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Troubleshooting

Importing files​

A route file won't import​

Navigator accepts only .fpl and .xml. Anything else is refused with "Please select a .fpl or .xml file." — check the extension survived whatever path the file took to the device; email and messaging apps sometimes rename attachments.

If the extension is right but the Route section stays empty, the file parsed but yielded fewer than two usable waypoints. Every waypoint needs a non-empty <identifier> and numeric <lat> and <lon>; ones that don't are skipped without comment. See file formats for the minimum Navigator accepts.

"Failed to parse KML"​

The file is not XML Navigator can read, or it contains no coordinate/time pairs at all. Export a fresh track log from ForeFlight rather than reusing a KML that has been through another tool.

If the message continues "...has positions but no timestamps", the file is geometry only — a route or a drawn line rather than a recorded track. Navigator refuses it rather than scoring it on invented times; see the note in file formats.

"Non-increasing timestamps at index n"​

Two track points share a timestamp, or time runs backwards. This usually means the log was stitched from more than one recording, or contains a paused-and-resumed segment. Navigator requires strictly increasing time and will not guess which points to drop. Re-export the original single track.

The KML imported but the score is nonsense​

Timing is no longer the likely culprit — a track log with no <when> timestamps is refused at import rather than scored on invented ones. Look instead at the planned times you entered, at which legs are switched Scored on, and at the checkpoint radii under settings. If the track itself looks wrong, open the KML in Google Earth and check it is the flight you think it is.

Live flights​

Timing never starts​

The PRE-FLIGHT pill stays orange because ground speed never reached the rotation speed you set. Either:

  • Location was denied. Grant it in Settings → Navigator → Location and restart the flight. Nothing arrives without it.
  • Rotation speed is set too high, or the source is not reporting speed.
  • Wi-Fi-only iPad on Device GPS. There is no GPS receiver in it. Use GDL90.

Whatever the cause, the Start button on the pre-flight panel starts the clock by hand.

Legs don't advance​

Automatic switching needs four conditions at once: inside the checkpoint radius, above rotation speed, distance to the waypoint increasing again, and 5 seconds since the last switch. The usual failures:

  • You passed wider than the radius — 0.75 NM by default. Nothing fires.
  • Auto switch is off. Check for the AUTO pill. Using Jump to Leg turns it off deliberately; re-enable it from Leg Control.

Fix it in the air with Leg Control → Jump to Leg, then re-enable auto switching.

Legs advance too early​

Usually a checkpoint that sits close to your course toward the next one, so you satisfy the radius test on the way past. Leg Control → Restart Current Leg puts the clock back to zero on the leg you are actually flying.

The target ground speed is a ridiculous number​

Expected once a leg is past its planned time — the formula's remaining-time divisor bottoms out and the target runs away. The leg is already late; read the delta card instead. See reading the panel.

GDL90 shows NO DATA​

Work down the list:

  1. Is the device joined to the receiver's Wi-Fi network?
  2. Was Local Network permission granted? Check Settings → Navigator. Denying it once is permanent until you change it there.
  3. Is the receiver actually broadcasting? If another EFB app on the same device sees it, the network is fine and the problem is Navigator's.
  4. Some receivers only stream after a client announces itself. Navigator announces every 5 seconds — give it 15 before concluding it is not working.

Source cannot be changed mid-flight: end the flight and start again on Device GPS.

The screen went dark mid-flight​

iOS auto-lock. Navigator does not currently keep the display awake — set Settings → Display & Brightness → Auto-Lock to Never before you fly.

Known limitations​

An older live flight will not re-grade​

What happens. You open a live flight saved by an earlier build, tap Edit, and Navigator says the flight's saved track has no timestamps and its timing cannot be recomputed. Grade Flight will not produce a new score.

Why. Live flights used to save a geometry-only LineString with no <when> elements. The positions survived, the clock did not. Navigator now writes a gx:Track carrying every fix's real timestamp, so a flight recorded on a current build re-grades exactly — but the older files cannot be repaired, because the timing was never written down.

Earlier builds papered over this by inventing timestamps one second apart, which is worse than refusing: it produced a plausible-looking score with meaningless times. Navigator now refuses, which also means re-grading can no longer overwrite the flight's original score.

What you still have. The score on the flight is the one it earned in the air, computed from the real track before it was saved, and it is correct in every category. Nothing is lost by not re-grading — the reason to re-grade is to add secret checkpoints or fuel, or to change the scoring radii, and for an older flight those have to be scored by hand against the numbers you already have.

Flights recorded from now on re-grade exactly, and their timing and elapsed points come back identical to the live score.

Other current limitations​

  • No background tracking. Leaving Navigator or locking the device during a live flight stops position updates. Keep it in the foreground.
  • No map. There is no moving map, no route display, and no plot of your track against the planned course.
  • No sync. Flights live on one device. No iCloud, no accounts.
  • Live flights are graded with default radii — only rotation speed is exposed on the live setup screen. See settings.
  • Passage times are not interpolated. A waypoint's passage time is the timestamp of the nearest recorded fix, so precision is bounded by your track's sample rate.
  • A route that revisits a waypoint loses the repetition, because routes are read from the waypoint table. See file formats.

Reporting a problem​

Send beta feedback through TestFlight, or email michaellachut3@gmail.com. What helps:

  • The files. The .fpl and .kml that produced the problem — they are the fastest route to reproducing it.
  • The JSON export. From the live results sheet it contains the inputs as well as the score.
  • Device and iOS version, and whether you were on Device GPS or GDL90.
  • What you expected the number to be, and why. For a scoring question, that is the whole report.