Enhanced Heading & Navigation Features

We’re excited to announce significant enhancements to CaptainVFR’s navigation and heading features, making your flight experience more intuitive and reliable than ever before.

What’s New

🧭 Always-On Compass Heading

The compass now works continuously, even when you’re not actively tracking a flight. This means you can:

Check your heading at any time
Use the app as a backup compass
Get immediate orientation information when planning flights

🗺️ Dual Map Rotation Modes

Choose how you want to view your flight path with two distinct modes:

1. Map Rotates (North-Up)

Map stays oriented with North at the top
Your aircraft icon rotates to show heading
Perfect for maintaining geographic awareness

2. Aircraft Icon Rotates (Track-Up)

Map rotates to match your heading
Aircraft icon always points up
Ideal for following your route intuitively

Access this setting in Settings → Map Settings → Map Rotation Mode.

📱 Improved iOS Compatibility

We’ve resolved several iOS-specific issues:

Fixed permission detection - The app now correctly handles location permissions for compass access
Better permission prompts - Non-intrusive notifications guide you through enabling required permissions
Automatic recovery - If permissions are granted while the app is running, features activate immediately

⚡ Performance Enhancements

Smart retry mechanism - Compass initialization uses exponential backoff to conserve battery
Optimized updates - Heading updates are throttled to 2Hz for smooth display without draining resources
Cleaner codebase - Removed unnecessary debug messages for better performance

Technical Improvements

Enhanced Flight Dashboard

The flight tracking panel now displays:

Real-time heading even when not tracking
Improved layout with better information density
Responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes

Robust Error Handling

Graceful degradation when sensors are unavailable
Clear user feedback for permission issues
Automatic recovery from temporary failures

Apple Watch Integration

For pilots with Apple Watch:

Real-time flight telemetry on your wrist
Start/stop tracking from your watch
Monitor altitude, speed, and heading without reaching for your phone

Known Issues & Workarounds

iOS Simulator

The compass doesn’t work in the iOS Simulator. Always test heading features on a real device.

Permission Caching

On iOS, if you’ve previously denied location permission, you may need to:

Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services
Find CaptainVFR and set to “While Using App” or “Always”
Return to the app - heading should now work

Coming Soon

We’re continuously improving CaptainVFR based on your feedback. Upcoming features include:

Compass calibration interface
Magnetic variation corrections
Enhanced track recording with heading data
Wind calculation based on heading and GPS track

Feedback

Your input helps us build better features. If you experience any issues with the new heading functionality or have suggestions for improvements, please contact us or report issues on our GitHub repository.

Thank you for flying with CaptainVFR! ✈️

This update is available now in version 1.5.0 on iOS and Android. Update your app to access these new features.