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Achievements

Achievements

Profile Page > Achievements

As you record flights in Gaggle we automatically start tracking your personal bests over your flying career. You can access your personal bests by navigating to the Profile tab and selecting the Achievements option.

The achievements page gives you an overview of the badges you’ve been awared, and your personal bests for various flight metrics.

Personal Bests

At the top of the achievements page you will see bages for:

  1. Season Soarer: Awarded for flying at least 2 hours per month for 12 months in a row. It auto expires in 1 year if you don’t maintain the required flight time.
  2. Cloud Surfer: Awarded for achieving a set altitude above sea leave after 15 minutes of flight time. This badge does not expire.
    • Bronze: 5000ft
    • Silver: 8000ft
    • Gold: 10 000ft
  3. Airtime Addict: Awarded for flying more than a set amount of time. This badge auto expires if the streak is not maintained.
    • Bronze: Awarded for flying more than 10 hours in a single month
    • Silver: Awarded for flying more than 50 hours in a single season.
    • Gold: Awarded for flying more than 150 hours in a single year.
  4. Eagle Eyed: Awarded for achieving a set altitude above ground level. This badge does not expire.
    • Bronze: 2000ft
    • Silver: 4000ft
    • Gold: 8000ft
  5. Gaggle Streak: Awarded for recording more than 25 flights in a year. This badge auto expires if the streak is not maintained.
  6. Early Bird: Exclusive badge only available to the early adopters that used Gaggle from the start.
  7. Annual Adventurer: Awarded for subscribing to the Annual Adventurer plan.

Badges are only awarded if you meet the criteria for the badge. If you don’t meet the criteria the badge will be greyed out. Not all flights will count towards badges, only flights that we deem to be valid will count towards badges.

Personal Bests 2

Dragging up the bottom panel reveals your personal bests. You can choose to see personal bests for all time, or tap the year tab to see personal bests for a specific year. You will see a graph showing total flight time per year/month. Tapping on a month will show the flights and stats for that month.

Gaggle keeps track of the following personal bests:

  1. Flight Time
  2. Total Distance
  3. Maximum Speed
  4. Maximum Climb Rate
  5. Maximum Altitude
  6. Maximum Height Above Ground
  7. Maximum G-Force
  8. Maximum Distance from Launch

Tapping on a record opens up the flight recording that set that record.

Personal bests are calculated based on trends in your flight and is not calculated based on any absolute maximum value in your flight, so might achieve higher values for short periods of time but not have it count towards your personal bests. Typically, you need to maintain a maximum for at least 10 seconds for it to count towards your personal bests.

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Configure Airspace Display

Configuring Airspaces

Explore Page > Airspaces > Tap your airspace to configure

Airspace Configure Screen

You can configure how airspaces are displayed in Gaggle. Simply tap the airspace that has been installed to open the configurator for that airspace. From the configurator you can choose if the airspace collection should be used (enabled) or not, which airspaces classes are displayed, and the color that will be used to render each airspace class. If you want to see airspaces in the recording view tap the “Show in recording view” toggle to on.

You can define an upper limit for airspaces, any airspaces starting above this limit will not be displayed in Gaggle. This is useful if you want to hide airspaces that are above the altitude you are flying at, and it reduces the clutter on the map.

Tip: To see what your changes will look like open the Airspace Viewer to and browse around the map to see how the airspaces are rendered.

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Airspace Gallery

Adding Airspaces to Gaggle

Explore Page > Airspaces > Airspace Gallery

Airspace Gallery 1

Airspace Gallery 2

Gaggle has airspaces available for many of the popular regions in the world. To see if we have airspaces for your region, open the Airspace Gallery and browse the available airspaces. You can access the airspace gallery by tapping Explore > Airspaces > Airspace Gallery. If you see a region you would like to add then tap the Add button for the region.

The majority of the airspaces in Gaggle are provided by OpenAIP, an open community where you can register to modify and correct airspaces that you notice are incorrect. Gaggle processes airspace updates daily so any edits that you make on OpenAIP will show up in Gaggle in a day or two. Please make sure you consult the Terms of Use for OpenAIP before making use of their airspaces.

Currently, Gaggle has support for the following airspaces:

  • Argentina (AR)
  • Australia (AU)
  • Belgium (BE)
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA)
  • Brazil (BR)
  • Canada (CA)
  • Croatia (HR)
  • Cyprus (CY)
  • Denmark (DK)
  • Finland (FI)
  • France (FR)
  • Germany (DE)
  • Greece (GR)
  • Hungary (HU)
  • Iceland (IS)
  • Israel (IL)
  • Italy (IT)
  • Japan (JP)
  • Lithuania (LT)
  • Netherlands (NL)
  • New Zealand (NZ)
  • Norway (NO)
  • Poland (PL)
  • Portugal (PT)
  • Qatar (QA)
  • Romania (RO)
  • South Africa (ZA)
  • Slovenia (SI)
  • Spain (ES)
  • Sweden (SE)
  • Switzerland (CH)
  • United States of America (US)
  • United Arab Emirates (UA)
  • United Kingdom (GB)

Warning! The airspaces shown in Gaggle are retrieved from various sources, and it may not be current or accurate. Always consult the official publications for areas you will be flying.

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Personal Airspaces

Personal Airspaces

Explore Page > Airspaces

In addition to the official airspaces Gaggle also supports personal airspaces. Personal airspaces come in handy if you want to create your own “No-Fly Zones” if you know there are areas where landowners don’t want you flying.

Personal Airspaces 1

You can upload personal airspaces by navigating the Airspaces section under the Explore tab. To upload your own personal airspace you need to provide a name, description, and the OpenAIR airspace file.

OpenAIR Format: Gaggle uses plain text files in the OpenAIR format to import personal airspaces. For a full explanation of the OpenAIR format you can read the documentation here. You can also utilise online tools build and view OpenAIR files, XC Guide being one example. But at it’s most basic it is a plain text (.TXT) file you that you can edit yourself with some basic information in the following format:

AC R \* <- Airspace Class (A, B, C, P, R, Q)<br>
AN My Restricted Airspace Name \* <- Airspace Name<br>
AL SFC \* <- Lower Limit (Surface)<br>
AH 2000ft \* <- Upper Limit<br>
V X=25:51.861N -27:27.669W \* <- Coordinates<br>
DC 0.3 \* <- Draw circle with a 3 nautical miles radius<br>
\* <- Empty Line indicating end of airspace information<br>

Have a look at the example airspace file that you can download here: Download Example OpenAIR File

Open the file using XC Guide or a similar tool, or start with one of the existing airspaces files in XC Guide under the xcglobe folder and start editing those files. Once you are happy you can export the file and save it to your phone. Then you can upload it to Gaggle using the Personal tab in the Airspace Gallery.

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View All Airspaces

Airspace Viewer

Explore Page > Airspaces > Tap the map

If you quickly want to look at airspaces for a region that you want to go fly in, or for planning purposes, you can use the built-in Airspace Viewer to see all the airspaces in an area. To open the airspace viewer you can go to Explore > Airspaces > Tap the map.

For pilots in the USA, you also have the option of viewing the sectional charts by tapping the sectional map view displayed in the bottom left corner of the map where the preview of the sectional charts are displayed. This will open the sectional charts for the area you are currently viewing.

Airspace Viewer Screen

The airspace viewer displays all the airspaces currently visible under the cross-hairs on the map, and it also gives high level details about each airspace such as:

  • Airspace Name
  • Airspace Class
  • Upper Limit
  • Lower Limit
  • Active Times

Tap anywhere on the map to see the airspaces that are visible under the cross-hairs. You can also slide the airspace slider at the bottom of the page to see airspaces that are higher from the selected one.

For members on the Adventurer plan, a 3D viewer is also displayed in the top left corner circling the active airspace. This 3D viewer can be used to get a better understanding of the airspace and how it is shaped.

Airspace Viewer 3D

Open the viewer by tapping the “3D” button in the top right corner of the viewer. This will open the 3D viewer and display the airspace in 3D. You can then use the 3D viewer to rotate the airspace and get a better understanding of the airspaces in an area. Zooming into a specific airspace will show the upper and lower limits as labels on the edge of the airspace.

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Audio Cues

Audio Cues

Record Page > Settings > Audio Cues

Gaggle comes equipped with a sophisticated digital assistant that serves as your co-pilot on all your flights. During your flight, Gaggle will alert you to critical information that you need to be aware of. You also have the ability to customise what information Gaggle provides and how frequently it delivers updates. For the best results using bluetooth headphones is recommended.

For pilots with an active subscription, audio cues are already enabled by default. However, if you wish to adjust or turn off these settings, you can easily do so through the Flight Recorder Settings accessed by tapping Record > Settings > Audio Cues. You can also get a demo of what it sounds like from the Audio Cues settings page.

Audio Cue Settings

Automatic Announcements

  • Recorder Status: Announces the status of the flight recorder so that you know when it’s turns on/off.
  • Recording Status: Announces the status of flight recordings so that you know when a new recording starts and ends. Typically, a recording starts when you take off and ends when you land.
  • Airspaces: You will receive an announcement right before you enter or exit and an airspace.
  • Flight Time: Gaggle will announce your total flight time every 10 minutes.
  • Fuel Level: Your current fuel level and estimated flight time remaining is announced after every 15 minutes, with the frequency increasing to every 5 minutes if you only have 30 minutes of fuel left.
  • Aircraft Warnings: If you have live air traffic enabled then you will be warned when another aircraft is going to pass nearby in the next 3 minutes.
  • Chat Messages: When a group members sends you a message in Gaggle the message will be read out loud.

Interval Announcements

By default, your instrument values will be announced at a set interval of 5 minutes. You can change this interval in the settings.

  • Altitude: Announces your current altitude above sea level.
  • Height Above Ground: Announces your current height above.
  • Ground Speed: Your current ground speed according to the GPS sensor.
  • Wind: The calculated wind direction and speed. Announcements provide both the relative and absolute direction.
  • Next Waypoint: The estimated flight time and direction to your next waypoint.

Knock Detection Gestures: Triggering Audio Cues On-Demand

If you want the ability to initiate audio cues at a moments notice then you can enable knock detection in the settings. Knock detection listens for a knocking like motion on your phone and when it is detected it will initiate the interval announcements immediately. Fuel level and flight time will also be announced. If you have problems with the knock detection you can change the sensitivity up or down.

To access Knock Detection settings, go to Record > Settings > Knock Detection. Knock detection has the following settings:

  • Sensitivity: Adjust the sensitivity of the knock detection. If you are having trouble getting the knock detection to work, try adjusting the sensitivity.
  • 2 Knocks: Enable to trigger audio cues when you knock twice on your phone.
  • 3 Knocks: Enable to skip the next waypoint when you knock three times on your phone.
  • 4 Knocks: Enable to target the previous waypoint when you knock four times on your phone.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • My audio cues are soft or not audible: The audio cue system has its own volume settings on your operating systems. To change the volume, use the volume buttons on your phone while the audio cues are busy playing. The Demo functionality in settings works well for this. You can also try setting the volume using the volume slider in the audio cue settings.
  • My audio cues are sometimes not playing: The operating system sometimes decides that another audio device/app needs attention and asks Gaggle not to play the audio cues at that point in time. Audio cues should automatically start playing again at a later point during the flight. If it doesn’t open the audio cue settings while flying and try enabling/disabling the audio cues.
  • Will it disturb my phone calls?: No, Gaggle knows you are busy having a phone call and will pause the audio cues until your telephone conversation is done. You can change this in the audio cue settings.
  • Will it work while playing music?: Yes it will, Gaggle will soften your music so it plays in the background while the audio cues are playing.
  • Can I change the voice?: Yes you can change the voice. On iOS, you can change the voice directly in the app. On Android you have to change the system text to speech voice from your systems accessibility settings.
  • The voice is too fast/slow: You can change the speed of the voice in your systems text to speech settings, usually found in the accessibility settings.

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Community

Community

Community Page

The community tab is where you can see what other pilots are doing in your area. You can also see what’s happening in the wider Gaggle community. From the community tab you can also navigate to:

  1. My groups where you can see your groups, create new groups and join public groups.
  2. Manage your friends and followers.
  3. View upcoming meetups and events.

Meetups

If there are any upcoming meetups in your area (1500km radius) then you will see them here. You can tap on a meetup to see more details about the meetup, and you can also join the meetup. If you join the meetup you will be able to see who else is attending the meetup. You can also see the location of the meetup and the description that gives you more details about the meetup.

Live Tracking & Flying Nearby

Community Live Flights

If there are people flying near you (about 100km radius), and they are sharing their live location, then you can follow their flight from here. You will see basic details like altitude, height above ground, speed, aircraft type, and battery level for each pilot. We also display a map of the area with the pilots’ locations. You can tap on the map or on a pilots to open up the live tracking viewer.

Activity Feed

Community Activity Feed

The activity feed shows you flight recordings from pilots in your area, your groups, and your friends. The feed is not in chronological order but rather tries to choose flights that might be of interest to you. It follows the following basic rules, in order of priority:

  1. If a pilot is your friend then their flights will be towards the top of the feed.
  2. If a pilot belongs to one of your groups then their flights will be towards the top of the feed.
  3. If a pilot is flying in your area then their flights will be towards the top of the feed.
  4. Newer flights will be towards the top of the feed.
  5. The closer a flights is to your location the higher it will be in the feed.
  6. Flights with a longer distance will be towards the top of the feed.

You can use the filter toggles to choose which items you want in the feed. The toggles allow you to change if flights are shown from:

  1. The public feed
  2. Your groups
  3. Nearby pilots

You can tap on any flight in the activity feed to open up the flight recording viewer.

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Conversations

Conversations

Profile Page > Conversations

Gaggle has built in messaging capabilities that you can use to connect with other pilots, groups, and flying sites. You can access your conversations by navigating to the Profile tab and selecting the Conversations option. There is also a conversation button on the home screen that will take you directly to your conversations.

Sending messages are limited to subscribed users, and you will need:

  1. An Adventurer subscription to message pilots directly. Anyone you message will be able to reply to you.
  2. A Frequent Flyer subscription to message groups and flying sites. Anyone that is part of the groups of flying site you message will be able to reply to you.
  3. A Frequent Flyer subscription to message pilots while in flight.

Conversations

On the conversations page you will see all the pilots, groups, and flying sites that you have conversations with. You can tap on any of these to open up the conversation. The page will show you the name of the pilot, group, or flying site, and the last message that was sent. You can also see if there are any unread messages in the conversation.

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Bluetooth devices

Bluetooth Devices

Profile Page > Equipment > Tap a Bluetooth Device

Gaggle can connect to a variety of Bluetooth devices, like variometers and fuel sensors. By connecting a Bluetooth device you can use it to report pressure values, gps values, and climb rate values for Gaggle to use.

Gaggle supports the following protocols when communicating with Bluetooth devices:

  • $D, $PDGFTL1: Digifly format
  • $LK8EX1: BlueFly and other variometers
  • PRS, _PRS: General barometer format
  • $BFV, $BFX: BlueFly format
  • $GPGGA, $GPRMC: GPS Information
  • $LXWP0, $LXWP1, $LXWP2, $LXWP3, $PLXVF: XCTracer and a few other devices
  • $POV: Open Vario format
  • $XCTRC: XCTracer

Gaggle has support for many of the popular variometers used by pilots like SkyBean, BlueFly, DigiFly, LebipBip, and more. If we don’t support a device yet then please get in touch, and we will look at adding support for you.

Blueooth Screen 1

Bluetooth Screen 2

Connecting a Bluetooth Device

To connect a new Bluetooth Variometer you can tap the “Connect New Device” button. If you haven’t done so already, give the needed permissions for Gaggle to use your phones Bluetooth. If Gaggle has Bluetooth permissions then you will see a list of all the Bluetooth devices nearby (make sure your variometer is on and waiting for a bluetooth connection). Tap the name of the variometer that you want to connect to and Gaggle will connect. Gaggle automatically find the type of device that you are connected too, and you are now ready to use your variometer to go fly.

A note on bluetooth connections: Gaggle will only connect to your variometer when it needs too, this means that a connection will only be made after you start a flight recording and not before. Gaggle wil also automatically retry connections if they fail. If you are using a Bluetooth variometer while flying and the connection is lost, like when the device shuts off, then Gaggle will gracefully fall back to the internal sensors of the phone after about 5 seconds until the connection to the device can be restored. You will be able to see if the Bluetooth connection is active when the Bluetooth indicator appears on the Altitude Instrument Widget.

See your Bluetooth variometer’s details

Tapping on a Bluetooth device brings up its detail page. On this page you can see:

Device Info: This provides basic information for the device like the Manufacturer, Model Number, and Name. Incoming Data: If your device is on and Gaggle has established the bluetooth connection then all the raw data, like GPS coordinates, barometric pressure, climb rate, and anything else being transmitted by your device is displayed here.

From this screen you can also choose which of the sensor values Gaggle must use. For the settings that are toggled on, the values received from your Bluetooth Device will be used instead of the internal values from your phone when recording your flight (Gaggle will still fall back to the internal sensors if the bluetooth connection fails).

Gaggle can use the following information from GPS devices:

  • GPS - GPS Location, Speed, and Altitude.
  • Variometer - The raw variometer information sent from the device.
  • Pressure - The barometric pressure reported by the device.
  • Fuel Sensor - The current fuel reading reported by sensors.

Integrating your own Bluetooth Device

For the technical inclined building their own Bluetooth devices, here are the details for the NMEA sentences that Gaggle supports that you can use to send data. You can use these sentences to send data to Gaggle from your own custom devices.

PRS & _PRS

The PRS sentence is used to send the barometric pressure to Gaggle. The sentence is in the format:

$PRS,03F2
$PRS,{pressure:hPa encoded as hex}

Where 03F2 is the current barometric pressure in hPa encoded as a hex value.



Where 1013.25 is the current barometric pressure in hPa.
```plaintext
_PRS,03F2
_PRS,{pressure:hPa encoded as hex}

Where 03F2 is the current barometric pressure in hPa encoded as a hex value.

BFV & BFX

Bluefly variometers use the BFV sentence to send the barometric pressure, vario, temperature, battery, and pitot differential pressure to Gaggle. The sentence is in the format:

$BFV,101325,0,25,100*00
$BFV,{pressure:Pa},{vario:cm/s},{temp:deg C},{battery:%},{pitotDiffPressure:Pa}*{checksum}

Where 101325 is the current barometric pressure in Pa, 0 is the current vario in cm/s, 25 is the current temperature in degrees Celsius, 100 is the current battery percentage, and 00 is the checksum.

$BFX,101325,0,25,100,0,12.5*00
$BFX,{pressure:Pa},{vario:cm/s},{temp:deg C},{battery:%},{pitotDiffPressure:Pa},{volts:V}*{checksum}

Where 101325 is the current barometric pressure in Pa, 0 is the current vario in cm/s, 25 is the current temperature in degrees Celsius, 100 is the current battery percentage, 0 is the current pitot differential pressure in Pa, 12.5 is the current battery voltage, and 00 is the checksum.

PDGFTL1

Digifly variometers use the PDGFTL1 sentence to send the barometric pressure, vario, temperature, battery, and pitot differential pressure to Gaggle. The sentence is in the format:

$PDGFTL1,1013.25,1013.25,0,0,0,0,0,0,0*00
$PDGFTL1,{qne:hPa},{qnh:hPa},{vario:cm/s},{nettoVario:cm/s},{airSpeed:km/h},{groundEfficiency:0-100},{windSpeed:km/h},{windDirection:0-360},{mainLithiumVoltage:V},{backupBatteryVoltage:V}*{checksum}

Where 1013.25 is the current QNE pressure in hPa, 1013.25 is the current QNH pressure in hPa, 0 is the current vario in cm/s, 0 is the current netto vario in cm/s, 0 is the current air speed in km/h, 0 is the current ground efficiency in 0-100, 0 is the current wind speed in km/h, 0 is the current wind direction in 0-360, 0 is the current main lithium voltage in V, 0 is the current backup battery voltage in V, and 00 is the checksum.

$D,0,1013.25,0,0,24.5*00
$D,{vario:cm/s},{pressure:hPa},{ignored},{ignored},{temperature:deg C}*{checksum}

Where 0 is the current vario in cm/s, 1013.25 is the current pressure in hPa, 0 field is ignored, 0 field is ignored, 24.5 is the current temperature in degrees Celsius, and 00 is the checksum.

EMS

Engine monitoring systems can use the EMS sentence to send the fuel level to Gaggle. The sentence is in the format:

$EMS,101325,0.04,0.50,0.75,1.25,1.25,1.25,1.25,849.50*00
$EMS,{pressure:hPa},{fuelFlow:l/ph},{tankLevel:ltr},{totalFuelUsed:ltr},{ambientTemperature:C},{headTemperature:C},{exhaustTemperature:C},{waterTemperature:C},{engineRPM:rpm}*{checksum}

Where 101325 is the current pressure in hPa, 0.04 is the current fuel flow in l/ph, 0.50 is the current tank level in ltr, 0.75 is the total fuel used in ltr, 1.25 is the current ambient temperature in C, 1.25 is the current head temperature in C, 1.25 is the current exhaust temperature in C, 1.25 is the current water temperature in C, 849.50 is the current engine RPM in rpm, and 00 is the checksum.

FLAU & FLAA

Flarm devices can use the FLAU sentence to send the GPS location, altitude, and speed to Gaggle. The sentence is in the format:

$FLAU,0,1,2,1,1,0,2,0,0,5A77B1*00
$FLAU,{rx:count},{tx:status},{gps:status},{power:status},{alarmLevel:level},{relativeBearing:deg},{alarmType:type},{relativeVertical:m},{relativeDistance:m},{id:hex}*{checksum}

Where 0 is the current count of devices, 1 is the current transmission status, 2 is the current GPS status, 1 is the current power status, 1 is the current alarm level, 0 is the current relative bearing in degrees, 2 is the current alarm type, 0 is the current relative vertical separation in meters, 0 is the current relative distance in meters, 5A77B1 is the current ID in hex, and 00 is the checksum.

$FLAA,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0*00
$FLAA,{alarmLevel:level},{relativeNorth:m},{relativeEast:m},{relativeVertical:m},{idType:type},{id:hex},{track:deg},{turnRate:deg/s},{groundSpeed:m/s},{climbRate:m/s},{acftType:type}*{checksum}

Where 1 is the current alarm level, 0 is the current relative north in meters, 0 is the current relative east in meters, 0 is the current relative vertical in meters, 0 is the current ID type, 0 is the current ID in hex, 0 is the current track in degrees, 0 is the current turn rate in degrees per second, 0 is the current ground speed in m/s, 0 is the current climb rate in m/s, and 0 is the current aircraft type, and 00 is the checksum.

GRMZ

Garmin devices can use the GRMZ sentence to send the GPS location, altitude, and speed to Gaggle. The sentence is in the format:

$PGRMZ,500,3*00
$PGRMZ,{altitude:ft},{fixMode:mode}*{checksum}

Where 500 is the current altitude in feet, and 3 is the current fix mode, and 00 is the checksum.

GPGGA, GLGGA, GAGGA, GNGGA

GPS devices can use the GPGGA sentence to send the GPS location, altitude, and speed to Gaggle. The sentence is in the format:

$GPGGA,123519,4807.038,N,01131.000,E,1,08,0.9,545.4,M,46.9,M,,*42
$GPGGA,{utcTime},{latitude},{northSouthIndicator},{longitude},{eastWestIndicator},{positionFixIndicator},{satellitesUsed},{horizontalDilutionOfPrecision},{mslAltitude},{unitsOfMSL},{geoidalSeparation},{ageOfDifferentialCorrection},{differentialRefStationId}*{checksum}

Where 123519 is the current UTC time, 4807.038 is the current latitude, N is the current north/south indicator, 01131.000 is the current longitude, E is the current east/west indicator, 1 is the current position fix indicator, 08 is the current satellites used, 0.9 is the current horizontal dilution of precision, 545.4 is the current MSL altitude, M is the current units of MSL, 46.9 is the current geoidal separation, M is the current age of differential correction, and 42 is the current differential reference station ID, and 00 is the checksum.

GPGSA

GPS devices can use the GPGSA sentence to send the GPS location, altitude, and speed to Gaggle. The sentence is in the format:

$GPGSA,A,3,04,05,,09,12,,,24,,,,,2.5,1.3,2.1*39
$GPGSA,{modeMa},{mode1},{prn1},{prn2},{prn3},{prn4},{prn5},{prn6},{prn7},{prn8},{prn9},{prn10},{prn11},{pdop},{hdop},{vdop},{systemId}*{checksum}

Where A is the current mode MA, 3 is the current mode 1, 04 is the current PRN 1, 05 is the current PRN 2, 09 is the current PRN 3, 12 is the current PRN 4, 24 is the current PRN 5, 2.5 is the current PDOP, 1.3 is the current HDOP, 2.1 is the current VDOP, and 39 is the current system ID, and 00 is the checksum.

GPRMC

GPS devices can use the GPRMC sentence to send the GPS location, altitude, and speed to Gaggle. The sentence is in the format:

$GPRMC,123519,A,4807.038,N,01131.000,E,022.4,084.4,230394,003.1,W*6A
$GPRMC,{utcTime},{status},{latitude},{northSouthIndicator},{longitude},{eastWestIndicator},{speedOverGround},{trackMadeGood},{date},{magneticVariation},{eastWestIndicator},{checksum}

Where 123519 is the current UTC time, A is the current status, 4807.038 is the current latitude, N is the current north/south indicator, 01131.000 is the current longitude, E is the current east/west indicator, 022.4 is the current speed over ground, 084.4 is the current track made good, 230394 is the current date, 003.1 is the current magnetic variation, W is the current east/west indicator, and 6A is the checksum.

HFM

Custom devices can use the HFM sentence to send the fuel level to Gaggle. The sentence is in the format:

$HFM,0.50,25,20*00
$HFM,{fuelLevel:ltr},{tankTemp:C},{airTemp:C}*{checksum}

Where 0.50 is the current fuel level in ltr, 25 is the current tank temperature in degrees Celsius, 20 is the current air temperature in degrees Celsius, and 00 is the checksum.

IBPPG

Insight paramotor sensors can use the IBPPG sentence to send the fuel level to Gaggle. The sentence is in the format:

$IBPPG,5000,0,700,100,200,25,12.5,0,A,1,100,0,0,C,0*00
$IBPPG,{rpm:RPM},{rpmMax:RPM},{probeValue:mV},{cht:C},{tempMax:C},{airTemp:C},{battery:V},{needle:deg},{needleAdjustment:A/M/0},{cutOn:1/0},{hourMeter:hours},{hourMeterMin:minutes},{totalHourMeter:hours},{temperatureUnit:C/F},{mark:0/1}*{checksum}

Where 5000 is the current RPM, 0 is the current RPM max, 700 is the current probe value in mV, 100 is the current CHT in degrees Celsius, 200 is the current temp max in degrees Celsius, 25 is the current air temp in degrees Celsius, 12.5 is the current battery voltage in V, 0 is the current needle position in degrees, A is the current needle adjustment, 1 is the current cut on, 100 is the current hour meter in hours, 0 is the current hour meter min in minutes, 0 is the current total hour meter in hours, C is the current temperature unit, F is the current temperature unit, and 00 is the checksum.

LK8EX1

LK8EX1 variometers use the LK8EX1 sentence to send the barometric pressure, vario, temperature, battery, and pitot differential pressure to Gaggle. The sentence is in the format:

$LK8EX1,101325,0,25,100,12.5*00
$LK8EX1,{pressure:hPa},{vario:cm/s},{temp:deg C},{battery:%},{volts:V}*{checksum}

Where 101325 is the current barometric pressure in hPa, 0 is the current vario in cm/s, 25 is the current temperature in degrees Celsius, 100 is the current battery percentage, 12.5 is the current battery voltage, and 00 is the checksum.

LXWP0, LXWP1, LXWP2, LXWP3, PLXVF

XCTracer variometers use the LXWP0, LXWP1, LXWP2, LXWP3, and PLXVF sentences to send the barometric pressure, vario, temperature, battery, and pitot differential pressure to Gaggle. The sentences are in the format:

$LXWP0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0*00
$LXWP0,{loggerStored},{speed},{pressureAltitude},{vario1},{vario2},{vario3},{vario4},{vario5},{vario6},{heading},{windDirection},{windSpeed}*{checksum}

Where 0 is the current logger stored, 0 is the current speed, 0 is the current pressure altitude, 0 is the current vario1, 0 is the current vario2, 0 is the current vario3, 0 is the current vario4, 0 is the current vario5, 0 is the current vario6, 0 is the current heading, 0 is the current wind direction, 0 is the current wind speed, and 00 is the checksum.

$LXWP1,0,0,0,0,0*00
$LXWP1,{instrumentId},{serialNumber},{softwareVersion},{hardwareVersion},{license}*{checksum}

Where 0 is the current instrument ID, 0 is the current serial number, 0 is the current software version, 0 is the current hardware version, 0 is the current license, and 00 is the checksum.

$LXWP2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0*00
$LXWP2,{macCready},{ballast},{bugs},{polarA},{polarB},{polarC},{audioVolume}*{checksum}

Where 0 is the current macCready, 0 is the current ballast, 0 is the current bugs, 0 is the current polarA, 0 is the current polarB, 0 is the current polarC, 0 is the current audio volume, and 00 is the checksum.

$LXWP3,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0*00
$LXWP3,{altimeterOffset},{scMode},{varioFilter},{telFilter},{teLevel},{varioAverage},{varioRange},{scTab},{scLow},{scSpeed},{smartDiff},{gliderName},{timeOffset}*{checksum}

Where 0 is the current altimeter offset, 0 is the current SC mode, 0 is the current vario filter, 0 is the current tel filter, 0 is the current TE level, 0 is the current vario average, 0 is the current vario range, 0 is the current SC tab, 0 is the current SC low, 0 is the current SC speed, 0 is the current smart diff, 0 is the current glider name, 0 is the current time offset, and 00 is the checksum.

$PLXVF
$PLXVF,{time},{accelerometerX},{accelerometerY},{accelerometerZ},{gyroscopeX},{gyroscopeY},{gyroscopeZ},{magnetometerX},{magnetometerY},{magnetometerZ},{temperature},{pressure},{humidity},{battery},{voltage}*{checksum}

Where 0 is the current time, 0 is the current accelerometer X, 0 is the current accelerometer Y, 0 is the current accelerometer Z, 0 is the current gyroscope X, 0 is the current gyroscope Y, 0 is the current gyroscope Z, 0 is the current magnetometer X, 0 is the current magnetometer Y, 0 is the current magnetometer Z, 0 is the current temperature, 0 is the current pressure, 0 is the current humidity, 0 is the current battery, 0 is the current voltage, and 00 is the checksum.

—RPM & —CHT

Custom devices can use the —RPM and —CHT sentences to send the engine RPM and chamber temperature to Gaggle. The sentences are in the format:

$--RPM,S,1,1000,0,A*00
$--RPM,{source},{engineOrShaftNumber},{speed},{propellerPitch},{status}*{checksum}

Where S is the current source, 1 is the current engine or shaft number, 1000 is the current speed, 0 is the current propeller pitch, A is the current status, and 00 is the checksum.

$--CHT,25,A*00
$--CHT,{chamberTemperature},{status}*{checksum}

Where 25 is the current chamber temperature, A is the current status, and 00 is the checksum.

OV

Custom devices can use the OV sentence to send the oxygen level to Gaggle. The sentence is in the format:

$OV,P,1013.25,E,0.0,T,273.15*00
$OV,{typeIdentifier},{value},{typeIdentifier},{value},{typeIdentifier},{value}*{checksum}

Where P is the current type identifier for pressure, 1013.25 is the current pressure value, E is the current type identifier for variometer, 0.0 is the current variometer value, T is the current type identifier for temperature, 273.15 is the current temperature value, and 00 is the checksum.

XCTRC

XCTracer variometers use the XCTRC sentence to send the GPS location, altitude, speed, heading, climb rate, pressure, and battery to Gaggle. The sentence is in the format:

$XCTRC,2021,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0*00
$XCTRC,{year},{month},{day},{hour},{minute},{second},{centisecond},{latitude},{longitude},{altitude},{speed},{heading},{climbRate},{pressure},{battery}*{checksum}

Where 2021 is the current year, 1 is the current month, 1 is the current day, 0 is the current hour, 0 is the current minute, 0 is the current second, 0 is the current centisecond, 0 is the current latitude, 0 is the current longitude, 0 is the current altitude, 0 is the current speed, 0 is the current heading, 0 is the current climb rate, 0 is the current pressure, 0 is the current battery, and 00 is the checksum.

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Engines/Motors

Paramotor Engines

Profile Page > Equipment > Tap a paramotor engine

You can see all of your paramotor engines from the All Equipment page. With Gaggle you can store all of your motors to easily choose which one you will be flying with when you start a new recording.

To add more motors to Gaggle you can simply tap the ”+ Add” button which will give you a dialog to capture some basic information about the motor.

Engines Screen 2

See your engine’s details

By tapping on a paramotor engine from the equipment list you can access the information page for the engine. The page has a couple of sections that provides useful information for you

Service history

Gaggle can help you keep track of the service history for your different equipment. In the service history section you can set the last data that your engine went for a service.

If you use Gaggle to record your flights then your hours are automatically updated for you so you will always know exactly how many hours have been flown on your engine since your last service. You can also update these values manually by tapping on the field you want to edit.

Fuel

Gaggle provides you with some fields to capture the fuel information for your engine. The Fuel Type and Oil Mixture fields are there for your reference only, and it isn’t used by Gaggle. By setting values for the Tank Size and Average Consumption fields, Gaggle can calculate your fuel usage while flying, so we can display you the estimated fuel remaining. For more information on this widget have a look at our flight instruments.

Notes

In the notes section you can capture any notes that you want to keep for this wing.

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Wings

Wings

Profile Page > Equipment > Tap a Paragliding wing

You can see all of your paragliding and hang gliding wings from the Equipment page. With Gaggle, you can store all of your wings to easily choose which one you are busy flying with when you start a new recording.

Flying with one wing for paragliding and a different one for paramotor? That not a problem either, Gaggle will remember which wing you last flew with for each type of flight making it easy to record your flight next time without having to remember to change the wings when yous start the recording.

To add more wings to Gaggle you can simply tap the ”+ Add” button which will give you a dialog to capture some basic information about the wing.

See your wing’s details

Wings Screen 2

Service history

Gaggle can help you keep track of the service history for your different equipment. In the service history section you can set the last data that your wing went for a service.

If you use Gaggle to record your flights then your hours are automatically updated for you so you will always know exactly how many hours have been flown on your wing since your last service. You can also update these values manually by tapping on the field you want to edit.

Technical

Gaggle provides some fields for you to keep track of your technical information for your wing. These fields are just for your reference, and it does not serve any other purpose within Gaggle. Fields like Glide Ratio, Airspeed are all calculated in flight using current conditions.

Fuel Consumption Adjustment

If you have mutliple paragliding wings and they each have different fuel consumption rates then you can set the fuel consumption adjustment for each wing. This adjustment is used to calculate the fuel consumption for your flight and the value you enter here is added to the fuel consumption for your paramotor engine. So negative values will reduce the fuel consumption and positive values will increase the fuel consumption.

Tip: If your fuel consumption in Gaggle is much higher than you expect then you probably have fuel consumption adjustment set on both your motor and wing. To fix this set the consumption adjustment on your wing to 0.

Wing Colors

From the colors section you can set the colors of your wing. Setting your wing colors not only helps for your reference but Gaggle can also use the colors to personalise your profile for other users.

When your wing colors are set then:

  • Your primary and secondary colors are used on your location indicator when flying with other pilots.
  • Your primary color is used to color your recording line when linking your flight to other flights.
  • Your wing color will also be used in other areas of the app not mentioned here.

Notes

In the notes section you can capture any notes that you want to keep for this wing.

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Equipment

Equipment

Profile Page > Equipment

Gaggle allows you to create and manage all the equipment you use for flying. You can access your equipment by navigating to the Profile tab and selecting the Equipment option.

Equipment Overview

The equipment overview page is divided into 4 sections:

  1. Wings for PG/HG/PPG pilots and motors for PPG pilots. More details about wings here and motors here.
  2. Other aircraft for any other aircraft you might fly.
  3. Bluetooth Devices for any bluetooth devices you might use. More details about Bluetooth devices here.
  4. Archived equipment for any equipment you have archived.

To add a new piece of equipment you can tap on the + button under the respective list. This will open up a form where you can enter the details of the equipment you want to add. You can also tap on any of the equipment in the list to view and edit it.

To connect new Bluetooth devices tap the “Connect New Device” button.

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Explore

Explore

Explore Page

The explore tab is where you can find flying sites, routes, points of interest, and airspaces. You will also see a map of all sites and routes near your location. A global search is available to quickly search for any explore item. From the explore tab you can also navigate to:

  1. Flying Sites
  2. Routes
  3. Points of Interest
  4. Airspaces

Explore overview

Explore Overview

The map shows all the flying sites, routes, and points of interest near your location. You can tap on any of the items on the map to open up the details page for that item.

To see more items or to explore the map you can tap the map to open up the map viewer. The map viewer will show you all the items in the area you are currently viewing. You can tap on any of the items on the map to open up the details page for that item. In the explore viewer you can tap the icons beneath the search bar to show/hide items like flying sites, airspaces, and more.

You can filter the items you see in the Explore section of Gaggle by tapping:

  1. Public - When this filter item is blue you will see all items that have been shared publicly. When this filter item is grey you will only see items that are marked as private.
  2. Shared with me - When this filter item is blue you will see all items that have been shared with you. When this filter item is grey you will only see items that you have created.

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Flight Logs

Flight Logs

Profile Page > All Flights

Flight Log Screen

As your record your flights with Gaggle every flight recording will be added to your electronic flight log. You can access your flight logs from the “All Flights” button on your profile page. You can quickly view a picture of the flight track, when the flight occurred, and some basic stats about the flight. To view a flight recording simply tap the recording to see the details.

To record your flights with Gaggle you simply need to use the built-in flight recorder.

Manually capturing flight logs

Recording flights is not the only way to record flights into your logbook. You can also capture flights manually by tapping the “Manual Flight Logs” option. For manual flights you can capture the following details:

  • Takeoff date and site
  • Equipment used for the flight
  • Flight type and duration
  • Wind details
  • Flight description and notes

Flight Log Export

Exporting your log book

You can quickly export your entire flight log book to Excel by tapping the settings cog and then choosing the Flight Log Export option. Flight log exporting happens in the background and the results will be emailed to the email address registered on your account as an Excel attachment.

The attached Excel will contain the following fields for every flight:

  • Date
  • Take Off Site
  • Coordinates
  • Take Off Altitude (m)
  • Aircraft
  • Flight Type
  • Duration (minutes)
  • Flight Tasks
  • Description
  • Max Altitude (m)
  • Distance (km)
  • Temperature (C)
  • Pressure (mb)
  • Humidity (percentage)
  • Wind Direction (degrees)
  • Wind Speed (km/h)
  • Gust Speed (km/h)
  • Max Speed (km/h)
  • Open Distance (km)
  • Max G-Force
  • Max Height (m)
  • Max Climb (m/s)
  • Max Sink (m/s)
  • Starting Fuel Level (l)
  • Fuel Usage (l)

Importing flights from other apps

You can easily import your flights from other apps like PPGpS, FlySkyHy, PPGFlyer, Paragliding Logbook, and more by tapping the “Import” button. To import a flight select the GPX or IGC file that you exported from the other application. Gaggle will then import the flight data and treat it as if was a normal Gaggle flight recording meaning you can see the flight path, data analysis, and use the 3D replay function as well for the flight.

Note: The quality of the data imported into Gaggle is dependent on the export of the other application. Some applications don’t export speed, altitude, and other telemetry information. Where possible Gaggle will do its best to figure it out from the GPS points, like speed for instance, but this also means it is inferred, and it may not be 100% accurate.

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Flight Recording View

Recording Overview

Profile Page > All Flights > Tap on a flight recording

Tapping a flight recording in your flight log will open up the detail view for the flight recording. You will see a map of the flight path that you can move around and zoom in and out of. Under the map you will see some details about the flight.

The detail view screen is broken into tabs for your flights:

  1. General Information
  2. Flight Statistics
  3. Linked Flights
  4. Leaderboards

Recording View Screen 1

Analysing flight data

The flight analysis tab shows you details about your flights. The following details is shown (when available) for every flight:

Time and Distance - The total track length of the flight from start to end, the duration of the flight, and the distance from takeoff to landing.

Speed - The minimum, maximum, and average speed of the flight.

Altitude - The minimum, maximum, and average altitude of the flight.

Climb Rate - The max sink, max climb, and total altitude gained.

Height Above Ground - The maximum, and average height above ground.

G-Force - The maximum G-Force experienced during the flight.

For each of the graph items you can tap and hold on the graph to see the exact value for that point on the graph. This will also change the track on the map view to show you where you were at that point in the flight. The track will also change color to match the color of the graph item you are viewing, with darker colors being higher values and lighter colors being lower values.

Replay our flight in 2D or 3D

From here you can also replay your flight using the Replay Flight button. This opens up the replay viewer that gives a full screen view of your flight in 2D or 3D. To replay flights recorded in other apps, simply import your IGC file into Gaggle and then replay the flight in full 3D.

Recording View Screen 2

General Flight Info

The general flight info tab shows you the following details about your flight:

Wing - The wing you flew with. You can tap this to change the wing if you flew with a different wing.

Motor - The motor you flew with. You can tap this to change the motor if you flew with a different motor.

Fuel - The final fuel level of your motor, fuel consumption per hour, and fuel used. You can tap this to change the fuel level if you know what it was.

Wind - The wind direction and speed at takeoff.

Notes - Any notes you want to add for the flight.

Other options available are:

  • Sharing a link to your flight recording
  • Exporting your flight to GPX, KML, or IGC format
  • Change the privacy settings for your flight recording
  • Delete the flight recording

Recording View Screen 3

Linked Recordings

If you have flown with friends that belong to the same groups as you, then you will see their flights listed here. You will see a card with some basic details about every friends flight like the duration, max altitude, and distance. You can swipe on the card to hide their recording line on the map or to unlink their flight from yours.

If Gaggle did not automatically link the flight then you can link it manually by tapping the Link Recordings button and choosing the recording. If you cannot find the recording then it may not be on our servers yet or the recording has been set to private.

Leaderboards

If you have leaderboards in any of your groups and your recording is shared with those groups then the leaderboard scores for this specific flight on each leaderboard will be shown here. Some leaderboards like the obstacle course allows you to tap the leaderboard to see the obstacle course on the map. Any active leaderboards will also show in the flight replay view.

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Flight Replay Viewer

3D Flight Replay

Recording Overview > Analysis Tab > Tap the replay button

Recording View Screen 3

With Gaggle, you don’t need an external tool like Ayvri or Sports Track Live to visualise your flight. You can relive every flight directly inside the app. To see your flight visualised simply open your flight recording and tap the Replay Flight button. Your friends can also see your flight visualisation, simply share your recording with them.

You can also import flights from other apps like FlySkyHy or XCTrack by exporting your flight as an IGC file and importing it into Gaggle. Once your flight is imported you can visualise it by viewing the flight recording.

Recording View Screen 1

In the 2d view you can pan the visualiser map around by dragging across the screen. To move the time forwards or backwards simply slide the scrubber on the bottom of the page left or right. In replay mode the map will be locked to the current position, to disable this while in replay mode simply tap the lock button in the top right corner of the screen.

If you flew with friends from you groups then their recordings are automatically added to yours and visualiser alongside your flight. Every persons color trail will match the primary color of their wing as it was configured in Gaggle at the time of their flight. To hide this head over the recording overview screen, tap the linked flights tab, and swipe on the card to hide the flight.

To autoplay the visualiser tap the play button and tap the playback speed button to change the speed of the playback.

Recording View Screen 2

On the right side of the screen you will see the flight details. This will show the current value for:

  • Altitude
  • Height Above Ground
  • Speed
  • Climb Rate

Tapping on any of these items changes the scrubber to a graph showing you the value for that item over time. You can tap and hold on the graph to scrub it left and right to view the value at any point in the flight. The track on the map will also change color to match the color of the graph item you are viewing, with darker colors being higher values and lighter colors being lower values.

If you have a leaderboard view active then the left side of the screen will show

  • Current Score
  • Current Penalty

Recording View Screen 3

At any point you can change to a 3D viewer by tapping the 3D button. The 3D viewer will show you a 3D view of your flight. You can pan around the 3D view by dragging across the screen. You can also zoom in and out by pinching the screen.

Tap the map button to switch back to the map view.

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Flying Sites

Flying sites

Explore Page > Flying Sites

Gaggle has a built-in database of flying sites that you can use to discover places to fly from. Every flying site contains details about the site, favorable wind conditions, and a weather forecast viewer that shows you the weather forecast for the site. Sites also have a chat feature that you can use to connect with pilots that regularly fly from the site.

Flying Sites List

Flying Sites List

Tapping on the Flying Sites button on the Explore page brings you to the flying sites list page. From here you can search for and filter flying sites based on aircraft type. You can also tap on any of the flying sites to open up the flying site details page.

When you favorite a flying site they are added to your favorites list at the top of the page.

You can filter the items you see in the Explore section of Gaggle, like flying sites, by tapping:

  1. Public - When this filter item is blue you will see all items that have been shared publicly. When this filter item is grey you will only see items that are marked as private.
  2. Shared with me - When this filter item is blue you will see all items that have been shared with you. When this filter item is grey you will only see items that you have created.

Flying Site Create

Creating a flying site

To create a new flying site you can tap on the + button at the top of the flying sites list page. This will open up a form where you can enter the details of the flying site you want to add. When creating a new flying site you have to choose the GPS location for the site using the map, and then you can enter the rest of the details. The following is required when creating a site:

  1. Name
  2. Visibility (public or private)
  3. Favorable wind directions

More details about the site like the site guide can be added after you have created the site.

Flying Site Overview

Flying site overview

When viewing a flying site you will see the following information:

Map - The map shows you the import location information about the site like takeoff locations, landing locations, parking spots, and any pilots currently flying at the site. You can tap on the map to get driving directions to the site. On the left is a small radar viewer showing rain and clouds in the area. You can tap this to open up the weather viewer. It’s also possible to get a 3D view of the site by tapping the 3D button after tapping on the map.

Site Details - The site details section shows you the name of the site, the distance from you, the general area, and icons for the aircraft that can fly from the site.

Site Navigation - The site navigation section allows you to view the Site Guide, go to the Site Chat, or you can change the site Privacy settings which will override the flight sharing options for any pilot that flies from the site.

Site Weather - The site weather section shows you the favorable wind directions for the site, sunset and sunrise times, and subscribers on the Adventurer plan will see the next 3 upcoming flyable days for the site.

Site Guide

Site guides in Gaggle allow you to add detailed information about the site like takeoff and landing directions, hazards, and other useful information. Some sites in Gaggle are synced from open sources online and may already have a site guide. You can add to the site guide if you are a site admin. You can also request to become a site admin if you want to help manage the site. Site guides are automatically rewritten by AI and translated into multiple languages, this allows us to create a single site guide from multiple sources for a single site.

Site Chat

Every site has a built-in chat feature which allows you to chat with other pilots at site. Any pilots that flies from a public site automatically becomes a member at the site and will get notified of new chat messages at a site. You can switch of notifications for a site by change the notification settings for the site.

Site Privacy

Sites in Gaggle allow you to choose if you want to hide any live location sharing and recordings from the site. When this is configured you can tell Gaggle what the recording privacy should be when we detect a takeoff from the site, and you can set the privacy radius for the live location sharing, while in this radius your location will not be shared with anyone.

Flying Site Directions

When tapping on the map for a flying site you will see a popup with the driving directions to the site. You can tap on the Directions button to open up the directions in your preferred navigation app.

Flying Site Admins

Site admins

All flying sites have admins that are allowed to change the details for a flying site. You can request to become an admin for a site by tapping the Request Admin Access button. For sites with existing admins they will get a notification to approve your request. Admin requests are automatically approved after 7 days if no action is taken.

For sites without admins you will automatically become an admin for the site within a few minutes.

Flying Site Edit

Editing site details

Site admins have access to edit the following site details:

Tags - Tags are used to help pilots find sites that are suitable for them. You can add tags to a site to help pilots find the site. You can also remove tags that are not relevant to the site.

Site Guide - The site guide is a detailed guide about the site. You can add to the site guide to help other pilots that fly at the site. You can also edit the site guide if you see any incorrect information. The site guide has sections for site description, getting there, weather notes, rules, and general comments.

Wind Guide - The wind guide is a detailed guide about the wind conditions at the site that tells Gaggle what the favorable conditions are when determining site flyability. You can set the favorable wind directions and wind speeds for the site.

Takeoff Areas - You can add takeoff areas to the site along with parking locations for each takeoff.

Landing Areas - You can add landing areas to the site along with parking locations for each landing.

Delete Site - You can delete the site if you are the only admin for the site. Deleting a site will remove the site from public search results, but it will still be available to pilots that have favorited the site.

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Friends and Followers

Friends and Followers

Community Page > Friends and Followers

In Gaggle, you can follow other pilots, and they can follow you. You can also mark pilots you are following as friends which gives you more privacy control within the app.

You can access the friends and followers page by navigating to the Profile tab and selecting the Followers/Following numbers next your profile picture, or from the navigation menu on the community page. The page is divided into 2 sections:

Followers

Followers shows you a list of pilots that are following you. You can see their profile picture and name. You can tap the 3 dots next to a pilot to open up a menu where you can:

  1. Mark the pilot as a friend - Friends have the strictest privacy settings, and only they can see your flight recordings when you’ve set your privacy to friends only.
  2. Remove the pilot from your followers list
  3. Block the pilot - This prevents them from seeing your flight recordings, live location, and flight notifications.

Friends and Followers

Following

You can see a list of pilots that you are following by switching to the Following tab. From here you can see the pilots profile picture and name. You can tap the 3 dots next to a pilot to open up a menu where you can:

  1. Mute the pilot - This disables notifications from the pilot.
  2. Change notifications for the pilot. You can choose to receive notifications for:
    • New Flights: When the pilot takes off on a new flight.
    • New Recordings: When the pilot starts a new flight recording.
  3. Unfollow the pilot

Friends and Followers

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Hall of Fame

Hall of Fame

Communite Page > Groups > Select a group > Hall of Fame Tab

All groups have a built-in hall of fame. The hall of fame will automatically track the flight statistics for group members to see who have performed their best in any given year. Statistics are tracked for all group members with a Gaggle subscription. Statistics will only be tracked for flights shared with the group.

A new hall of fame will be created for every year and flights are only counted for the year in which they were flown. You can access the hall of fame by tapping on the Hall of Fame tab in the group details page.

Hall of Fame

The hall of fame will show the best pilots in the group for the following statistics:

  1. Altitude
  2. Height Above Ground
  3. Flight Distance
  4. Flight Duration
  5. Maximum Speed
  6. Maximum G-Force
  7. Maximum Climb Rate

How it’s calculated

The hall of fame works differently to other stats in Gaggle. It aims to give you a bit more bragging rights, so it’s more lenient in many cases than the other stats in Gaggle, and it will in some cases show higher values than for instance the personal bests section under achievements which aims to be more accurate and only show the best of the best for your personal flights aiming to push you to new heights.

We are also focused on only adding valid flights to the hall of fame so we only track stats that meet the following conditions:

  1. The flight must be longer than 5 minutes.
  2. The flight must be longer than 1 km.
  3. The flight must have a maximum speed of more than 13 km/h.
  4. The flight must have an average height above ground of more than 25 meters.
  5. Only values 30 seconds after takeoff and 30 seconds before landing are considered.
  6. The flight must be less than a predefined maximum speed for the flight to be considered valid. For paramotors for instance the maximum speed is 150 km/h.
  7. Stats are calculated as a trend over a 10-second time period to ensure that the stats are not just a spike in the data.

FAQ

How often is the hall of fame updated?

The hall of fame after your flight is uploaded to the server and the stats are calculated. This is usually done within a few minutes after the flight is uploaded.

Can I see the hall of fame for previous years?

No, the hall of fame only started considering flights from 25 March 2024 onwards.

Can I see the hall of fame for other groups?

No, the hall of fame is only available for the group you are a member of.

Why does the hall of fame show different values than the personal bests section?

The hall of fame uses different criteria to calculate the stats than the personal bests section. The personal bests section aims to show the best of the best for your personal flights, while the hall of fame aims to give you a bit more bragging rights and is more lenient in many cases. The hall of fame also only shows flights that meet certain criteria to ensure that only valid flights are shown. Some flights, like imported flights, are private by default and won’t be shared to the group and won’t be considered for the hall of fame.

My imported flights are not showing in the hall of fame?

Imported flights are private by default and won’t be shared to the group and won’t be considered for the hall of fame. You can share imported flights with the group by editing the flight and changing the privacy settings to groups or everyone.

The hall of fame contains bad data from a flight that was not valid?

If you see a flight in the hall of fame that you think is not valid, please report the flight to the pilot, so they can remove the flight from the group by making it private.

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Group Leaderboards

Group Leaderboards

Community Page > Groups > Select a group > Leaderboards tab

Any group in Gaggle can keep track of the best pilots in the group by using leaderboards. Leaderboards are a great way to see who is performing the best in the group and to give pilots a bit of extra motivation to push themselves to new heights or to have a bit of friendly competition with other pilots in the group.

To create a leaderboard in a group, go to the group details page and tap on the Leaderboards tab. You can then create a new leaderboard by tapping on the Create Leaderboard button. You can then select the type of leaderboard you want to create and the stats you want to track. You can also set a name for the leaderboard.

Leaderboards are a subscription only feature, and you need the Adventurer subscription to create and view leaderboards in a group. Pilots will with the Frequent Flyer subscription will be able to score on leaderboards but not create or view them.

Leaderboard Create

You can create a new leaderboard in the group by tapping the Create Leaderboard button. Creating leaderboards requires an Adventurer subscription.

When creating a leaderboard you have to choose which kind of leaderboard you want:

  1. FAI Triangle: This leaderboard will track the best score per pilot in the group for the FAI triangle task. Every flight that fits the FAI triangle definition will be considered and scored for the leaderboard. The scoring parameters can be different, and you need to choose between FFVL, FAI, XContest, or XC League scoring. They all have different scoring parameters and multipliers. For XContest the scoring will be different between PG and PPG. XC League has great explanations on their website on how FAI Triangles work.
  2. Free Triangle: Similar to FAI Triangle but with less stringent constraints. Typically, the points scored for a free triangle will be less than for an FAI triangle.
  3. Out and Return: An out and return flight requires that the pilot flies out to a point and then returns to the start point. Points are calculated based on the distance of the furthest 2 points in the flight. Only XC League scoring is available for this leaderboard, and you can view their website for an explanation on how out and return flights are scored.
  4. Turn point: This leaderboard will track the best score per pilot in the group for the turn point task. Every flight that fits the turn point definition will be considered and scored for the leaderboard. The scoring parameters can be different, and you need to choose between FFVL, FAI, XContest, or XC League scoring. They all have different scoring parameters and multipliers. XC League has great explanations on their website on how turn points work.
  5. Flight Time: This leaderboard will track the best score per pilot in the group for the longest flight time.
  6. Total Distance: This leaderboard will track the best score per pilot in the group for the total distance (track length) flown.
  7. Waypoint Hunt: Waypoint hunt is a fun task aimed at getting pilots to explore. You can define any number of waypoints with their own radius and score. If a pilot reaches a waypoint in any flight then they will score points for that waypoint. Waypoints will only be scored once per pilot. The leaderboard will track the total score per pilot for all waypoints in the task. Waypoints do not show up in flight and pilots have to view the waypoints on the leaderboard to see where they are and then plan their flights accordingly.
  8. Obstacle Course: Obstacle course is a fun task aimed at getting pilots to fly through a series of obstacles. You can define navigation tasks, waypoints, and no-fly zones. Pilots will score points for reaching waypoints and navigating through the course. The leaderboard will track the best score per pilot in the group for the obstacle course task. To learn more about obstacle courses, you can read the Obstacle Course announcement.

Any new flights added to the group after the leaderboard is created will be scored and added to the leaderboard.

Some leaderboards cannot be edited once they are created, but you can delete a leaderboard if you want to create a new one.

Leaderboard View

You can view a leaderboard by tapping on the View Leaderboard button for the leaderboard you want to view. The leaderboard will show a list of all the pilots that have scored points for that leaderboard.

You can tap on the pilot to see and overview of the flight that scored points for the leaderboard. Tapping a second time will open the flight details page for that flight where you can also replay the flight.

You can view the details for the leaderboard by tapping on the details tab on the leaderboard page. The details tab will show you the scoring parameters. Group admins can also delete the leaderboard by tapping on the delete button.

FAQ

Can I edit a leaderboard after it’s created?

No, most leaderboards cannot be edited once they are created, but you can delete a leaderboard if you want to create a new one.

When are flights added to the leaderboard?

Any new flights added to the group after the leaderboard is created will be scored and added to the leaderboard where they meet the task and scoring criteria for that leaderboard.

Can imported flights be added to the leaderboard?

Yes, imported flights can be added to the leaderboard if they meet the task and scoring criteria for that leaderboard. By default, imported flights are set to private, and you need to share the flight with the group to have it considered for the leaderboard.

The leaderboard contains bad data from a flight that was not valid?

If you see a flight in the leaderboard that you think is not valid, go to the group activity page and tap the 3 buttons on the flight to unlink it from the group. The flight will then be removed from the leaderboard.

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Groups

Groups

Community Page > Groups

Groups in Gaggle are perfect for a group of friends that frequently fly together or for family members that want to keep a watchful eye on their loved ones while they go flying. Most pilots are part of the following types of groups:

  1. A private group with just yourself and family. This is ideal for cases where you want to keep loved ones informed about your flying activity. They will get notified when you start flying, and they can track your location in real-time while you fly. They will also get another notification when you land and your recording is uploaded.
  2. A small group with local flying friends. This is great for seeing each other’s live location on the map while you are flying and your friends flight recordings are automatically linked to yours once the recording is uploaded. You can also quickly see your friends recordings to compare stats and the Gaggle home page features recordings from your local groups. This is also ideal if you don’t want to share your location or recordings publicly and only wanted a trusted group of friends to see this information.
  3. Large community groups. This is great for cases where you are part of a larger flying community and want to see flights from your communities featured on the Gaggle home page. For these types of groups it is recommended to turn off notifications for the group, so you don’t get to many flying notifications when community members are flying.

Group List

Group List

The group list shows you all the groups you are a member of. You can tap on any of the groups to open up the group details page. You can also tap on the Create Group button to create a new group. To join a public group you can tap on the Join a public group button and then search for a group to join.

Group Create

Creating a group

If you want to make your own group in Gaggle, go to the Community screen, then select My Groups. In the My Groups screen, tap on the Create Group button to open the screen where you can create a new group. To make a group, you must provide a name, description, and possibly an image that will be utilised for the group. You can also decide if a group should be public or private. If a group is public, anyone can join the group.

Once a group is created you can share an invite link to the group with other pilots. If a group is private, you must invite members to join the group. Once you have created a group, you can invite members to join the group by sharing the group invite link.

You can also change additional privacy settings for a group after it’s created like whether new members need approval before they can join the group.

Group Overview

Group home page

The group home page shows you the following information:

Group Details - The group details section shows you the name of the group, the description, and the group image.

Group Navigation - The group navigation section allows you to view the group members, go to the group chat, or you can see the live location tracking of any group members currently flying.

Leaderboards - The group leaderboards section shows you the leaderboards for the group. You can tap on any leaderboard to view the leaderboard details. Group admins can create new leaderboards by tapping on the Create Leaderboard button.

Activity - The group activity feed shows you flight recordings from pilots in your group. The feed is in chronological order showing flights from newest to oldest. You can tap on any flight in the activity feed to open up the flight recording viewer.

Hall of Fame - The hall of fame section shows you the pilots that performed the best in the group for the following statistics: Altitude, Height Above Ground, Flight Distance, Flight Duration, Maximum Speed, Maximum G-Force, and Maximum Climb Rate.

Members - The members section shows you all the members in the group. You can tap on any of the pilots in the list to open up their membership details where you can then remove them from the group. Members can also leave the group from their membership details page.

Group Privacy

Group privacy

Every group member has their own privacy controls for a group. This allows you to choose if you want to share your live location and recordings with the group.

Group Notifications

Group privacy

Every group member has their own notifications controls for a group which allows you to choose if you want to get notifications when other group members start flying or recorded a new flight.

Group Membership

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Home Page

Home Page

Home Page

The Gaggle home page tries to surface information that is relevant to you. It is divided into 3 sections:

  1. Your last flight
  2. Flying right now
  3. Favorite sites

Home Overview

Your Last Flight

At the top of the page you will see an animation of your last flight you’ve recorded with Gaggle along with some basic details about the flight. You can tap the flight to open up the flight recording viewer.

Flying Right Now

This list will only show pilots in your groups and your friends, and it is hidden when there are no pilots flying. You can tap on any of the pilots to open up the live tracking viewer.

Favorite Sites

Home Flying Sites

When you favorite a flying site it will show up on the home page. You can tap on any of the flying sites to open up the details page for that site. The home page will show a basic forecast outlook for the site to show you if it will have any flyable conditions in the next week.

When there is a possibility of flyable conditions you the bar will show a green color, when there are no flyable conditions it will show a red color.

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Incoming Integrations

Incoming Integrations

Profile Page > Settings > Integrations > Incoming

Incoming integrations allow you to send data to Gaggle from other services. This is useful for sending live tracking data, recordings, and other information to Gaggle from other devices. Speak to your device manufacturer or app developer to see if they can integrate with Gaggle.

Live Tracking

POST: https://api.flygaggle.com/incoming/liveTracking
HEADERS:

  • Authorization - Basic access authorization with the username and password supplied by the app to the user

Body

JSON Model

  • sessionId: string - Unique identifier for the current flight/recording session
  • heading: double - The heading of the user in degrees
  • latitude: double - The latitude coordinates
  • longitude: double - The longitude coordinates
  • altitude: double - The altitude above MSL (meters)
  • speed: double - The ground speed (meters per second)
  • reportTimeUtc: string - The time in UTC for the location data (ISO format)
  • battery: double? - The battery percentage of the device (0.0-1.0)
  • windDirection: double? - The current wind direction in degrees
  • flightStatus: int - The current flight status of the user (0 = unknown, 1 = airborne, 2 = onGround)
  • status: int - Additional status that should be set for the user (0 = none, 1 = emergency, 2 = waitingForPickup, 3 = driving)

Example Request:

{
  "sessionId": "12345698",
  "heading": 180.5,
  "latitude": -28.5074,
  "longitude": 27.1278,
  "altitude": 4000.0,
  "speed": 16.5,
  "reportTimeUtc": "2024-05-21T17:00:00Z",
  "battery": 0.75,
  "windDirection": 90.0,
  "flightStatus": 1,
  "status": 0
}

Recording

POST: https://api.flygaggle.com/incoming/recordings?type=igc
HEADERS:

  • Authorization - Basic access authorization with the username and password supplied by the app to the user

Body IGC Content: text/plain - UTF-8

Example Request:

AXNA160699
HFDTEDATE:010524,01
HFPLTPILOTINCHARGE:Sean Wheller
HFCM2CREW2:NIL
HFGTYGLIDERTYPE:Ozone Geo 6
HFGIDGLIDERID:NKN
HFDTMGPSDATUM:WGS84
HFRFWFIRMWAREVERSION:3.0.3+2196
HFRHWHARDWAREVERSION:1.0
HFFTYFRTYPE:Naviter,Oudie N
HFGPSRECEIVER:UBLOX,MAX-M8Q,72,50000
HFPRSPRESSALTSENSOR:BOSCH,BMP390L,9150
HFALGALTGPS:GEO
HFALPALTPRESSURE:ISA
HFCIDCOMPETITIONID:NKN
HFCCLCOMPETITIONCLASS:NKN
HFTZNTIMEZONE:2.0
I023638FXA3940SIU
J020810WDI1113WSP
LXNA::VEHICLE:1
LXNA::ACTIVITY:fly
LXNA::LOGSTART,GSP,VARIO
LXNA::PHASE:onGround
E113616ATS101386
B1136163424129S01914571EA002230023900710
LXNA::AVGSATSNR:33
LXNA::BAT:discharging,84%,3.973V,-882mA
B1136173424129S01914571EA002230023900710
B1136183424129S01914571EA002230023900710
B1136193424129S01914571EA002230023800710
B1136203424129S01914572EA002230023800710
B1136213424129S01914571EA002230023800710
B1136223424129S01914571EA002230023800710
<...rest of IGC>

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Airspace Widget

Airspace Instrument

If you have airspaces downloaded for your region, then Gaggle will show you an airspace widget when you are close to an airspace. This widget only shows the information for the airspace that Gaggle determines to be the most relevant to show you based on your proximity, direction of travel, and altitude. There is no way to change or configure this behaviour at the moment. To see the information for all airspaces nearby, you can tap the airspace widget.

Airspace Widget

Class: At the very top of the widget Gaggle shows the class of the most relevant airspace currently displayed.
Name: Underneath the class is the name of the airspace that Gaggle is currently displaying to you.
Visual Guide: Underneath the name is a visual guide for airspaces. Gaggle will show you vertical area for airspaces above, below, and near you based on your altitude. The widget shows a total vertical area of 1000 meters, so it will show airspaces 500 meters above and below you. There are a few different ways in which Gaggle displays airspaces:

  • Side Indicators: When an airspace is nearby, but you aren’t directly in the airspace area, then indicators are shown on the side of the widget to show that there is an airspace nearby and if you are within the vertical area of the airspace.
  • Striped Indicator: When you are within the area of an airspace, but you are above/below it, then Gaggle will show a striped area above or below the little paraglider icon to show you that you the airspace is above/below you, but you are not yet in the airspace.
  • Solid Indicator: When you are in an airspace, then Gaggle will have a solid filled color in the widget indicating that you are in the indicated airspace.

Upper Limit: The upper limit for the currently displayed airspace is shown here in 2 possible formats:
Mean Sea Level: The limit will show in your configured unit of measure for altitude.
Flight Level: The limit will start with an FL value.
Lower Limit: The lower limit for the currently displayed airspace is show here with 3 possible formats:
Mean Sea Level: The limit will show in your configured unit of measure for altitude.
Flight Level: The limit will start with an FL value. GND: Airspace starts at ground level.

Along with the airspace widget, airspaces are also shown on the map. When the airspace is closer to the ground it will have thicker border, and the higher the airspace is from the ground ,the thinner its borders will be. Similar to the widget, the airspace is drawn with stripes if you are not in the airspace, and it will be drawn with a solid filled color if you are in the airspace.

Operating Hours: Some airspaces have operating hours in which they are applicable. Gaggle will use the configured hours to show and hide airspaces depending on if they are applicable for your current time when you are flying. If you see airspaces that are showing that shouldn’t be it might be that their operating hours haven’t been configured correctly, and you can make the needed operating hour updates directly on OpenAIP.

Airspace Viewer

Airspace list view

Tapping the airspace widget when it is shown will bring up the airspace viewer so you can see all the airspaces near you. At the top of the widget are the details for the current airspace that Gaggle is currently showing on the widget. Tapping on any of the airspaces on the list will then display the details at the top so you can have a better view of the airspace information.

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Altitude

Altitude Instrument

Gaggle has an altitude widget that will show you important information about your altitude.

Altitude Widget >

  • Altitude: On the left-hand side of the widget is your altitude above sea level, you can change this to display the GPS altitude (Mean Sea Level) or to display the pressure altitude (QNH/QFE) if your device has a barometer built in or connected through bluetooth.
  • Height Above Ground: On the right-hand side of the widget is your height above ground for your current position.
  • Climb Rate: In the bottom center of the altitude widget you will find the climb rate widget that will show you your current climb and sink rate. Note: If you are using pressure altitude, then pressure changes, like flying through thermals and suddenly throttling up on your motor, can impact this instrument, and it will briefly show incorrect values.
  • Altitude Graph: As you fly, Gaggle will draw a graph showing altitude changes for the past 10 minutes with an indication of the ground level at that time. The graph turn a turquoise color if your altitude changes are less than 1.5 m/s. It will turn a deeper purple color if your climb rate increases to more than 1.5 m/s, or a deeper red if your sink rate is more than 1.5 m/s.

A note about Pressure Altitude

When you are on the ground, Gaggle will automatically use your current elevation on the ground as the starting altitude and set your QNH to match the current elevation. Therefore, you start a recording in flight we don’t know your exact altitude and Gaggle will default to using the GPS altitude (MSL) instead of the pressure altitude. Since conditions change during the day as you fly, Gaggle will also automatically adjust your QNH every few minutes to make sure it trends towards your GPS altitude and doesn’t deviate too much.

Altitude Settings

Altitude Settings 1

Altitude Settings 2

By tapping the altitude widget, you can open the altitude settings to make changes easily. You can choose which altitude you want to see (MSL, QNH, or QNE) by simply tapping the correct option. You will also see a quick summary of your max altitude, your average altitude, and your lowest altitude An estimate of your total altitude gain and loss is also shown here.

If Gaggle has access to pressure values from a barometer then an additional tab is shown where you can quickly configure new QNH values. Tapping a preset value will select that pressure to use when calculating the pressure altitude (QNH). Note: Setting your own QNH values will disable the feature where Gaggle automatically adjusts QNH over time.

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Flight recorder controls

Flight Recorder Controls

You can tap anywhere on the map or simply move it around to access to the flight controls and settings.

If configured correctly, Gaggle will automatically stop your recordings once Gaggle has determined that you landed. If a flight was recorded, Gaggle will go into an idle waiting state waiting for another take-off once you land, if no take-off is detected for 5 minutes then the recorder will shut down completely. This means that you don’t have to remember to shut down Gaggle once you finished your flight since it should shutdown automatically while you pack up your gear. Note about one-wheels: Because of the auto start/stop and idle behaviour of Gaggle, one wheels can trigger the flight recording to start and then stop causing Gaggle to shut down before you start your flight.

Flight controls

Info: Show information for the current location where you tapped on the map.

Zoom In: Zoom in on the map.

Zoom Out: Zoom out on the map.

Settings Toggle: Tap the gear button to bring up the flight control settings where you can configure the widgets that Gaggle shows and also where you can access settings for units of measure and map orientation.

Recorder Status: At the bottom of the flight control list is the flight recorder button. This starts off as orange while Gaggle is waiting for you to take-off. Once you start flying and the flight recording is started, the button will turn red, indicating that Gaggle is busy recording your flight. Tapping this button will show a dialog asking you if you want to stop the flight recording.

Flight Route and Duration

At the bottom of the page you get additional information for the current flight.

On the left hand side is the navigation widget showing you the time, distance, and direction to the next waypoint.

On the right hand side you get your flight stats showing you (front top left to right):

  • Flight Duration
  • Current Time
  • Distance Flown
  • Sunset Time

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Friends

Friends Instrument

When flying with friends it’s a good idea to make sure you are part of the same group. Gaggle will recognise friends from your groups and show you a friends widget (left of the airplane one) above the waypoint widget that you can tap to see more details about your friends. When you tap this widget a new view is opened showing additional details about your friends.

Friends Widget

Friend Details

The details for the currently selected friend are shown in an enlarged view. This view shows you their location relative to yours, their altitude, speed, and the distance from you. You can also tap the message icon in the top right to send a message to that friend.

Friends Widget

Friend List

A list of all your friends are shown here. Each list item shows your friends name in the color of their wing (if they set it), and also their altitude, speed, and the distance from you. Tapping a list item will place that friend at the top and you can then message that friend.

Friends Messaging

Messaging friends in flight

While in flight you can message individual friends or send broadcast messages to everyone.

Broadcast Message: At the bottom of the view beneath the friend list is the broadcast option. When you broadcast a message it is sent to all the friends actively flying in your vicinity.

Quick Message: Gaggle has some predefined quick messages that you can quickly tap to send. When sending a message tap the quick message option (left of the input text area) and you will be presented with the predefined message list.

Receiving Messages: When a friend sends a message you will see the message displayed on your screen for a minute. You will also get a notification on your phone. If you have audio cues enabled, then the message will be read to you as well.

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Fuel Level

Fuel Level Instrument

When you’ve configured your fuel tank size in the settings, Gaggle will show you a fuel level widget that you can tap to see more details about your fuel level. When you tap this widget a new view is opened showing additional details about your fuel level and engine.

Fuel Level

The fuel level display will show you the current fuel level in your tank (estimated), the estimated flight time remaining, and the estimated distance you can fly into wind, and estimated distance you can fly on the current heading. You can tap the fuel level to edit the fuel level.

If you have engine sensors that transmit data to Gaggle then you will also see the engine temperature and RPM displayed here.

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Ground Speed & Compass

Ground Speed and Compass Instrument

On the bottom left of the screen you will find the ground speed widget. This widget gives you the following information:

Ground Speed Widget

Ground Speed: Your current ground speed as reported by the GPS is displayed here. Because GPS data can jump up and own a lot depending on phones built-in GPS sensor, the data is smoothed out a bit before being displayed to you. Therefore, it will never be 100% accurate but it will be very close to your true ground speed most of the time.

Compass: Behind the ground speed value is a basic compass for you to see your direction of travel. The red arrow indicates North and Blue arrow indicates South. The direction of travel is also displayed as a text value above the ground speed value. While on the ground the compass will use your phone’s internal compass (if available), but once you start flying, this will show you your direction of travel regardless of phone orientation. In high wind speed conditions, the heading obtained from direction of travel would therefore be different from the direction that you are actually facing if you are crabbing sideways.

Fuel Level: If flying a powered paraglider, you have the option of configuring your fuel tank size and average consumption. Before starting your flight you can then set your fuel level and Gaggle will use your configured consumption to calculate the estimated fuel remaining while flying. The fuel consumption you set is used as a baseline, but Gaggle will also take climb and sink into account to increase or decrease estimated fuel burn while flying.

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Map view

Moving Map Instrument

Gaggle by default shows a terrain map view with some key items displayed by default. You can configure most of these in the system settings and also change the map layers you want to view.

Map view

You can change many settings for the map view in the recorder settings, some of the options available are:

Map Orientation: You can configure the map to follow your general heading as you fly, or you can choose to have a north up view where the map will not move around.

Map Layer: Gaggle can show different base map layers. You can choose which one to use by toggling the display settings. There are 3 layers to choose from: satellite, terrain, or sectionals (USA Only). Maps are cached and will work even when you are offline, you must just make sure that you’ve viewed the map for your intended route while being online so that the maps can download before you go into areas with reduced network coverage.

Nearby Pilots: If you have friends flying with you then they will have markers indicating their location and whether they are above or below you. Your friends must also use Gaggle to record their flight for this feature to work.

Flight Path: As you fly, Gaggle will draw a snail trail on the map showing where you’ve flown. The snail trail has the same color coding as the altitude widget and will show the path for the last 30 minutes of flight.

Take-off Indicators: The map will show an indicator marking your last 3 take-off locations which will help you find your way back to your desired take-off location.

Airspaces: If you have airspaces installed for your region then the airspaces would show on the map giving you and indication of where you are allowed to fly.

Waypoints: When flying a route, the waypoints will show on the map indicating your route and where you need to fly to next.

Points of Interest: Public and private points of interest will show on the map. You can tap on any of the points of interest to see more details about them.

Flying sites: Public and private flying sites will show on the map. You can tap on any of the flying sites to see more details about them.

You can tap anywhere on the map to reveal addition controls like map zoom in/out.

Map Long Press

Long press

When you long press anywhere on the map you will see a new display showing details for the location you long pressed on. The details shown are:

Bearing: The bearing from your current location to the location you long pressed on.

Distance: The distance from your current location to the location you long pressed on.

Elevation: The elevation of the location you long pressed on.

Fuel: The estimated fuel level at arrival for the location you long pressed on.

Wind: The wind speed and direction at the location you long pressed on.

Add Waypoint: You can tap the add waypoint button to add a waypoint at the location you long pressed on.

Pilots Nearby: If there are any pilots flying near the location you long pressed on then they will be shown here.

Waypoints Nearby: If there are any waypoints near the location you long pressed on then they will be shown here.

Points of Interest Nearby: If there are any points of interest near the location you long pressed on then they will be shown here.

Flying Sites Nearby: If there are any flying sites near the location you long pressed on then they will be shown here.

Airspaces Nearby: If there are any airspaces near the location you long pressed on then they will be shown here.

Satellite Map View

Satellite Map View

When you change the base map to satellite view you will see the satellite map view. This view shows you the satellite map with the same controls as the terrain map view. Some items on the map will have different colors to make them stand out more on the satellite map.

Sectional Map View

Sectional Map View

If you prefer to see the sectional map view (USA Only) then you can change the base map to sectional view. This view shows you the sectional map with the same controls as the terrain map view. Some items on the map will have different colors to make them stand out more on the sectional map.

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Routes, Waypoints, and Take-off Location Widget

Navigation Instrument

Gaggle has support for routes and also a return home which will guide you back to your take-off location. When you aren’t flying a specific route the default behaviour is to make your take-off location your only waypoint that Gaggle will always guide you back to.

Waypoint Map

Waypoint map view

Gaggle will show all the waypoints for your route on the map.

The next waypoint is colored in orange (yellow for satellite map view) with a line and arrow pointing to the next waypoint. At the bottom of the screen is the navigation widget show you time, distance, and direction to the next waypoint. Wind conditions are taken into account for travel time calculations.

Upcoming waypoints are colored in blue on the map and also show the distance and travel time to the waypoint.

Previous waypoints are colored in grey on the map.

Route List

Edit route waypoints

To edit your route waypoints you can tap the navigation instrument. This will open up the route list view. From here you can add, remove waypoints.

The route list shows the following information:

Route Map - A map overview for the entire route along with your location.

Elevation profile - An elevation profile for the entire route. You can tap any point on the graph to see the distance and elevation at that point.

Travel Time - The total travel time for the route.

Remaining Distance - The remaining distance for the route.

Max Elevation - The highest elevation for the route.

Waypoint List - A list of all the waypoints for the route. You can tap any waypoint to see the distance and elevation at that point. Swipe left/right on the waypoint to reveal additional actions like delete.

You have access to the following actions for your current route navigation:

Selected A Route - You can select a new route from the list to start navigating that route.

Reverse Route - You can reverse the current route to navigate it in the opposite direction.

Return to take-off - You can cancel the current route and return to your take-off location by tapping the return to take-off button.

To add waypoints to your route you can long press anywhere on the map and tap the Add Waypoint button.

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Thermal Assistant

Thermal Assistant Instrument

Gaggle has a thermal assistant that can help you to visualise thermals while you are paragliding. While flying, it shows your flight in a simulated 3D space giving you a great mental model for where the thermal core is and the direction that it’s tracking. It’s also a great way to see where past thermals were if you need to hunt for a new thermal. The map automatically zooms in when you start thermalling so that you can better visualise the core, and it will automatically zoom out when you start gliding so that you can better see past thermal locations.

Thermal assistant widget

To open the thermal assistant you can tap the climb rate widget or, if enabled, it will automatically open when you start circling in a thermal.

The thermal assistant shows the following instruments:

  • Thermal Map: The thermal map visualises your flight path in a simulated 3D space. Every dot in your flight path represents a second in your flight and the color indicates lift/sink intensity. The more red the color the higher the climb rate and the more blue the color is the higher the sink rate was. The map also shows a wind indicator to give you an idea of where the wind is coming from.
  • Climb Rate: The current climb rate determined by your variometer.
  • MSL: The current altitude reported by the GPS. Pressure altitude can vary a lot as you move through different air masses so GPS altitude can give you a better indication of your true altitude while in thermals.
  • Glide Ratio: The current glide ratio based on your estimated sink rate and travel speed.
  • Wind Speed: The current wind speed and direction.

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Variometer

Variometer (Vario) Instrument

Gaggle comes with a built-in variometer (vario) that can be used to identify lifting and sinking air. The variometer comes with some default settings that should work well for most pilots, but it can be changed to suit your own needs. You can change the following settings for the variometer from the Flight Recorder settings:

Free Flight Enabled: Toggle this on to enable the variometer for free flight aircraft where you need to identify thermals, ridge lift, or other lifting/sinking air. By default, this setting is on.

Powered Flight Enabled: Toggle this on if you want to enable the variometer for your powered flights. By default, this is setting of off.

*Play In Background: If you only want to the variometer to make a sound when Gaggle is running in the foreground then you can toggle this setting off.

Only In Flight: By default Gaggle will only turn on the variometer sound when are in flight, and it will switch it off while you are on the ground. You turn this off if you want the variometer to be enabled while on the ground as well.

Use With External Vario: If you have an external variometer connected through bluetooth then Gaggle will not use the built-in variometer. You can disable this setting if you want the Gaggle variometer to make a sound even when another variometer is connected through bluetooth.

Volume: You can change the volume of the variometer. The variometer is dependent on your phones volume, so if your phone is at 50% volume then the variometer can only go up to a maximum of 50%.

Thresholds: You can change the thresholds for when Gaggle starts making sound with the variometer. If you want to be notified of weak lift you can set the climb rate threshold to 0. Thresholds can be configured for climb rate and sink rate.

Responsiveness: Everyone has different needs from their variometer. New pilots might want a very responsive variometer that sounds the moment lift is encountered and more seasoned pilots might want a calmer variometer that only indicates average lift over a longer period of time. On Gaggle, you can configure the responsiveness of your variometer through the responsiveness slide. The more the slider is moved towards the right the more rapidly Gaggle will indicate vertical movement.

Accelerometer: It’s possible to use the built-in variometer without a barometer in your phone. When no barometer is available Gaggle will use your GPS altitude as the baseline measurement for lift and use the accelerometer for increases responsiveness and accuracy. This also works when you do have barometer built in, but it may not be needed depending on your specific device hardware.

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Wind Speed & Direction

Wind Speed and Wind Direction Instrument

Gaggle has a wind speed widget that will you show the current wind speed and direction. The widget displays the current speed and above that the direction that the wind is coming from.

Wind Speed Widget

Behind the wind speed is a visual indicator of the wind direction. This indicator will orientate itself based on your compass when on the ground, and it will orientate itself based on your direction of travel while flying. When flying directly into wind, the indicator will turn from red to green, indicating the ideal landing direction. Note: In strong wind conditions this can be incorrect due to your direction of travel being impacted based on the wind speed and crabbing. For this reason you should only use the Gaggle wind speed indicator as a guideline, and you should always rely on other wind direction signals in your physical environment as well to determine the real wind conditions.

How wind speed is calculated: If you have an active subscription then your wind speed and direction will start with values obtained from weather services. As you start flying, Gaggle will start capturing your ground speed data as you travel in various directions. Using this ground speed data, a wind rose will start to show behind the widget in a light blue color. The more recent the ground speed data for a direction of travel, the more intense the blue color will be. As the data becomes stale, it will turn grey to show you how confident Gaggle is with the data for a specific direction. About 2 minutes worth of data is stored for each direction of travel. Once Gaggle has enough data for every direction of travel it will then start using the wind rose data to determine wind speed and direction. The direction that you are traveling the slowest in is subtracted from the direction you are traveling the fastest in to then display the wind speed and your fastest direction of travel is used as the wind direction. The most recently speed data sampled is weighted more than older data when doing the calculations so doing 2 gentle 360 degree turns is usually enough to get a decent wind reading.

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Live Air Traffic

Live Air Traffic using SafeSky

Gaggle has partnered with SafeSky to bring you even more safety with every flight by giving you live traffic updates from other aircraft around you that are equipped with transponders like ADS-B, FLARM, Mode-S, and many more.

In supported countries your position is also broadcast via the SafeSky application to aircraft that are using SafeSky during their flight helping to make them aware of you as well.

Live air traffic settings

Enable Live Air Traffic

To enable live air traffic you need to enable the SafeSky integration from the Flight Recorder Settings. You can specify your call sign that will be displayed to other SafeSky users, so they can contact you on the radio (where applicable). If you want additional privacy you can enable privacy mode which hides your call sign but still broadcasts your position without personally identifiable information.

To enable live air traffic follow the following steps:

  1. Open the Gaggle application
  2. Open the Flight Recorder Settings
  3. Select the SafeSky integration
  4. Enable the integration
  5. Accept the terms and conditions
  6. Enter your call sign

Once enabled, the SafeSky integration in Gaggle you will immediately start getting traffic updates on your next flight. You wil see other aircraft within a 25 km radius around you in real-time and if Gaggle detects an aircraft will be within 1km of the position in the next 3 minutes, an audio cue warning will sound, alerting you about the type of aircraft, its current position, altitude, and travel direction. A typical audio cue will sound like “Warning: Helicopter on your 3 0’clock traveling east at 5000 feet”. The icon will also turn red on the map, so you can quickly see all the aircraft with warnings to look out for.

Disclaimer

Live air traffic is a best effort service and reliability is dependent on country, cell reception, base stations nearby and many more variables. You should never rely on Gaggle or SafeSky to make you aware about aircraft. It’s a convenience aid that hopes to enhance your situational awareness. It remains your responsibility to make sure you are observant of your surroundings and to see and avoid other aircraft.

Frequently asked questions

I have SafeSky enabled, but I don’t see other aircraft?

SafeSky works by sending signals received by ADS-B ground stations over the internet to Gaggle. In order for this to work reliably there needs to be a ground station near your location where you are flying (<90km away). Ground stations are fairly inexpensive, and you can easily create your own to receive ADS-B signals that will then be sent to SafeSky and Gaggle. If you want to set up your own base station have a look at ADS-B Exchange and ADS-B Hub on how to set up stations to feed data to their services. Here is a good starting point for ADS-B Exchange: Share your data - ADS-B Exchange (adsbexchange.com)

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Live Tracking

Live Location Tracking

When you are part of a group or if you are near other pilots flying with Gaggle then you can track the live location of those pilots. You can also see the live location of pilots you are following. Live location tracking depends on the privacy config of the pilot.

When you are part of a group you will also get a notification when a pilot in your group starts flying. You can tap on the notification to open up the live tracking viewer.

Live Tracking 2D

When tracking a pilot can see their location on the map. Some additional details about the pilot is shown in the card on the bottom of the page. Some of the details shown include:

Pilot Name - The name of the pilot

Pilot Image - The profile image of the pilot

Battery - The battery level of the pilot’s phone

Aircraft Type - The type of aircraft the pilot is flying

Score - If the pilots is flying in a competition then the score will be shown

Height - The height above ground of the pilot

Speed - The speed of the pilot

You can quickly move between other pilots by swiping left/right on the card.

Live Tracking 3D

In addition to the 2D map view for tracking you can also follow pilots in 3D by tapping the 3D button in the top right of the map. This will show you the pilots in 3D, and you can rotate the map to see the pilots from different angles.

Frequently asked questions

Live tracking is just showing a spinner?

If you are seeing a spinner when trying to track a pilot then it could be due to one of the following reasons:

  1. The pilot is not sharing their live location.
  2. The pilot is no longer flying.
  3. The pilot does not have network connectivity.

How frequently is the live location updated?

The live location is updated every 3-5 seconds.

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Meetups

Meetups

Community Page > Meetups

Meetups are a special kind of group in Gaggle that are focused on a specific event or activity. Meetups are great for planning a group flight, a competition, or a social event. You can create a meetup for a specific date and time and invite other pilots to join the meetup. Once the meetup is created, pilots can join the meetup and see who else is planning to attend. You can also see the location of other pilots in the meetup in real-time on the map. Meetups have their own description, location, and time period. Once created only flights recorded during the meetup time period and within proximity of the meetup location will be linked to the meetup.

Meetups mostly behave like groups in Gaggle, and you can learn more about groups in the Groups knowledge base article.

Meetups List

Creating a meetup

To create a meetup, go to the Community screen, then select Meetups. In the Meetups screen, tap on the Create Meetup button to open the screen where you can create a new meetup. To make a meetup, you must provide a details for the following sections:

  1. Overview: Provide a name, description, and image for the meetup.
  2. Date & Location: Provide a date and time for the meetup and a location. You can also choose the types of aircraft for the meetup like paramotor, paraglider, hang glider, or other.
  3. Registration: Choose the registration close date after which pilots can no longer join the meetup group. From here you can also specify custom capture fields for the meetup registration form that pilots need to fill out when joining the meetup. These fields will be included in leaderboard exports and can be used to filter the leaderboard.
  4. Sponsors: Add sponsors to the meetup. Sponsors will be displayed on the meetup page and can be linked to external websites.

Joining a meetup

To join a meetup, go to the Community screen, then select Meetups. In the Meetups screen, tap on the meetup you want to join. In the meetup details screen, tap on the Join button to join the meetup. You will be asked if you want to join as a spectator or as a participant. If you join as a participant, your flights during the meetup time period and within proximity of the meetup location will be linked to the meetup. If you join as a spectator, your flights will not be linked to the meetup. Once you join the meetup you will get an email confirmation with a calendar invite for the meetup.

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Points of Interest

Points of interest

Explore Page > Points of Interest

Gaggle has a built-in database of points of interest that you can use to discover new places to see from the sky. Points of interest can also act as basic waypoint markers if you don’t want to create a specific route with a set of waypoints. While in flight you can tap on points of interest to add navigation waypoints to them.

The following point of interest categories are available:

  1. Markers - General markers that can be used to mark any point of interest
  2. Notice - Notices are used to mark areas that pilots should be aware of
  3. Hazard - Hazards are used to mark areas that pilots should avoid
  4. Landing Spot - Landing spots are used to mark areas that are suitable for landing
  5. Landmark - Landmarks are used to mark areas that can be used for navigation
  6. Attraction - Attractions are used to mark areas that are interesting to see from the sky

You need an Adventurer subscription see public points of interest.

POI Explore

Exploring Points of Interest

You can explore points of interest nearby by tapping the Points of Interest button on the Explore page. This will open up the points of interest map page. From here you can pan and zoom the map to find points of interest in the area you are interested in. You can tap on any of the points of interest on the map to open up the details page for that point of interest.

When panning the map a new “Search this area” button appears at the top of the map which you can tap to search for points of interest in the area you are currently viewing. At the bottom of the page is a panel that you can drag up to see a list of points of interest in the area you are currently viewing. You can tap on any of the points of interest in the list to open up the details page for that point of interest. You can also use the search box to search for points of interest in the area you are currently viewing.

At the top right of the page is a + button that you can tap to create a new point of interest. This will open up a form where you can enter the details of the point of interest you want to add. When creating a new point of interest you have to choose the GPS location for the point of interest using the map, and then you can enter the rest of the details. The following is required when creating a point of interest:

POI Add

Creating Points of Interest

To create a new point of interest you can tap on the + button at the top right of the points of interest map page. This will open up a form where you can enter the details of the point of interest you want to add. When creating a new point of interest you have to choose the GPS location for the point of interest using the map, and then you can enter the rest of the details. The following is required when creating a point of interest:

  1. Name
  2. Notes
  3. Category
  4. Visibility (public or private)

POI Overview

Points of Interest Overview

When viewing a point of interest you will see the following information:

  1. Map
  2. Point of Interest Details

Admins for points of interest can also see some basic settings for points of interest like public visibility and sharing options.

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Profile

You Gaggle Profile

Profile Page

The profile page is the main entry point for your personal information in Gaggle. It is divided into 3 sections:

  1. Your details
  2. Navigation
  3. Stats

Profile Overview

At the top of the profile page are two buttons, one to share your profile with others and another to configure your settings. Beneath that is your following/following count with your profile picture, name, and subscription status. You can tap on your profile picture to open up the account details page where you can change your profile picture.

Under your profile details is the navigation section where you can navigate to:

  1. All Flights - This will show you all your flight recordings and where you can import and export flights.
  2. Saved Routes - This will show you all your saved routes.
  3. Equipment - This will show you all your equipment like wings, motors, and bluetooth devices.
  4. Achievements - This will show you all personal bests from your flying career.
  5. Conversations - This will show you all your conversations with other pilots.
  6. Ask Gaggle - A personal assistant that you can ask any questions related to Gaggle’s functionality and features, your flights, flying sites, routes, and you can even ask it to find pilots to fly with.

The stats section shows you some basic stats about your flying career like:

  1. Lifetime flights
  2. Lifetime flight hours
  3. Flights this year
  4. Flight hours this year
  5. Flights this month
  6. Days since your last flight

You can swipe on the stats section to see a graph of your flights for the last 6 months.

Profile Settings

Settings

Tapping the settings button opens up the settings for your profile. From here you can:

  1. View your account - You can change your name, profile picture, and lifetime flight stats. You can also set your emergency contact here that will be contacted in case of an emergency based on predefined rules. You can also delete your account from here (This is not reversible).
  2. Subscription - You can view your subscription status and change your subscription plan.
  3. Privacy & Security - You can view who has recently viewed your recordings or live location and managed your blocked users.
  4. Units - You can change the units used in the app between metric and imperial.
  5. Recorder Settings - You can change the settings for the flight recorder. This is the same settings as on the flight recorder page.
  6. Integrations - Any integrations that Gaggle supports like SafeSky and XContest can be managed from here.
  7. About - You can view the version of the app and the terms of service and privacy policy.
  8. Sign Out - You can sign out of your account from here.

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Recording Flights

Recording Flights

To record a flight with Gaggle you can tap the record button. For your first flight you need to set up some basic details, after which you can tap the start recorder button. Gaggle will wait for a takeoff to be detected and then automatically record your flight until a landing is detected.

Here is an overview of the recording screen.

Recording Overview

Recording Overview

Aircraft Type

At the top of the page you choose the type of aircraft you will be flying with. This will determine the instruments that are available to you. You can also choose to record a flight with a different aircraft type than the one you are flying with. This is useful if you are flying with a trike but want to record the flight as a paraglider flight.

Flying Equipment

Next you need to select your equipment. This would be the wing/plane you are flying with and if your type of aircraft supports a separate motor, like a paramotor, you need to select that as well. You can add new equipment from your profile page. To change your wing or motor tap on the equipment name and select a new one from the list.

Fuel Tank

Some aircraft have fuel tanks associated, if you do then you can enter the fuel tank size and consumption rater per hour. This will allow Gaggle to estimate your fuel level during the flight. Before flying you need to enter your fuel using the fuel gauge. You can tap anywhere on the fuel gauge for an approximate fuel leve, or you can tap the fuel tank icon to enter a detailed fuel level.

Flight Task

If you have groups with Obstacle Courses or other supported navigation tasks created then you can select the task you want to fly. This will give you additional information about the task during your flight.

Start recording your flight

Once you are ready and happy with the settings you can tap the start recorder button.

If this is your first time flying with Gaggle you need to allow Gaggle to access your location. You can do this by tapping the “Allow” button. You might also get some additional dialogs for more access to other services we might need.

Recording Settings

Recording Settings

Gaggle gives you a lot of customisation over the recorder and it’s behaviour. Tap the settings button to open the recording settings.

Privacy & Security

Share Location - This setting allows you to share your live location with other Gaggle users. This is useful if you want to share your location with friends and family. You can choose here who sees your location: everyone, groups, friends, or no one.

Share Recordings - This setting allows you to share your flight recordings with other Gaggle users. This is useful if you want to share your flights with friends and family. You can choose here who sees your recordings: everyone, groups, friends, or no one.

Blocked Users - This setting allows you to see all the users you’ve blocked and unblock them if you want to.

Configurations

Auto Shutdown Recorder - This setting allows you to automatically stop the recorder after a landing is detected. This is useful if you want to make sure that your drive home isn’t accidentally recorded. The recorder will shut down after 5 minutes for a long flight, and it will shut down after 15 minutes for a short flight.

Auto Start Recordings - This setting allows you to automatically start a new recording after a takeoff is detected. This is useful if you want to make sure that you don’t forget to start the recorder, so you can start Gaggle during your preflights and not worry about it again. This also enables auto landing detected which will end the recording after a landing is detected. Gaggle will continue to listen for another takeoff until the recorder is manually stopped or shuts down automatically based on the above toggle.

Airspaces - This setting allows you to enable or disable airspaces. You can also install airspaces for your country from here. Read more about airspaces here.

Display Units - This setting allows you to change what the recorder looks like in flight. Items that you can here are:

  1. Orientation - You can choose to lock the orientation of the recorder to portrait or landscape, or you can choose to let the recorder rotate based on the orientation of the device.
  2. Map - Additional settings for the map are available here. You can choose your base map, the map orientation, and what items should be visible on the map. You can read more about the map settings here.
  3. Units - You can choose between metric and imperial units for the instruments.
  4. Font Size - You can choose the size of the font used on the instruments.
  5. Free-Flight Instruments - You can choose to show or hide the free-flight instruments.
  6. Powered Flight Instruments - You can choose to show or hide the powered flight instruments.

Audio

Audio Cues - This setting allows you to enable or disable audio cues. You can also choose the volume of the alerts and which alerts get played during your flight. Learn more about audio cues here.

Variometer - This setting allows you to enable or disable the variometer. You can also choose the volume of the variometer and change different settings related to the variometer. Learn more about the variometer here.

Gestures

Knock Detection - This setting allows you to enable or disable knock detection to trigger audio cues or to skip waypoints.

Integrations

SafeSky - This setting allows you to enable or disable the SafeSky integration which gives you live air traffic information. Learn more about SafeSky here.

Recording Recovery Driver

Recovery Driver Mode

Gaggle has a recovery driver feature that allows recovery drivers to track the location of pilots nearby. You can access this feature by tapping the “taxi” icon on the recording screen. This will open the recovery driver screen.

While viewing the recovery driver screen the recovery driver will see icons for all pilots on the area with their altitude and also an icon to display if they are grounded or not. Tapping on a pilot will open up navigation to that pilot.

When a recovery driver has Gaggle running in recovery driver mode all pilots in the area can see where the recovery driver is by looking at the car icon on their map.

Frequently asked questions

My flight recordings are missing pieces or not recording at all

On Android devices some operating systems have aggressive power management techniques that will sometimes kill the Gaggle background recording service in an attempt to save battery power. Gaggle has little control over this process but there are a few things you can do to help:

  • Update the location permissions for Gaggle to “Always Allow” in the system settings. This will allow Gaggle to restart the recording service the operating system kills it.
  • Update the battery optimisation settings for Gaggle to tell the operating system that it should not kill the Gaggle recording process. You can find out more about that here: [Don’t kill my app! | Hey Android vendors, don’t kill my app! (dontkillmyapp.com)] (https://dontkillmyapp.com)
  • Don’t use Gaggle in the background. If you are running Gaggle in the foreground with the phone screen on then the operating system won’t interfere with the recording process.
  • Try and correct GPS problems that can sometimes occur on Android devices. To see how you can resolve these you can follow the instructions here (the instructions are for Samsung but should work for most brands) How To Fix Samsung Galaxy S21 GPS Problems - Technobezz

I get recordings before I take off, and sometimes it doesn’t record at all

Gaggle has an auto take off and landing feature built in that works based on ground speed. When your speed exceeds a predefined threshold then Gaggle considers it a take-off and will start a new flight recording. Once your ground speed is below that threshold again Gaggle will consider it a landing (provided your height above ground is less than 30 meters). This can sometimes cause problems for trikes and one wheels when you start the recorder during your pre-flight, and you are still moving around a lot. To work around this you can:

  • Start the flight recorder right before take-off or when you know you won’t be moving fast again.
  • Disable this feature by toggling the “Auto Start Recordings” setting in the Flight Recording Settings.

Gaggle switches off and stops recording between flights

Gaggle as feature built in to automatically shut down a few minutes after a landing was detected. This is a convenience feature that will make sure that recordings of your drive home isn’t accidentally recorded. By default, Gaggle will listen for another takeoff for about 5-12 minutes based on some our algorithms. To work around this you can:

  • Stop the flight recorder manually and start it again after you landed. Right after you start the flight recorder Gaggle will listen indefinitely for a takeoff event.
  • Disabled this feature by toggling the “Auto Shutdown Recorder” setting in the Flight Recording Settings.

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Routes

Routes

Explore Page > Routes

Gaggle has a built-in routes feature that lets you chain waypoints in a route that you can then share with other Gaggle users. You can also use routes to plan your flights and see how far you will be flying.

You can access the routes feature from the Explore page and then tapping the Routes menu item.

Routes List

Route List

The route list shows you a search box that you can use to search for your own and shared routes. There is a navigation item for “Saved Routes” that will take you to a page where you can see and manage routes that you have saved. Saved routes have a folder structure that you can use to organise your routes.

Gaggle will automatically show routes near you show you can quickly find routes that you want ot fly at the top of the list. You can filter public and shared routes by using the filter toggles provided.

To create a new route tap the “Create Route” button.

Routes Create

Route Create

To create a new route you need to provide some basic information:

  1. Name - The name of the route.
  2. Visibility - The visibility of the route. You can choose between public and private. Public routes are visible to everyone, private routes are visible to everyone you share the route with.
  3. Import from File - You can import a route from a file. This is useful if you have a route in a GPX or KML file that you want to import.

When you are ready to create the route tap the “Create Route” button.

On the next screen we will show you an empty route without waypoints. Tap on the large block where the route map usually shows to start adding waypoints to the route.

Routes Overview

Route Overview

The route overview page shows you a high level view of what the route looks like. You can see the route on the map and some basic stats about the route. You can tap the map to go the waypoint overview screen.

In the top right corner is a button to save the route to one of your folders and also a settings button to manage the route.

You can share the route with others by tapping the “Share Route” button. You can share routes with nearby pilots, groups, friends, or by exporting a GPX file.

You can immediately start a new flight recording with the route by tapping the fly route button. You can also select the route while in flight to start navigating the route.

Routes Waypoint Overview

Route Waypoint Overview

The route waypoint bottom sheet shows you the waypoints for the route along with an elevation profile for the entire route. You can also see some basic details like the total distance for the route and the max elevation along the route. Tapping a waypoint in the list focuses the elevation profile and stats on this waypoint and the previous/next waypoints.

You can drag waypoints around to reorder then or slide right to delete a waypoint. To edit details for a waypoint like changing its name, radius, or to add a custom audio cue that is played when the waypoint is reached swipe left on the waypoint and tap the edit button.

Routes Waypoints 1

Waypoint Add

To add a waypoint in the route tap anywhere on the map. This will add a new waypoint at the location you tapped. You can also long press on the map to see a context menu that allows you to add a waypoint at the location you long pressed. The long press menu will also show additional information like:

  1. Distance to the location from the previous waypoint
  2. Elevation for the location
  3. Current wind speed and direction
  4. Airspaces near the location

When you are happy with the location of the waypoint tap the “Add Waypoint Here” button.

Routes Waypoints 2

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Watch Support

Apple Watch

Gaggle is fully supported on Apple Watch as a companion app. To get going simply open the app on your watch and start a new recording in the Gaggle app on your phone.

The watch application will show you the following information from the phone app while recording a flight:

  • Live telemetry
  • The position of your friends
  • Route waypoints and information
  • Messages between you and your friends

Note: To make sure the application stays open you need to change the “Return to Clock” setting for the Gaggle App in your watch settings app on your phone. Once you recorded a flight using Gaggle an email will be sent with the details for how to configure this.

Android Wear OS

Gaggle is fully supported on Android Wear OS 3 and up as a companion app. To get going simply search for Gaggle on the Play Store on the watch and install it. Once installed open the app on your watch and start a new recording in the Gaggle app on your phone.

The watch application will show you the following information from the phone app while recording a flight:

  • Live telemetry
  • The position of your friends
  • Route waypoints and information
  • Messages between you and your friends

Garmin & Others

Garmin supported is in the development pipeline and should be released sometime in 2024/2025.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the most common questions we get asked. If you have any other questions please feel free to contact us.

Gaggle is a flight recorder and social network for pilots. We offer flight instruments, flight recording, 3D flight replays, weather, and a whole lot more.
Yes, you can import your flights from other apps. We support importing from Flyskyhy, FlyMe, Flymaster, Flytec, Garmin, Leonardo, Naviter, Oudie, Paralog, Skytraxx, Syride, Top Hat, XCSoar, and more. Gaggle can import flights from popular export formats like GPX and IGC. When you import a flight you get all the great features of Gaggle, including the ability to share your flights with friends and family and to view it in the 3D visualiser.
No it won't. We utilise best practices to ensure that Gaggle uses as little battery as possible while recording your flights. We typically aim for 30% battery usage with the screen on and about 15% if the screen is off an you only use audio cues.
Yes, majority of the features like flight recording and instruments will work offline. When you fly we record everything onto the device. Maps are also cached on the device so if you briefly lose internet connectivity it shouldn't matter. Some features like live tracking and live air traffic will not work offline because it needs an active internet connection.
No it won't. Very similar to Apple/Google maps navigation your music will fade to the background while audio cues are playing and then resume once the cue is finished. You can also adjust the volume of the audio cues to your liking. If you are on a phone call then the audio cues will be paused until the call is finished.
Yes, all your flights are automatically and securely backed up online. You can access them from any device where you log in. If you get a new device simply log in and hit record to get going again. You can also export them to a Excel, IGC, or GPX if you want to do some analysis on your flights.
No they don't. You need a subscription to create a group that you can share with them but they can track you for free. Create a group will allow us send them notifications when you take off and land. You can also set someone as an emergency contact for free. We view these as critical safety features and will never charge for their usage.
We are very conscious of data usage and have designed the app to use as little data as possible while still trying to deliver a lot of value. A typical flight of 1 hour will use about 2MB of data and viewing other flights will use about 1MB per flight. We recommend you use WiFi when possible to keep your data usage down, especially when viewing the 3D visualiser which consumes a lot of data.
Yes, you can export your flights to Excel, IGC, and GPX. You can also export your flight list to Excel. We are working on adding more export formats and if you have a specific request please let us know.
Yes, you can use Gaggle for free. We have a free plan called Wingman that gives you access to all the flight recording and sharing features. You can also share your live location with family and friends for free. All accounts start with a few free flights with premium features so you can experience Gaggle.
We currently support English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Hungarian, and Turkish. We are working on adding more languages and if you have a specific request please let us know.