active flight benchmark runs a deterministic synthetic flight through the real flight recorder and map pipeline. The app describes it as exactly that, and the important word is real: this is not a preview, it is your flight screen doing its actual job with invented GPS.

Where Settings › Other › Open active flight benchmark
  1. Open Open active flight benchmark.
  2. Under Scenario, pick the situation you want to test.
  3. Under Screen layout, choose the layout page to open. The helper reads Choose the initial portrait layout for this benchmark flight.
  4. Choose a speed multiplier. 1x is real time, 2x and 4x get you to the interesting part faster.
  5. Press Run benchmark flight. The real flight screen opens and the flight begins.
  6. Watch your layout do its work. End the flight when you have seen enough.
Fig. 10.2The demo flight page. Pick a scenario, pick the layout you want to test, and run it.

Good to know

Live tracking is switched off for the run, so nobody following you sees a phantom flight, and nothing is published.

Caution

You cannot start a demo flight while a real flight is running. The app tells you to Finish the current active flight before starting a benchmark.

The six scenarios#

Each scenario is built to exercise a different part of the app. Pick the one that matches what you are trying to check.

Scenario What it flies Use it to check
Straight line A taskless open distance cross country, with your normal XC settings and Straight mode preselected. Your XC layout, the guidance card, XC distance and the rolling XC speeds.
Flat triangle A taskless triangle that closes as a valid flat triangle, with Flat mode preselected. Triangle guidance, closure, and whether your layout tells you when to turn.
FAI triangle A taskless replay of an equilateral shape, with FAI mode preselected. FAI guidance, the shortest leg warning, and the possible triangle tile.
Airspace + Cable A short taskless replay with two bundled cross cables and two fake control zones. Obstacle banners, airspace alerts, vertical and horizontal distances, and whether your banner is big enough to notice.
ESS + Goal A fixed 10 km task with normalized time windows, so start, SSS, ESS and goal behave like a real flight. Task banners, the start countdown, arrival at ESS and goal, and your competition layout.
Elevated Goal The same 10 km task with an elevated finish, with the task snapshot attached to the flight. Elevated goal arrival, and the difference between clearing the ground and making a valid finish.

Tip

Airspace + Cable is the one every pilot should run once. It brings its own airspace and obstacle data, so it works even before you have installed any, and it shows you exactly what a warning looks like while you are in a position to think about it calmly.

After the run#

The demo flight is saved locally as a normal flight, so it appears in your logbook and can be replayed like any other. It is recorded against a glider called Benchmark so it is easy to spot.

The page also shows a Last report with counters from the run: how many airspace and obstacle alerts fired, how many map camera updates happened, and the battery level at the start and the end.

  1. Read the report if you care about battery cost or alert behavior.
  2. Use Delete benchmark flight to remove the synthetic flight from your logbook.

Caution

A demo flight cannot be uploaded. The app blocks it with This is a benchmark flight with simulated data. It cannot be uploaded to skytrackpro.app. Delete them rather than leaving them cluttering your logbook.

Note

If you are comparing battery cost between layouts, the app recommends a release build, fixed screen brightness, 1x speed and no charger connected. Anything else and you are measuring the charger.

The feature demo#

Where a demo flight tests your layout in motion, the feature demo lets you inspect every individual piece with realistic values. No debug mode needed.

Where Settings › Other › Open feature demo
Tab Shows
XC The XC guidance cards in their different states.
Comp Competition banners: countdown, window open, final glide and task completion.
Tiles Every tile with realistic data, grouped by category. Tap one to read what it shows.
Info Banners Task information banners such as window open, start taken and turnpoint reached.
Alert Banners Airspace and obstacle alerts, plus sound previews.

Tip

Use the Tiles tab while you build a layout. It is much faster to decide whether you want a tile after seeing it with a real number in it than after reading its name in the add list.

Tip

The Alert Banners tab plays the alert sounds. Listen to them once at home. An alarm you recognize is worth several seconds in the air.

The two simulators#

Two focused simulators cover the parts of the flight computer that are hardest to practice for.

ESS and goal simulator
Shows the real final glide banner and tiles without flying. Pick a scenario, then use the Too low, Just and Good presets to jump between the three arrival states, or set altitude, distance, glide ratio and ground speed by hand. Needs debug mode. See Final glide, ESS and goal.
Thermal assistant simulator
Generates circling and straight segments with drift and lift so you can learn to read the assistant. Turn on Auto lift mode and watch it work. No debug mode needed. See Thermal assistant.

Tip

The ESS and goal simulator is the quickest way to check one specific thing: whether your arrival tile is large enough and placed where you will actually look at it when the answer matters.

Replaying a real flight#

The last ground test is the most realistic one: replay a flight you actually flew. Your track, your conditions, your decisions, played back through your current layout.

  1. Open the Logbook and pick a flight.
  2. Press Replay.
  3. Scrub to the moment you want to look at again.

Tip

Replay the flight where you got something wrong, with the layout you are considering. If the layout would have told you sooner, it is a better layout. See Logbook and replay.

A workflow that works#

  1. Build or adjust a page in the layout editor.
  2. Open the feature demo and check the individual tiles you added actually show what you expected.
  3. Run the ESS + Goal demo flight with that page selected, at 4x speed.
  4. Note anything you could not read, could not find, or did not need.
  5. Go back to the editor and fix those three things.
  6. Run Airspace + Cable once to confirm your banner is big enough and placed where you will see it.
  7. Upload the finished layout to a cloud template slot so you can always get back to it.
  8. Delete the demo flights from your logbook.

Good to know

Twenty minutes of this is worth more than a season of adjusting your layout in the air, where you are busy and every change is a compromise made under pressure.