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>Sep 30, 2024

September 2024 Updates to Gaggle

The wait is over! Our brand-new weather forecasting view is here, making it super easy to judge weather conditions with just a glance. Be sure to check out the dedicated blog post for all the exciting details. Here’s what else is new in our September 2024 release:

  1. Weather Forecasting View: Stay ahead of the weather with our intuitive new weather forecast display, designed to help you plan flights with confidence.
  2. Variometer Sound Support: You can now enjoy variometer sounds in Gaggle, even when using an external variometer for climb rate data.
  3. Emergency Alerts Update: We’ve improved emergency SMS alerts to include the emergency type and your GPS coordinates, enhancing the information shared in critical moments.
  4. New Knock Detection Gestures: We’ve added new knock detection gestures—triple knock to skip waypoints and quadruple knock to return to the previous waypoint.
  5. Improved Knock Detection: We’ve refined the accuracy and reliability of knock detection to ensure smoother experiences.
  6. Community Feed Defaults: For new users, the community feed now defaults to showing only nearby and group flights. You can easily toggle the public feed on by tapping the “Public” chip.
  7. Variometer Updates: We’ve fine-tuned variometer and climb rate data with a faster refresh rate—updating now 10 times per second for more precise tracking.
  8. Robust Recording Saving: Recording your flights is now more reliable, with improvements to the saving process to prevent data loss.
  9. Leaderboard Notifications: You’ll now receive notifications when your leaderboard ranking changes. If you find this excessive, you can easily disable it in group notification settings.
  10. SafeSky Integration: We’ve made minor fixes to improve the reliability of the SafeSky integration.
  11. Android Power Saving Mode Warning: If your flight recording is impacted by Android’s power saving mode, you’ll see a warning symbol. Tap it for a description and a link to solutions on dontkillmyapp.com.
  12. GPRMC Parsing Fixes: We’ve addressed issues with parsing GPRMC NMEA messages to improve data accuracy.
  13. New Payment Option: We’ve added support for one-off payments on annual subscriptions that don’t auto-renew. Contact us to learn more about this option.
  14. Dark Mode for iOS 18: Added support for dark mode and tint icons on iOS 18, enhancing the app’s look and feel.
  15. General Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements: Various small fixes and optimizations to keep your flying experience smooth.

Fly safe and let us know how you like the new features—especially the weather forecast! Your feedback drives our improvements.

>Aug 29, 2024

August 2024 Updates to Gaggle

We’re thrilled to share the latest updates in Gaggle, designed to improve your flying experience. Here’s what’s new in the October 2024 release:

  1. Trial Subscription Indicator: Pilots will now see a clear notification on the home page when they’re using a trial subscription, helping you stay informed about your account status.
  2. Emergency Alerts Tweaks: We’ve refined the messaging for emergency alerts and addressed issues that caused false triggers. Safety first, always!
  3. Explore Map Enhancements: Searching on the explore map is now more reliable, delivering a smoother and more accurate browsing experience.
  4. Premium Feature Indicators: Functions that require a premium subscription will now show an indicator if you’re not subscribed, helping you know exactly what’s included.
  5. Improved Airspace Loading: Airspace data is now more reliable across all devices. We’ve fixed an issue that prevented airspaces from loading on some phones.
  6. Live Tracking Map Updates: If a pilot is not currently flying, you’ll now see their status on the live tracking map, making it easier to keep track of friends.
  7. Tracking Line on Live Map: You’ll now see a flight path line on the live tracking map, helping you visualize where pilots have been flying.
  8. Flight Recording Fix: A bug where Gaggle was using backup recordings instead of the main one for final flight data has been fixed, ensuring full and accurate flight recordings.
  9. Language Settings: Gaggle now supports setting a different language for your account, independent of your phone’s language. Contact us to change your account language.
  10. Group Recording Control: Group admins can now delete a recording from the group, which will remove it from the hall of fame and leaderboards.
  11. Flight Scoring Adjustments: We’ve improved the scoring for leaderboards and hall of fame, so even low and slow flights get their proper recognition.
  12. Variometer Enhancements: The variometer has been tweaked to be more reliable and prevent audio glitches.
  13. Thermal Finder Zoom Levels: We’ve fine-tuned zoom levels in the thermal finder to make it easier to track thermals, especially based on your aircraft’s speed.
  14. New Prediction Vector Map: A new map setting draws a line showing where you’ll be in 10 minutes if you continue at the current speed and direction—perfect for planning your flight path on the go.

Fly safe and enjoy these updates! Your feedback helps us continue to soar higher. As always, happy flying!

>Jul 27, 2024

July 2024 Updates to Gaggle

We are excited to bring you the latest updates to Gaggle! Here’s what’s new in our July 2024 release:

  1. Replay Improvements: The replay viewer now accurately shows friends’ flight paths based on their actual flight times, rather than animating everyone from start to finish. We’ve also added a new button to lock or unlock the camera from the current location as you scrub the timeline bar.
  2. Login Bug Fixes: We’ve addressed several issues where accounts were not loading correctly after first-time registration.
  3. Unread Conversations on Home Screen: You can now quickly see if there are conversations that need your attention right from the home screen.
  4. Flight Notes Fix: Resolved an issue where flight notes sometimes loaded blank, causing the app to remove your flight notes. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
  5. Achievements and Leaderboards Bug Fixes: Prevented invalid entries from appearing on the leaderboard and made it slightly easier to earn some achievements.
  6. Audio Cues Fix: Fixed a bug with nautical miles not annunciating correctly in audio cues.
  7. Altitude Display: Always display altitude values on the map for nearby aircraft.
  8. Achievement Graphs: Added horizontal labels to the achievements graphs, making it easier to see the values. You can always tap the graph to see the details.
  9. Paragliding Thermal Assistant: Enhanced the thermal assistant to make it easier to find the core of thermals.
  10. Elevation Information Loading: Improved the loading of elevation information. On iOS, elevation will now be announced even when the app is in the background, preventing some cases where the app was crashing in-flight.
  11. Remove Followers: Added the ability to remove followers that you don’t recognize.
  12. Various Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements: We’ve made numerous other small bug fixes and performance enhancements to ensure a smoother experience.

Fly safe and enjoy these new features! Your feedback helps us continually improve. Happy and safe flying, everyone!

>May 24, 2024

May 2024 Updates to Gaggle

  1. Introducing Meetups: Event-specific groups are now available! These groups are highlighted on the community page as upcoming events and accept recordings/live locations during the event dates within 150km of the event location. Whether it’s a full-on competition or a casual weekend fly-in, create your event now!
  2. 3D Replay Improvements: Enhanced 3D replays with better-named labels and improved flight tracks. We’ve also fixed some glitches to ensure a seamless experience.
  3. New Speed and Altitude Leaderboards: Compete with friends in speed sections and max altitude leaderboards. The system automatically tracks the fastest quarter mile for any part of your flight.
  4. New Airspace Types: Added new airspace types and fixed several bugs to enhance safety and reliability.
  5. Various Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements:
    • Fixed problems with some IGC imports.
    • Fixed some performance problems.
    • Fixed an issue where scrubbing on the flight overview screen did not always align the flight path with the stats.
    • Many other minor bug fixes and improvements.

Fly safe and enjoy these new features! Your feedback helps us continually improve. Happy and safe flying, everyone!

>Apr 28, 2024

April 2024 Updates to Gaggle

  1. Recovery Driver Improvements: Now you can see a list of people flying and easily navigate to them or message them in the app.
  2. Route Planning Improvements: We’ve enhanced route planning. You can now tap anywhere on the map to see details about that area and add a waypoint. The mobile experience has also been redesigned.
  3. Explore Map Improvements: Tap anywhere on the explore map to see details about that area and quickly add a flying site or point of interest at the tapped location.
  4. Improved Recorder Startup Reliability: Android users, please check that everything is functioning correctly.
  5. Added Site URL Option for Site Guides: When you add a URL with info about the site, we will now pull that info from the website and integrate it into the site guide automatically.
  6. Emergency Contact Improvements: We’ve improved the emergency contact feature so that you can choose one or more Gaggle Groups that will be notified in case of an emergency. You can also set a phone number that will be messaged (in supported countries and subscription required).
  7. Other Small Bug Fixes and App Improvements:
    • Improved the recording replay view timelines.
    • Fixed the 3D replay not working on the web.
    • Moved the replay button onto the stats screen.
    • When navigating to a flying site, person, or other location, we now ask which navigation app you want to use (Google/Apple/Waze).
    • Fixed a few bugs with Audio Cues not picking up the correct locale when using the Samsung TTS Engine.
    • Improved the G-Force graph rendering to make it more visible.
    • Added support for searching GPS coordinates on the explore map and route planning view.
    • Added a layer picker to the explore map so you can now choose between satellite and terrain.
    • Fixed explore map and route planning search functionality not working on the web.
    • Fixed a bug where old map tiles weren’t being removed from the cache correctly.
    • We now show a warning when starting a recording, and we detect that power saver is enabled on Android.
    • You can now tap and open links in chats.
    • Fixed file imports not working on web.
    • Improved the visualiser altitude handling/rendering when close to the ground.
    • Improved the accuracy of travel time calculations.

Fly safe, and let us know how these updates enhance your Gaggle experience. We’re always here, listening and improving, because every flight should be a story worth telling. Happy flights, everyone!

>Apr 4, 2024

March 2024 Updates to Gaggle

  1. Hide Individual Airspaces: Easily navigate and manage airspaces with the revamped airspace list in settings allowing you to hide individual airspaces.
  2. Decimal Support for Equipment Service: Log precise service intervals for your equipment, ensuring nothing is left to approximation.
  3. USA Sectionals Bug Fixes: Enjoy more accurate and reliable USA sectional charts, now sourced directly from the FAA.
  4. Import and Recording Bug Fixes: We’ve smoothed out the hiccups in importing and recording your flights.
  5. Variometer Enhancements: The variometer will now sound a bit better and be more responsive to changes in altitude.
  6. Improved G-Force Chart Display: We made some improvements to how G-Force is displayed in the charts, and we included a horizontal line to indicate zero G’s.
  7. Added Wind Indicator to Live Tracking View: Gauge the wind for a pilot that you are tracking with a small indicator that shows wind direction from the pilot’s perspective.
  8. Performance Improvements: We’ve made some more performance improvements which should make the app feel snappier and more responsive and reduce battery usage.
  9. Fixed Height Above Ground Bugs: Accurate height above ground and altitude readings, even if the recorder starts mid-flight.
  10. New Option to Change Nearby Pilot Markers: Customize how you view fellow pilots nearby on the map with new marker options under Settings > Display > Map.
  11. Reworked Friend View Dialog: A fresh, user-friendly design makes keeping up with your flying friends a breeze.
  12. Leaderboards and Hall of Fame for Groups: Challenge your friends and earn your place in your group’s hall of fame with new competitive features. Read more about it on our blog.
  13. Current Location in Airspace Viewer: Always know where you are with your current location now visible in the airspace viewer.
  14. Enhanced Explore Map View: Discover your next adventure with ease thanks to a new quick add function (long press on the map), refined filters, and a new search bar.
  15. Improved Experience for Sharing Recordings with Groups: You can now quickly change your sharing settings before a flight by tapping the share button under the start record button. Sharing with Groups also now shows the groups in a list with toggles for each group.
  16. Improved Recording Replay View and Graphs: Relive your flights with an upgraded replay view and more detailed graphs. Tap the speed button to adjust the replay speed and graph granularity.
  17. Elevation Audio Cues Enhancements: Stay aware of your altitude with improved audio cues, especially when flying closer to the ground.
  18. Increased Font Sizes on Maps: Read maps with ease during flight with larger, clearer font sizes.
  19. Other Minor Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements: Various tweaks and refinements to ensure Gaggle runs like a well-oiled machine.

Fly safe, and let us know how these updates enhance your Gaggle experience. We’re always here, listening and improving, because every flight should be a story worth telling. Happy flights, everyone!

>Feb 4, 2024

February 2024 updates to Gaggle

  1. Performance Enhancements: We’ve made under-the-hood adjustments to boost the app’s overall performance, ensuring smoother and faster operations and improved battery life.
  2. Bulk Imports: We’ve introduced support for bulk imports. You can now import multiple IGC/GPX/KML files simultaneously, making it easier to manage and analyze your flights.
  3. Customizable Audio Cues: Tailor your flying experience with customizable audio cues. Choose the messages you want to hear for different updates in flight. Configure your audio cues in the Recorder settings menu.
  4. Collections: Simplifying route directories, we’ve renamed them to “collections” for better organization and accessibility.
  5. Recording Reliability: We’ve implemented improvements to make flight recording more reliable with some more enhancements coming in the next update.
  6. Replay Viewer Map Enhancements: The replay viewer map now follows your current position when autoplaying, similar to the 3D viewer. Zoom in to and hit the play button to see your flight from a new perspective.
  7. Negative Altitude Stat Values: We now allow negative altitude stat values, perfect for the Salton Sea Adventurers.
  8. Increased Group List View: The public group list view has been increased to show 100 items, up from 20, making it easier to find groups near you.
  9. GPS Connection Loss Audio Cue: A new audio cue has been added to alert you when the GPS connection is lost, and the recorder is no longer tracking your flight. An app restart might be required when this plays.
  10. Bug Fixes and Minor Improvements: Various small tweaks and fixes have been made to improve the app’s stability and user experience.

Fly safe, and let us know how these updates enhance your Gaggle experience. Happy flights everyone!

>Feb 4, 2024

January 2024 updates to Gaggle

  1. We now blend data from the GPS and pressure altitude when determining height above ground level.
  2. Added audio cue option to announce all aircraft within a 6mi/10km radius from you even when there is no intersecting flight path.
  3. Updated manual flight log to allow selection of other aircraft types, expanding tracking versatility.
  4. Reworked map caching to improve speeds, making map interactions faster and more efficient.
  5. Improved layouts for small screens with large font sizes, enhancing usability across different devices while in flight.
  6. Watch app startup bug fixes.
  7. Fixed some problems with timezone handling on weather information showing incorrect weather data for some users.
  8. Improved the nearby aircraft dialog view for better clarity on surrounding air traffic. Try it out by tapping the aircraft icon while in flight.
  9. Implemented various other small fixes to enhance app stability and performance.

We’re excited to roll out these updates and look forward to your feedback. Fly safe and make the most of your time in the skies with Gaggle!

>Jan 14, 2024

A happy 2024 to all!

A happy 2024 everyone! We’ve been busy over December, and we’ve got some exciting enhancements and new features to share with you. Let’s dive into the details:

  1. New Achievements & Badges

    • Personal Milestones Rewarded: Celebrate your flying achievements with unique badges for milestones like altitude and cumulative flight hours per month.
    • Safety First: Our badges are designed to encourage personal growth in a safe flying environment, not to push pilots towards risky situations. For this reason you won’t find badges for rewarding risky behaviour, and we don’t show the minimum requirements for each badge upfront. We want to encourage pilots to fly safely and responsibly, not to chase badges.
  2. Updated Achievements Page

    • Annual Flight Statistics: Easily view and track your flight statistics on a yearly basis, offering a broader perspective on your flying journey while quickly finding flights for a specific month.
  3. Enhanced Recorder Pipeline

    • Improved Android Background Reliability: We now have a more seamless recording experience for users recording flights in the background on Android devices. Our recorder uses less memory and is more reliable, so you can focus on flying while we take care of the rest.
    • Effective Recovery from Shutdowns: Better recovery capabilities to protect your flight data and current flight configurations during unexpected shutdowns.
    • Battery Efficiency: Optimized flight recording to use less battery power when running in the background. Pleasure let us know if you still see high battery usage when recording in the background.
    • Increased App Responsiveness: Enjoy a smoother experience with enhanced app performance during flight recording.
  4. New Notifications for Favorable Flying Days

    • Stay Informed: Receive alerts for upcoming ideal flying conditions at your favorite sites. We will notify you when the weather is looking good for flying the next day, so you can make the most of your time in the skies. This only works for sites that you are actively flying at however and needs a flight in the last 30 days.
  5. Home Screen Flying Sites Improvements

    • Direct Weather Updates: Tap the new weather button on the Home Screen to access real-time weather info for flying sites maing it easier to plan your next flight.
    • Distance-Based Organization: Flying sites on the Home Screen are now sorted based on your proximity, simplifying your flight planning.
  6. Layout Improvements for Larger Screens

    • Optimized Viewing Experience: Enhanced layout and usability on desktops and tablets for a more comfortable interaction.
  7. Performance Enhancements

    • Snappier App Usage: General improvements in the app’s responsiveness and performance.
  8. Gaggle Now Available as a Website

    • Web Access: Visit app.flygaggle.com for the full Gaggle experience on your web browser.
  9. Enhanced Security Measures

    • User Protection: New security features for better data and privacy safety.
    • Device Compatibility: Note that these updates may affect some Android devices, particularly those without official Google services or with unsecured bootloaders.
  10. Bug Fixes and App Enhancements

    • Continuous Improvement: Various small fixes and enhancements to improve your overall Gaggle experience.

We’re excited to roll out these updates and look forward to your feedback. Fly safe and make the most of your time in the skies with Gaggle!

>Nov 24, 2023

Improves to Airspaces and GDL90 support

  1. Moved airspaces to the Explore page.
  2. Improved the UX for airspaces to make it easier to find and view airspaces.
  3. New 2D airspaces viewer making it easier to view airspaces.
  4. New 3D airspaces viewer to get a better understanding of the shapes of airspaces.
  5. New Sectionals viewer for viewing airspaces on the sectional charts. USA only.
  6. Added support for GDL90 devices like Stratux and SkyEcho 2. This can be enabled in the recorder settings page.
  7. Improvements to the wind algorithm to make it more accurate.
  8. Fixed a few issues with sunset times, flight duration, and flight time.
  9. Made the map easier to read in satellite mode.
  10. Waypoint symbols on the map now scale based on the font size.
  11. Fixed a few issues that causes the device to crash when running in the background on some devices.
  12. Improvements to takeoff and landing detection. The recorder is now less sensitive to movements while on the ground.
  13. Various bluetooth fixes.
  14. Archived equipment is now hidden by default.
  15. Live tracking will now be more reliable when loading after tapping a notification.
  16. Explore page now remembers your filter preferences.
  17. Added a new admin request banner on sites to improve community contributions to Gaggle.
  18. Other minor bug fixes and performance improvements.

>Nov 17, 2023

Introducing "Ask Gaggle"

  1. Add a new personal assistant called “Ask Gaggle” that you can ask questions about flying, the Gaggle community, and more.
  2. Add a new waypoint widget to the map screen that shows you the distance, heading, and time to your next waypoint.
  3. Add a new toolbar to the map screen that allows you to stop your flight recording and access other features seamlessly.
  4. Fixed various problems with Bluetooth device connections.
  5. Descriptions on Points of Interest can now include clickable links.
  6. Added a “Fly To” button on Points of Interest.
  7. Fixed G-Force readings showing incorrect values. Historical flights should also be correct now.
  8. You can now drag to close the weather view on Flying Sites.
  9. Routes are now export as routes in GPX files instead of just waypoints.
  10. Inactive airspaces now exclude from the map.
  11. Added a new instrument Widget that shows current time, sunsent time, flight duration, flight distance.
  12. Flight log exports now include and additional column for the flight duration in decimal format.
  13. Added a delete option for Points of Interest that will archive the POI removing it from public view.
  14. Added in a current altitude announcement after any aircraft warning announcements.
  15. Removed the compass from being used while on the ground, it was causing issues for some people resulting in the app crashing.
  16. Increases line thickness for the waypoint line on the map based on font size.
  17. Changed next waypoint color to yellow for satellite view.
  18. More wind calculation improvements.
  19. Implement numerous tweaks and bug fixes, ensuring that Gaggle is smoother and more reliable than ever.

>Oct 20, 2023

In flight route planning, long tap info lookup, and more

  1. You can now filter the route list for public or shared routes.
  2. G-Force measurement tweaks to make it more accurate. I am still tweaking this based on feedback.
  3. Flying sites and Points of Interest now show on the in-flight map. You can control which ones get displayed under Map settings. Tap any marker or flying site to get more info about it.
  4. Removed the route widget. It is now displayed with a small navigation widget on the bottom right of the map. Tap the widget to open the route details display.
  5. You can now change or edit routes while in flight. We also show more information about routes like the elevation between waypoints and fuel at arrival for each waypoint. Distance and time to each waypoint is now displayed on the map between waypoints.
  6. You can now see your last 3 takeoff locations on the map. Long tap on a takeoff location to create a waypoint to it.
  7. Introduced a new long tap gesture on the map. Long tap anywhere to see distance, bearing, and fuel at arrival for that point as well as the current wind direction and speed. You can quickly add a waypoint to that location, and we will also show any friends, markers, airspaces, and flying sites that are nearby.
  8. You can now zoom the map using the zoom buttons that show up after tapping once anywhere on the map.
  9. Airspaces in the app are now updated more regularly.
  10. You can now tap the fuel gauge widget to see more details about your fuel like remaining flight time and distance for current heading. Tapping the fuel level will allow you to edit your current fuel level while in flight.
  11. Fixed a nasty performance bug related to the glide shadow calculation that made it into the previous releases.
  12. Fix a bug with the wind direction being off by 180 degrees.
  13. Made a change to the site gust factor calculations to be less strict and show more flyable days.
  14. Many other small bug fixes and improvements.

>Oct 5, 2023

Weather radar, Japanese language support, and more

  1. Added Japanese language support.
  2. Fixed problems with bluetooth scanning and connecting.
  3. Improved performance when loading nearby flights and the community feed.
  4. Fixed a bug with the local time not showing in the flight replay viewer.
  5. Improved SafeSky connection reliability and retry behavior.
  6. Improved auto error correction for IGC imports.
  7. Added support for importing routes from KML files.
  8. Added the ability to delete (archive) a flying site.
  9. Added the ability to search for public groups.
  10. Improved wind direction and speed calculation.
  11. Improved wind gust factor calculation for determining if site conditions are flyable.
  12. Updated the 3D replay visualiser to use Google’s photo realistic terrain engine.
  13. Improved the nearby aircraft widget to now show a red airplane if there are any aircraft warnings active.
  14. Added additional toggles to adjust visible instruments and map elements.
  15. Fix a few issues with the explore view not loading items correctly.
  16. Added a small weather radar viewer behind the wind speed and direction widget.
  17. Improvements and fixes to the variometer and climb rate measurement.
  18. Improved flight take off detection.
  19. Increased the sync frequency for airspaces.
  20. Various other small bug fixes and performance improvements.

>Sep 17, 2023

Points of interest and more

  1. Added in points of interest. You can now create and share points of interest with others. For the time being this will only show up in route planning, but I am busy working on more routing changes that will show these in flight and allow you to update your route to fly to them.

  2. Updated route planning:

    1. You can now search for any address, flying site, or point of interest to move the map to that location.
    2. You can tap any point of interest or flying site to quickly add a waypoint to that location.
  3. Improved G-Force measurements. Please let me know how it works for you?

  4. Improved filtering of incorrect GPS speeds that could happen in some cases.

  5. The replay viewer now includes AGL.

  6. The replay viewer now shows a larger bar chart when tapping one of the stats.

  7. Added back the altitude gain stat on recording screen.

  8. Activity feed improvements, the feed should now be quicker to load recent activity.

  9. Improved notifications:

    1. Recording notifications will now replace currently flying notifications when the pilot has landed.
    2. Recording notifications will now show the recording image of the flight allowing you to quickly view the flight without opening the app.
  10. Added a system setting on iOS to clear the app cache.

  11. We now allow decimal values for the glide ratio on a wing.

  12. You can now specify fuel consumption adjustment per wing. So if you have a wing that uses more fuel for instance adding in an adjustment value of 0.5 will add this to your motors fuel consumption. Same goes for -0.5.

  13. Updating your flight count/hours on the user profile page will now correctly update your public stats as well.

  14. Various other small bug fixes and improvements