Your flights

6Getting flights onto the site

The three ways a flight arrives here, and every rule the upload applies: duplicates, the late upload window, the free yearly cap and the past year block.

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Three ways in#

From the app
The SkyTrackPro app uploads the flight itself when you land. Nothing to do here, the flight simply appears in your log.
By hand
Upload an IGC file from any instrument through Upload flight on your dashboard.
In bulk, once
Flight History Import takes a single ZIP of IGC files and imports your whole back catalogue from another platform.

Uploading a single flight#

Where Profile › My Tracks › Upload flight
  1. Press Upload flight. The upload dialog opens.
  2. Optionally give the flight a Title. Leave it empty and the site builds one from the file, stripping any date it finds in the name.
  3. Choose the .igc file. Only IGC files are accepted.
  4. Decide whether the flight is public. A public flight appears in the public feed, in the rankings and in XC scoring. A private flight is yours alone.
  5. Tick the rights confirmation.
  6. Upload. Parsing runs in the background and the flight appears in your log within a few seconds.

The rights checkbox reads I confirm that I am the rightful owner of this file, have the right to upload it, and that this flight did not involve any airspace infringements. It is not decoration: it is the statement the site relies on when your flight goes into a public ranking.

If the flight belongs to a competition task, you can attach it during the upload. Only public tasks from the last seven days are offered, which keeps the list short and stops old tasks being picked by accident.

Note

While parsing runs the flight carries an Analyzing badge and, if you made it public, a Pending Public badge with the note Hidden from public until parsing completes. That is normal. If parsing fails the badge turns into Failed and the flight stays hidden.

The rules the upload applies#

Five checks run on every upload. Each one has a message that tells you exactly what happened, and only one of them actually refuses the file.

Duplicate
Refused
This track was already uploaded. The site fingerprints the file content, so renaming it does not get around the check. If you meant to replace a flight, delete the old one first.
Not a valid IGC
Refused
This IGC file appears invalid or too short. The file has no usable fixes, or is not an IGC at all. Re export it from your instrument. A flight of a few seconds is also rejected here.
Past year
Refused
Flights flown in a previous calendar year cannot be uploaded through this dialog. Use Flight History Import for your archive, or ask an administrator.
Late upload
Accepted as private
A flight older than the upload window, seven days by default, is stored as private and locked. It needs administrator approval before it can be published or scored in a competition. Upload promptly. This is what keeps a public ranking honest.
Free yearly cap
Refused
Free accounts are limited to 12 flight uploads per year. It counts flights flown in the current calendar year. Any paid membership removes the cap. See Memberships.

Caution

The late upload rule applies to competition scoring as well. A track that arrives after the window cannot be scored until an administrator releases it, so upload competition tracks the same day.

Hike and fly days#

A hike and fly day recorded with the SkyTrackPro app arrives as one IGC file that holds the walks and every flight of the day. The app marks the file and sends its day summary along; an IGC exported from the app and uploaded by hand still carries the marker. The site checks the summary against the track and rejects one that does not match.

What the flight shows
Duration, distance, XC and points are the flights only, never the walking. The takeoff is the first flight's launch, not the trailhead. The walked part and every single flight are listed on the flight page.
Counting
The day is one entry in your log, but it counts as many flights as it contains in your totals and on your pilot page.
Notices
Hike and fly summary adjusted from the track. means the site recomputed the distances from the file. Hike and fly day without a flight was saved as a hike. means no flight was found in the day; it is kept as a walk.

Importing your flight history#

Where Profile › Flight History Import

The history import exists for one situation: you are moving here from another platform and you want your old flights to come along. It takes one ZIP archive of .igc files and walks through it, one flight at a time.

  1. Export your flights from the other platform as a ZIP of IGC files. The XContest export works as is.
  2. Open Flight History Import and choose the ZIP.
  3. Start the import and leave the page open. A progress bar counts through the archive.
  4. When it finishes you get a summary: total files, imported, duplicates, invalid and failed.
  5. Follow View your flights to see the result in your log.

Caution

This is a one time tool, not a sync. It does not keep watching the other platform, and re running it on the same archive simply reports every flight as a duplicate.

Note

Imported flights skip the past year block, because that is the entire point of the tool. They are still fingerprinted, so a flight you already uploaded by hand is not duplicated.

What happens after the upload#

Parsing is where most of the value is added, and it all happens without you doing anything:

  • The track is analyzed for distance, duration, altitudes, climb rates, circling time and speeds.
  • Four cross country scores are computed: open distance, free distance over three turnpoints, flat triangle and FAI triangle. The best one becomes the flight's XC result.
  • The takeoff is matched against the takeoff database, so the flight lands in the right site's flight hub.
  • The glider is set when the IGC header names a wing the site already knows, from your own earlier choices first and from the shared glider database second. If it is wrong or empty, fix it in Your flight log.
  • If the flight is public, it enters the public feed, the rankings, and every XC challenge and league you have joined.
  • If it beats one, the record boards update, and you get an email about it.

All of that is visible on the flight page, described in The flight page.