Using AeroTrack EFB

Getting started

Getting the app

AeroTrack EFB is on its way to the App Store. Sign up for launch updates and we'll email you when it's available to download.

AeroTrack runs on iPhone and iPad with iOS 17.0 or later.

First-run checklist

• Allow location access so the app can show your position. Choose “While Using the App” at minimum.
• Download your chart and data packs while you're on Wi-Fi, before you head to the airport.
• Create an aircraft profile with your performance and weight-and-balance numbers. Glide Mode and the planning tools use it.
• Sign in to iCloud on each device if you want your plans and profiles to follow you between iPhone and iPad.
• Pair your Stratux if you fly with one (see ADS-B & Stratux).

The map

The map is the home screen. It shows the chart you've selected, your ownship position, your active route, and any weather, airspace, traffic and terrain layers you have switched on.

• Pan and zoom with the usual one- and two-finger gestures.
• Tap an airport, fix or waypoint to open its details or add it to your route.
• Long-press anywhere to search a radius around that point for airports, fixes and waypoints.
• Open Layers to pick the base map (Streets, Satellite, Sectional, IFR Low or IFR High) and switch overlays on and off. TAC Charts appears beside Sectional, and Area Charts beside IFR Low.
• Measure by holding two fingers still on the map for a moment, then moving them apart. The card shows distance, a bearing each way and time en route (no wind applied). Tap to clear it.
• Obstacles (200 ft AGL and taller) and the Aeronautical overlay, which adds ARTCC boundaries and Maximum Elevation Figures, are in Layers. A Maximum Elevation Figure is not a safe altitude.

On iPhone the controls, sidebar and data bar are laid out for the smaller screen, and in landscape the controls move clear of the camera cutout.

Flight planning

Building a route

• Tap an airport on the map to add it to the route.
• Long-press to search nearby airports, fixes and waypoints and add one.
• Drag a leg to reshape it: a rubber-band preview follows your finger and a new waypoint is inserted where you release.
• Direct-To from any airport to fly straight there from your present position.

Navlog and profile

Multi-leg routes produce a navlog with distances, headings and times. You can set crossing altitude and speed restrictions at any waypoint. A vertical profile shows your planned altitude against terrain and airspace along the route.

• The navlog reads the winds forecast along each climb, cruise and descent at the time you'll be there, and flies climb and descent speeds as indicated airspeed unless your aircraft profile says otherwise.
• Open the profile from the flight-plan window (FP), then drag a finger across it to read terrain, plan altitude and clearance, winds, temperature, forecast clouds and airspace at that point. A matching bar follows on the map.
• Forecast clouds on the profile are a Pro feature; winds are included with Basic. See Subscription.
• An aircraft's service ceiling (Aircraft → the aircraft → Airframe) limits the altitude choices and sets the height of the profile.

SIDs, STARs and preferred routes

• In the FP window, Procedures lists the departures for your first airport and the arrivals for your last, from the FAA's coded data. Pick a procedure on the list or the map, choose the runway and transition, then tap Add departure or Add arrival. It goes into the route as a single item with every leg written out.
• Routes shows the FAA preferred and coded departure routes between your departure and arrival airports, when one is published. Tap a route to copy it. It's reference only; verify it before you file or fly it.

Saving flights

Save in the FP window names and stores the plan, and Open brings up your saved flights. Saved flights sync through iCloud.

Following the route in flight

Cross-track error is measured the way a panel GPS does it: against the course line of the leg you're flying, so the numbers should feel familiar if you're used to a panel-mount navigator.

Flight plan filing

In the FP window, tap File to open the ICAO flight plan form. It fills itself from your route, aircraft and weight-and-balance, and every field can be overridden.

• Set up each aircraft once: Aircraft → the aircraft → Flight Plan Equipment holds the type, equipment and surveillance codes, with typical presets to start from.
• The form checks itself and tells you how many items still need fixing before you can review.
• Copy Message gives you the finished ICAO message.

Filing goes through 1-800-WX-BRIEF. You can also prepare and check your plan in AeroTrack and file it at 1800wxbrief.com or by calling 1-800-WX-BRIEF.

Flight packs & offline use

AeroTrack is designed so the essentials are on your device before you lose signal. Rather than caching whatever you happened to look at, you tell the app what you need.

Packing for a flight

1. Build your route.
2. Tap Pack.
3. Wait for the download to finish while you're on Wi-Fi.

Pack lets you choose what to download: Plates, Weather (METARs and TAFs), NOTAMs and Winds & Clouds Aloft for the airports and route you built. The winds and forecast clouds it saves are what the vertical profile and navlog need offline (clouds need Pro). Regional chart packs can also be downloaded ahead of time from Downloads.

• Packing the same unchanged route again updates its pack.
• A flight pack deletes itself an hour after your estimated arrival.
• Long-press Pack to see your flight packs.

What works offline

• Downloaded charts and plates
• The airport database, including runways, frequencies and elevation
• Chart Supplement pages and reference documents you have downloaded
• Your flight plans, aircraft profiles and weight-and-balance
• Terrain shading
• Ownship position from the device's GPS or your Stratux

What needs a connection

• Weather (METARs, TAFs and other products), TFRs and NOTAMs
• Downloading or updating chart packs and data
• iCloud sync

Live data is labeled with its age. If it's stale, the app tells you rather than presenting it as current.

Charts & plates

AeroTrack uses the FAA's own charts: VFR sectionals and IFR enroute low and high, with coverage of the contiguous United States. Charts are downloaded in regional packs so they are on the device, not fetched on demand.

Approach plates

Instrument approach and other terminal procedures are georeferenced. When you have a position fix, your ownship symbol appears on the plate itself, not just on the enroute chart.

Terminal Area Charts (TAC) show over the sectional and IFR Area charts over IFR Low. TACs stream online and go a zoom level deeper when you download a pack; Area charts need a downloaded pack. Offline chart packs are in Downloads.

Show on Map in the plate viewer drapes a plate over the map with your ownship on it (Pro). With Auto Show Taxi turned on in Settings (Pro), the arrival airport's diagram appears on its own as you land.

Keeping charts current

Aeronautical data changes on a set cycle. The app shows the effective cycle for each dataset it uses, and you should update packs when a new cycle begins. Charts you rely on for a flight should always be within their effective dates.

Airports

Every US airport is built in, so you can look one up with no connection. An airport page includes runways, frequencies, elevation, magnetic variation, fuel availability and pattern altitude, along with current weather and NOTAMs when you're online.

Favorite the airports you use often (star in the airport page). Favorites sync across your devices with iCloud.

• Nearest at the top of the Airports list shows the five closest airports with bearing and distance.
• Tap a phone number on the Frequencies tab to call the airport or its ASOS/AWOS; press and hold to copy it.
• Chart Supplement (A/FD): open an airport, then Procedures → Airport → Chart Supplement. It loads when you're online, or you can download A/FD packs by FAA region in Downloads for offline use.

Weather

• METARs and TAFs are plotted on the map, colored by flight category (VFR, MVFR, IFR, LIFR).
• Plain-language decode is shown on every airport page so you don't have to parse the raw text.
• PIREPs, AIRMETs, SIGMETs and winds aloft are available as additional layers. With a route planned, the winds layer shows the forecast for your departure time.
• Weather Brief: in the FP window, tap Weather for a summary along your route (choose a 10, 25 or 50 NM corridor): departure, destination, en-route stations, SIGMETs and AIRMETs, decoded PIREPs and winds aloft. It's not an official briefing and doesn't log one with Flight Service.
• Weather imagery (Pro): the Weather tile in the sidebar opens prog charts, the convective outlook, SigWx, icing, turbulence and TCF charts. Saving a brief (Pro) puts it under Saved Briefs; a saved copy shows how old its weather is.

Weather comes from aviationweather.gov and refreshes when you have a connection. Check the observation time; a METAR that is hours old is not a current report.

Airspace, TFRs & NOTAMs

• Airspace covers the whole country. Tap a boundary for its details.
• TFRs are pulled live each time rather than cached, so what you see reflects the latest published restrictions when you're connected.
• NOTAMs are listed by airport and route.

ADS-B & Stratux

AeroTrack connects to a Stratux receiver, or any receiver broadcasting standard GDL-90 over Wi-Fi, to show ownship position and nearby traffic. It doesn't need a subscription to do so.

Connecting

1. Power on your receiver and give it a minute to start up.
2. In your device's Wi-Fi settings, join the receiver's network.
3. Open AeroTrack. Connection status appears in the app; you don't need to open a separate Stratux web page to check it.

What you'll see

• Live connection status and GPS and traffic signal health
• Traffic targets with relative altitude and vertical trend
• Traffic alerting

Your device may show “no internet” on the receiver's Wi-Fi network. That's expected: the receiver provides a local link, not internet access. Weather and other online data update whenever you're back on a normal connection.

Traffic shows only aircraft that are transmitting and that your receiver can hear. Aircraft without a transponder or ADS-B Out will not appear.

Terrain awareness

The map shades terrain relative to your cruise altitude: amber when the ground is within 1,000 ft of it and red within 500 ft. It's on all the time and works offline.

Terrain shading is an advisory aid, not an obstacle database and not a substitute for a certified terrain awareness system. It won't show towers, wires or other obstacles.

Glide Mode

Glide Mode shows where you could reach if the engine quit. Tap the button and the map draws your engine-out glide range around ownship, based on your aircraft profile.

• The shape isn't a circle. It's a teardrop that accounts for the turn you'd need to make.
• It shrinks as you descend or when the terrain ahead rises.
• Reachable airports pulse on the map, nearest first, with the height you'd arrive at.
• Tap one to jump to its wind, frequencies and elevation.

Glide Mode is only as good as the aircraft numbers you give it, so keep your profile accurate. It is advisory only and does not account for everything a real emergency involves.

Weight & balance

Set up each aircraft once, then load it for each flight. Fuel is entered by type, and the graph shows where you sit relative to the normal and utility envelopes so you can see how close to a limit you are, not just whether you're inside it.

The data bar

The strip along the bottom of the map shows live flight data such as groundspeed, track, height above ground and ETE. There are 29 fields to choose from.

• Tap any cell to change what it shows.
• Your layout is remembered, and syncs to your other devices.
• On iPhone the bar shortens to fit the fields that fit the screen.

Split screen & instruments

On iPad (and an unfolded foldable) the Split screen button under the Stratux badge puts the map beside any other screen: Airports, Instruments, Weather, Aircraft, Weight & Balance, Checklists, Navlogs, Documents, Scratchpad or Tools. With a route planned, Procedures for its airports open plates right in the second pane.

• Drag the divider to resize the panes. It's side by side in landscape and stacked in portrait.
• Use Map on right (or bottom) to swap sides, and Close S/S to end the split. The app remembers your layout.

Instruments

Choose Instruments in the split screen picker for six gauges: airspeed, attitude, altimeter, turn, heading and vertical speed.

• Attitude needs a receiver that sends AHRS data. Without one the gauge shows a NO AHRS flag, and airspeed and heading fall back to GPS ground speed and track.
• Tap the altimeter to use the nearest station's setting or enter one yourself.
• Tap the airspeed gauge to set the V-speed arcs for the aircraft.

Instruments are advisory and are not a substitute for the aircraft's panel.

Tools & documents

Flight-computer tools

The Tools tile has the everyday E6B set: IAS/TAS, density altitude, ISA temperature, cloud base, wind correction, wind finder, runway wind, compass heading, climb/descent, coordinates, time/speed/distance, fuel, and unit and temperature converters. They work from the numbers you type and don't use your plan or aircraft.

Reference documents

In Downloads → Documents → Reference Documents, tap Get on the FAR/AIM, FAA handbooks, ACS books or chart guides you want. They're filed into Documents, where the reader has a contents list, go-to-page and search, and remembers where you stopped. Documents opens in the split screen too, and you can add your own files, photos and folders.

Logbook & scratchpad

• Tracks are recorded automatically (Settings → Track Logs). Log one with the + button, or add an entry by hand.
• LogTen Pro: open a saved logbook entry and tap Send to LogTen Pro. It needs LogTen Pro on the same device, sends one entry at a time, and sending again updates the entry instead of duplicating it. Check that the aircraft type matches what LogTen expects.
• Scratchpad is a notepad you draw or type on, with templates for CRAFT clearances, ATIS/AWOS, holding, takeoff, landing and graph paper. Tap Save; nothing is kept until you do.

iCloud sync

Flight plans, aircraft profiles, weight-and-balance, favorite airports and your data bar layout follow you to every device signed into the same iCloud account. There is nothing to export and no separate AeroTrack account to create.

Synced: flight plans and saved flights, logbook entries and tracks, aircraft, weight-and-balance presets, settings and favorites. Not synced: navlogs, documents, scratchpads, checklists, saved briefs and flight packs. Power and GPS settings stay on each device.

• Sync needs a connection and iCloud enabled for the app (Settings → iCloud).
• Downloaded chart packs live on each device, so download them on each one you fly with.

Battery & GPS

• Battery Saver (Settings) dims the screen after a minute without a touch, draws the map at a lower frame rate, refreshes online data less often and rests the device's GPS while a receiver is supplying position. It also turns on by itself in iOS Low Power Mode.
• This Device (Devices → This Device) shows the device GPS status and lets you turn the device GPS off, or pause it while a receiver is connected.

Subscription

AeroTrack EFB is offered as a Basic or Pro subscription through the App Store, with an introductory free trial on some plans. The price, trial and renewal terms are shown on the purchase screen before you pay.

• Basic includes the live map, offline Sectional chart packs, weather layers, TFRs, NOTAMs, airspace, flight planning, weight and balance, traffic, plates, Chart Supplements, reference documents, winds on the profile and the Weather Brief.
• Pro adds offline TAC and IFR chart packs, forecast clouds, weather imagery and saved briefs, the terrain advisory and Glide Mode overlays, plates on the map and Auto Show Taxi.
• Restore Purchases is on the purchase screen. Use it after reinstalling or on a new device signed into the same Apple Account.
• Manage or cancel in iOS Settings → your name → Subscriptions. Apple handles billing and refunds.

Troubleshooting

Frequently asked questions

Still need help?

Email support@aerotrackefb.com and include:

• Your device model and iOS version
• The app version (Settings → About)
• What you expected versus what happened
• The airport, chart region or route involved, if relevant
• A screenshot, if it helps

General questions and pre-launch inquiries go to dev@aerotrackefb.com. More on the support page.