Flying

7Recording a flight

Starting and ending a flight, takeoff and landing detection, and how the app treats the screen and the battery in the air.

Works offline

How recording works#

From the moment you press start, every position fix is written to a database on the phone. This is the part of the app that has no dependencies at all: no account check, no server, no signal. A flight recorded in a valley with the phone in airplane mode is exactly as complete as one recorded on a launch with full coverage.

Good to know

Recording continues when you leave the flight screen, switch tabs, lock the phone or put the app in the background. A notification shows Recording flight #123 while it runs.

Takeoff detection#

Pressing start begins the recording, but the app knows the difference between sitting on launch and flying. Until it sees a takeoff, the screen shows Waiting for takeoff and the flight statistics stay at zero.

Once you launch, the app marks the takeoff, starts the flight clock and begins accumulating distance, climb and speed.

Tip

Start recording before you lay out, not at the moment you run. It costs nothing, and it means the takeoff is captured exactly rather than a minute late.

Early takeoff in a task#

In a task, the app asks Early takeoff allowed? It matters because it decides what the top banner concentrates on.

  • If early takeoff is allowed at this site, the banner focuses on the countdown to the start time.
  • If it is not, the banner concentrates on the takeoff window itself.

Caution

Answer it the way the task briefing says. This changes what the app shows you, not what the rules are.

Ending a flight#

  1. Open the flight menu and press END FLIGHT, or use End flight on the Flight tab.
  2. Confirm End flight? with Do you really want to end this flight?
  3. The flight closes and appears in your logbook.

Note

After a task flight with live tracking, the app may offer the post flight status sheet so you can tell the organizers you are down and whether you need retrieve. See Live tracking and buddies.

Automatic landing detection#

Pilots forget to end flights. The app watches for a lack of movement and offers to close the flight for you rather than recording an hour of you packing up.

You see Possible landing detected with a message along the lines of No movement detected. The flight will end automatically in 2:00 unless you confirm that you are still flying.

Still flying
Cancels the countdown and keeps recording. Use this if you are parked in a light thermal or standing on a ridge in soaring conditions.
End now
Closes the flight immediately.
Do nothing
The flight ends by itself when the countdown expires.

Good to know

The countdown is also shown in the notification, as Recording flight #123. Ending automatically in 1:30, so you see it even with the screen off.

Hike and fly days#

A hike and fly day is several flights with walking in between. The Flight tab has two start buttons: Start flight for a single flight, and Start hike and fly for the whole day. Press Start hike and fly before you leave the trailhead and the day becomes one recording: every walk and every flight, ending only when you press END FLIGHT.

On foot
The app stores one position every 5 seconds and shows a Hiking banner at the top of the flight screen with the hike time, the flight time, the number of flights and the hiked distance below it. The Hike time tile counts only while you are actually moving on foot, the Flight time tile shows the airborne time of the day and freezes while you walk, and Day time runs from the moment you pressed start. Takeoff detection, automatic landing detection and the task engine wait for the next flight. Airspace and obstacle warnings are quiet on foot and come back at the next takeoff.
In the air
Every fix is stored as usual. The banner reads Flying: flight 3 and the app announces Flight 3 started and Landed, back to hiking as you go.
Live tracking
Stays on for the whole day on one session, so your buddies and the website see you walk and fly.
Ending the day
Only you end the day. The only automatic stops are a 24 hour cap and six hours without any GPS fix.

Caution

GPS runs at full rate all day, the same as in flight. Bring a power bank for a full day in the mountains.

Fig. 7.1The Flight tab with both start buttons.

Afterwards the logbook shows the day as one flight with a hiking icon; its duration is the airborne time. The detail page opens with a Hike and fly day card (recording frame, number of flights, airborne time, longest flight, flight distance, hiked distance, hiking time, ascent and descent on foot) followed by one card per flight with that flight's own overview, performance and XC distances. The replay draws the walked legs in brown and the flights in the usual vario colors. The IGC file and the upload to skytrackpro.app contain the whole day.

Screen and battery#

A flight computer that goes to sleep is useless, and one that flattens the battery in two hours is worse. Two settings balance that.

Where Settings › Other › Screen and power
Keep screen on during flight
On or off Default: On
Stops the phone sleeping while a flight is running. Leave it on. Turn it off only if you fly entirely on ActiveLook glasses or a remote and never look at the phone.
Battery save mode
On or off Default: Off
Keeps the flight screen awake but dims it after a period with no touch and no remote activity, and slows the live map refresh while dimmed. A touch brings it straight back. Turn it on for long cross country days, hike and fly, or any flight where you expect to be out longer than your battery normally lasts.
Dim after
30 seconds / 1 minute / 2 minutes / 5 minutes Default: 1 minute
How long the flight page waits with no touch or remote activity before it dims. Shorten it to save more, lengthen it if the screen keeps dimming while you are still reading it.

Tip

Battery save mode plus a remote control is a good combination. The remote counts as activity, so the screen wakes when you act on it and stays dim the rest of the time.

Caution

Live tracking costs battery and data on top of everything else, as the app itself warns with Live tracking requires additional battery, data, and server resources. Plan for it on long days.

What ends up in the flight#

Beyond the raw track, the app derives a set of statistics you can see on the flight detail page afterwards.

Group Includes
Overview Duration, takeoff time, landing time, track length, whether it was a task flight
Performance Max altitude, altitude gain, max climb, max sink, best climb, top speed, min speed, average speed
Thermals Number of thermals, thermal time, glide time
XC distances Start to land, 3TP, flat triangle, FAI triangle
Hike and fly Day card with flights, airborne time, longest flight, flight distance, hiked distance, hiking time, ascent and descent on foot, then one card per flight with its own overview, performance and XC distances (hike and fly days only)
Technical summary Track points recorded, sync state, remote identifiers

Note

All of this is computed on the phone from your track, so it is available immediately after landing with no connection. Uploading is a separate, optional step.