Recording Flights

Open the recorder from the center Record action in the app shell.

The recorder opens to a setup screen where you prepare the flight before Gaggle starts tracking anything.

What you set up before a flight

The recorder start screen, from top to bottom:

1. What are you flying today? with the aircraft types
2. Select your equipment with the wing and engine cards
3. a fuel row (powered aircraft with an engine selected)
4. the task card, which shows No Task Selected until you pick one
5. Timing declarations (only for some tasks)
6. the selected layout row (Adventurer)
7. the permissions card, then the start button
8. Share Location and Share Recordings
9. suggestion cards, such as SafeSky

The taxi icon at the top right opens recovery driving. The gear icon opens Recorder Settings.

Aircraft type

At the top of the screen, choose Paraglider, Paramotor, Hang Glider or Other.

This controls which recorder setup options and in-flight instruments Gaggle prepares for you.

Equipment

Below the aircraft selector, choose your equipment for the flight. Tap a card to pick a different wing or engine. With Other, you pick an aircraft instead.

If required equipment is missing, the recorder can show quick create actions such as Create Wing or Create Motor.

Fuel

For a paramotor, or another aircraft with a fuel tank, a fuel row appears once an engine is selected.

1. If the engine has no tank size yet, the row reads Tap here to set your tank size and fuel consumption. Tap it to open the engine page and enter them.
2. Once a tank size is set, the row shows a gauge marked E, 1/2 and 1/1. Tap the gauge or drag along it to set how full the tank is.
3. Tap the fuel icon and amount at the right of the row to open the Fuel Level dialog and type the exact amount.

Gaggle uses this level for the fuel instrument and fuel announcements. See Fuel Level.

Task

Tap the task card to open the task chooser and pick the task you want to score this flight against. Tap the X on the card to clear it. For paraglider and hang glider flights, Scan task QR at the top of the chooser reads an XCTrack task QR code. See Choose or Scan a Task Before Takeoff. If you are flying a navigation route or a challenge, the route or challenge preview shows above the start button instead.

If the route preview is showing, tap Reverse Route under it to fly the route in the opposite direction.

When you pick an obstacle course, two more rows can appear:

• Timing declarations shows how many of the course’s tasks you have declared, for example “2 of 2 tasks declared”. It shows only when the course has timed gates and you may declare. Tap it to declare before take-off. See Timing declarations.
• Photos opens the course photos. It shows only when the course has photos. See Course photos.

Layout

With the Adventurer plan, a layout row shows the layout the flight will use. It reads Gaggle Default with Selected Layout below it until you choose a custom one. Tap it to pick another layout. See Custom recorder layouts and Default Layout.

Required permissions

Required permissions are shown on the start screen as a card above the start button.

Typical labels include Required, Allow Location, Continue, Skip and Progress. Location is required. Tap Continue to grant each step. On recommended steps, such as Allow Motion and Fitness on iOS, Skip moves on without granting it.

If a recommended permission is still outstanding, a card with a warning icon shows below the start button. It warns that missing permissions might affect the quality of your recordings. Tap it to review the recommended steps and grant them.

Sharing controls

Below the start button, two chips show who sees your flight:

1. Share Location (left) is who can follow you live while you fly.
2. Share Recordings (right) is who can see the saved flight after you land.

Tap a chip to choose Private, Close Friends, My Groups or Everyone. If you choose My Groups, a list of your groups appears. Tap a group to switch sharing on or off for that group, and a tick shows which groups are on.

Suggestion cards

Under the sharing chips, Gaggle can show cards that you can act on once:

• SafeSky: tap Turn On SafeSky Now to open the SafeSky setup page and see nearby aircraft while you fly. It disappears once SafeSky is set up.
• Share with drone operators: tap Allow to let approved drone operators receive anonymised advisory flight activity while you fly, or Not Now to decline. It shows only after you have recorded some flights, and only when your location sharing allows it. See Airspace advisories.

Open recorder settings

Use the top-right gear icon on the recorder start screen to open Recorder Settings.

The settings sheet currently groups recorder options into:

1. Privacy & Security
2. Configurations
3. Audio
4. Gestures
5. Integrations
6. Equipment

Key recorder settings

These sections open the recorder settings that affect privacy, automation, in-flight audio, connected services, and equipment.

Privacy & Security

Use this section to control who can see your live location while you are flying and who can see the saved flight after you land.

1. Share Location - Opens a sharing picker that lets you choose who can see your location in realtime while you are flying. The current options are the same recorder sharing options used elsewhere in the app, including Private, Close Friends, My Groups and Everyone.
2. Share Recordings - Opens a separate sharing picker for saved recordings, so you can decide who can see the finished flight after you have landed.

Configurations

These options control how the recorder starts, stops, and what related setup pages you can open from the recorder.

1. Auto Shutdown Recorder - This setting auto-stops and closes Gaggle a few minutes after landing.
2. Auto Start/Stop Recordings - This setting auto-detects takeoff and landing during recording, and the app labels it as recommended.
3. Airspaces - This is a shortcut into the airspace setup flow from recorder settings, so you can review installed airspaces and related airspace tools before you fly.
4. Default Layout - Opens the layout most pilots fly with: orientation, map settings, font size, glass instruments, Lift Assist guidance and which instruments show. See Default Layout.
5. Custom Layouts - Build your own recorder screens. This needs the Adventurer plan. See Custom recorder layouts.

Audio

These pages open the recorder’s audio tools.

1. Audio Cues - Opens the audio-cue settings page. In the current app this includes the assistant voice, demo playback, pause-during-calls, volume, automatic announcements, interval announcements, and task guidance cues.
2. Variometer - Opens settings for vario playback, tone profiles, climb and sink thresholds, volume, and climb rate smoothing. It also contains Lift Assist, Early lift cue, Directional lift sound, and the Try the cues demo. Some options depend on your plan. See the variometer guide for setup and headphone support, and the Thermal Assist guide for visual guidance and widgets.

Gestures

This section currently contains the knock gesture settings.

1. Knock Detection - The current description is: knock the screen with your knuckles to trigger certain actions. The page also includes knock sensitivity and separate controls for two, three, and four knocks.

Integrations

When the recorder is not running, the Integrations section lists SafeSky, GDL90, XContest and PureTrack. It is hidden while a competition masks your position. You can also reach the SafeSky, XContest and PureTrack pages from Integrations under App Settings in your profile. See Profile.

SafeSky

Opens the SafeSky setup page. SafeSky shows you traffic from other aircraft nearby while you fly. Other SafeSky pilots can see your position while you record in supported regions. See Live air traffic.

GDL90

GDL90 lets Gaggle receive traffic from a compatible receiver over your network.

1. Open GDL90 and turn on Enabled.
2. Under Port, enter the port your receiver sends traffic to. The default is 4000.
3. To stop hearing or seeing an aircraft, add its call sign under Silenced Call Signs. Gaggle does not announce these call signs in audio cues and does not show them on the map.

Changes save as you make them. Gaggle starts listening when you start the recorder.

XContest

See also XContest and PureTrack.

XContest needs the Frequent Flyer plan or higher. Without it, the XContest and PureTrack rows show a Premium chip.

1. Open XContest and turn on Enabled.
2. Tap Username, enter your XContest username and tap Save.
3. Tap Password, enter your XContest password and tap Save. Gaggle encrypts the password and stores it securely.
4. Turn on Auto Upload to send future flights to XContest automatically. You can also upload a single flight yourself from its Info tab. See Flight Recording Flow.

For a post-flight upload to be public, set Share Recordings to My Groups or Everyone. If it is set to anything else, a warning shows on this page. If the login fails, the page shows Invalid credentials. Enter your details again.

For live tracking, turn on Live Tracking. Gaggle sends your position to XContest while you fly and can receive nearby XContest traffic. Gaggle asks you to enter your XContest password once on this device. XContest live tracking always creates a public flight on XContest, whatever your Share Location setting, so leave it off for flights you want to keep private. See XContest and PureTrack.

Once you have saved your login details, a card titled Enable XContest live tracking can appear. Tap Enable live tracking to turn it on, or Dismiss to hide the card.

With Live Tracking on, Claim contest flight asks XContest to claim the live-tracked flight for contest scoring when the landing is submitted.

PureTrack

1. Open PureTrack and turn on Enabled. Gaggle then sends live tracking data to PureTrack as you fly.
2. Your Tracker ID shows below the switch. It is your unique device ID for PureTrack.

The PureTrack row shows the Premium chip without the Frequent Flyer plan, but you can still turn the switch on. Gaggle sends live tracking to PureTrack only while your subscription is active.

Equipment

When the recorder is not actively running, equipment links appear at the bottom of recorder settings.

1. Wings and Engines - Opens your equipment list so you can review or update the wing and engine setup used for the current aircraft type before recording.
2. Bluetooth Devices - Opens your Bluetooth equipment list so you can pair and manage connected devices. Compatible devices can expose sensor-specific options such as using a Bluetooth variometer as the primary variometer.

Start recording

Once required permissions are complete and setup looks right, tap Start Recorder.

If GPS is not ready yet, the action shows Waiting for GPS location until location is available.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the recorder ask for location access before I can continue?

The recorder needs location access to track your flight path and store GPS coordinates during the flight.

That requirement is now shown directly on the recorder start screen instead of being hidden deeper in setup.

Why do I see equipment creation prompts instead of my wing or motor?

That means your account does not yet have matching equipment for the selected aircraft type.

Create the missing wing or motor first, then return to the recorder.