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Should I use the automatic download in XCTrack or AIR³ Manager to update Airspaces?

Watch this video to know how to get AIRSPACE and read more details about Airspace in Menu/Preferences/Airspaces

Airspaces information were traditionaly provided to the instrument through an Openair file. The AIRSPACE is continuously evolving. This means that Openair files should be regularly updated.

In an Openair file, there are prohibited zones 7 days a week, H24, but there are also a certain number of temporary prohibited zones that are announced by Notam (notification to air man).

This means that a different Openair file needs to be produced every day, or every hour according to the current situation.

There are different ways to let XCTrack use the right airspace. Read more details in Menu/Preferences/Airspaces.

XCTrack/Airspace/Web:

XCTrack can use airspace zones from http://airspace.xcontest.org automatically. 

Choose countries in Menu/Preferences/Airspaces in the Web tab. Tap ‘’Refresh’’ .

Check this video to see how to get Airspace information of a given country.

Airspace activations are automatically checked upon XCTrack (re)start 

Airspaces are computed automatically through a “notam analyser” in many countries.

AIR³ Manager/Openair file:

If XCTrack doesn’t support your region or for other specific reasons, you could use another method linked to AIR³ Manager, but for easy Airspace update, we strongly recommend using the previous method.

Openair files should ideally be produced based on a daily analysis of the Notam in order to humanly determine which airspaces are activated or not.

A group of pilots focusing on a given region should organise themselves to validate Openair files corresponding to their region and publish them on a Google Drive folder. Sharing that folder with the pilots that are interested, AIR³ manager can automatically download the latest Openair file published. 

Air³ Manager will copy the airspace files in OpenAir format to the Airspaces directory of XCTrack as “Most_recent_OA.txt” and make a second copy in the directory. By choosing that individual airspace file “Most_recent_OA.txt” once for all, Air³ will automatically use the latest Openair file published on that shared folder without any difficuty.

Read more details in the Openair2AIR3 page and in the AIR³ Manager manual.

Categories: Airspaces, How to
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