Privacy
The short version: Navigator has no backend. There is no account, no sign-in, no analytics, and no server of its own to send anything to. Nothing you put into the app — flights, routes, tracks, scores — leaves your device unless you deliberately share it.
The one thing Navigator fetches from anybody is sectional chart tiles, from the FAA's public tile service, for the areas you look at or download. Nothing of yours goes with the request, but the area being requested is implicit in it. The details are below.
What Navigator stores
Everything lives in one flights.json file inside the app's own Documents directory:
- Flight names, dates, and scores
- Planned leg times, scoring settings, secret checkpoint counts, fuel figures
- The complete bytes of every route and track log you import — including the full position history of your flights
That last item is the one to be aware of. Your flight tracks are on the device, in the app's sandbox, in full.
What leaves the device
| Path | What goes | To where |
|---|---|---|
| Export JSON / KML / Share | The flight you chose to export | Wherever you send it in the share sheet |
| GDL90 announcement | {"App": "Navigator", "GDL90": {"port": 4000}} | Broadcast on your local Wi-Fi only, and only during a GDL90 live flight |
| Sectional chart tiles | Requests for the map squares you are viewing or downloading | The FAA's tile service on tiles.arcgis.com |
| TestFlight | Crash reports, and any feedback you submit | Apple, and from Apple to the developer |
That is the complete list. There is no telemetry, no usage reporting, and no third-party SDK in the app.
A tile request names the map square being fetched, so the FAA's service — and anything between you and it — can infer the area you are viewing or have downloaded, and during a flight that tracks where you are flying. The request carries no account, device id or flight data; Navigator has nothing to attach to it.
Tiles are only fetched for areas you look at or download. Download a region on the ground and the flight itself needs no network at all. Timing, guidance and scoring never touch the network.
Location
Location is requested for live flights, as While Using the App. Navigator does not request Always authorization.
It does keep recording while backgrounded, for the length of a live session: switching to ForeFlight or a checklist mid-flight used to put a gap in the scored track. iOS shows its blue location indicator the whole time, and recording stops when you end the flight.
GDL90 flights ask for location too, even though their fixes come from the receiver — it is what keeps the app running to listen for them. Those CoreLocation fixes are ignored.
Positions collected during a flight are written into that flight's record on the device and used to compute your score. They are not transmitted anywhere.
Deleting your data
- One flight: swipe left on it in the Flights list and tap Delete. Immediate and permanent.
- Everything: delete the app. iOS removes its Documents directory with it.
Note that device backups — iCloud or Finder — include Navigator's data, so a flight you deleted may still exist in an older backup.
TestFlight
Apple collects the usual beta telemetry: installs, sessions, and crash reports, which are shared with the developer in aggregate. That is Apple's system, not Navigator's, and it is governed by Apple's privacy policy. Feedback you submit through TestFlight includes any screenshot you attach and basic device information.
Beta caveat
Navigator is beta software distributed to a small group. It carries no warranty, and its scoring should be checked against your event's official scoring before it is relied on for anything that matters. It is not certified for any purpose and must not be used as a primary means of navigation.