Getting started is very easy... Just download the SkyGlass app, create a username and boom you're SkyRiding! ​ Here are the exact steps to follow... ​ Sign Up to the aviarlabs.com website at the top right to create and verify your website account. You will create your SkyGlass app username in a later step. ​ Download and Install the SkyGlass app from the Downloads page. ​ Launch the SkyGlass app. Choose a username and password, enter your email address* and click CREATE. ​*​Be sure to use the same email address as your aviarlabs.com website account.​ NOTE : Your SkyGlass app username cannot include special characters. ​ ​You will get an activation email from registration@skyglass.io. Be sure to check your spam box! Click the activation link to activate your new SkyGlass login. ​ Log into the SkyGlass app and explore for as long as your free-trial lasts. Each new user gets a 14 day free trial. ​ Return to this website and purchase a subscription from the Plans & Pricing page. *Be sure to use the same email when you checkout!! When your paid subscription begins you will see updated details at the SkyGlass app login screen. Please allow a few days for the system to update. When your free trial ends and your paid subscription begins, you will see an updated renewal-date at the welcome panel when you sign into the SkyGlass app. If you have "auto-login" enabled, you will by-pass the welcome panel. To show the welcome panel after you have Entered SkyGlass, click on the "profile" button in the auxiliary button stack. PLEASE NOTE... Onboarding to the SkyGlass platform requires creating TWO accounts... ​ 1. First is your website account where you purchase and manage your subscription. ​ 2. The second is your SkyGlass app username which you create inside the SkyGlass app. ​ In order for your SkyGlass subscription to function, ALL email addresses must match. Here on the website, inside the SkyGlass app and when you make your website subscription purchase. ~ • ~ If for any reason you get locked out of the app or have trouble signing in, please reach out via the Support Form or by using the "Need Help?" chat bubble at the bottom of the website.

A quick note about the two modes, Mil-Mode and Standard Mode. Mil-Ops mode is the default mode for SkyGlass which is indicated by a fighter icon at the top of the main button stack (bottom right of the screen) and an orange circle icon background. Mil-Mode shows all military aircraft worldwide. The search radius does not apply in Mil-Ops Mode. You can switch to Standard Mode by clicking the start-rank icon (just above the aircraft traces icon) in the main button stack. That will activate a home location input panel and search radius slider. (more on that below) and the icon at the top of the main button stack will change to a commercial jet icon with a blue background . The User Interface The primary UI is the main button stack in the bottom right corner of the screen. The auxiliary button stack is the group of button to the left of the main button stack. Depending on your current settings, more UI panels will stack up and build out to the left of the auxiliary button stack. You can minimize all the auxiliary stacked panels using the bottom button in the main stack. How do I move around? For desktop.... After you've entered SkyGlass use your mouse left-button to move and right-button to rotate the camera. Keyboard's WASD keys and arrow keys also work to move and rotate the camera. Shift + Mouse Left-Click-drag and Q/E keys will raise and lower the camera POV. If you have a single button mouse use Ctrl+click to rotate. Scroll wheel will zoom the camera in and out. ! For mobile versions... 1-touch drag to move the map. To rotate, first collapse the main UI (bottom button in the main button stack, bottom right corner of the screen) and 1-touch in the bottom right 1/4 of the screen to pop up a camera rotation joystick. 2 finger touch pinch/pull to zoom in and out. 3 finger touch up/down to elevate the camera. How do I load traffic? To load a snapshot of current traffic click the top button in the button stack. This will load a snapshot of the live traffic based on your current mode, filter and search parameters. To keep the traffic continually refreshing click the auto-refresh button, just below the main button main button stack. Use your mouse to hover over traffic to load aircraft details. If you have traces activated, clicking on an aircraft will load or unload the trace. Right click on the aircraft to add it to your watchlist. How do I change my home location? To change your home location, which is the center of your search radius when in standard mode, do the following: Make sure the location input panel is visible by turning on the location input toggle in the auxiliary button stack, ("target" icon in the aux-button stack). This opens the input panel which looks like this: Next, enter a place name, such as a city, zip code, airport code, or other natural language identifier into the input field and hit Enter/Return key or click the "target" button to the right of the input field, and your home location and camera will reset to the new location. On mobile devices, there is an extra button next to the target which will set your home location to the devices' current GPS location. How do I use the Relative Height Slider? One unique feature of SkyGlass is the ability to stretch & squish the vertical axis changing each objects relative altitude. This makes SkyGlass more than just a traffic simulator but a dynamic and novel visualization tool. Activate the height adjustment slider using the vertical slider button in the auxiliary button stack, then drag to adjust the relative height of all aircraft, traces and other height specific objects. How do I see just military traffic? SkyGlass has two modes, standard mode and mil-ops mode. SkyGlass defaults to Mil-Ops mode at startup as indicated by the green shield icon in the auxiliary button stack. Standard mode loads traffic within the defined search radius around the current home location. Mil-Ops loads all military traffic world wide. Note that Mil-Ops mode loads all mil-traffic world-wide. When you switch into Mil-Mode, the location input panel will be hidden. Important notes... Use the Burn button (flame icon in the aux-button stack) to clear all loaded traffic and traces after switching modes or changing home locations. It is important to clear all loaded traffic when you switch modes or change your home location parameters as any prior loaded traffic will not update unless it's within the search radius. Not-burning can lead to inaccurate results. The Burn button will clear all loaded traffic as well as stop any loading actions. Finally, be sure to watch the Intro to SkyGlass here !

SkyGlass is made for desktop computers running Mac or Windows operating systems. A mobile version is also available for Android and iOS devices, both phone and tablet formats. SkyGlass requires an internet connection to run. SkyGlass will not run a browser or on computers with the Linux operating system. However... Linux users can run SkyGlass for Windows using the latest Wine emulator. If your Windows or Mac computer or mobile device was manufactured within the last five years, you should be able to run the SkyGlass app without issues. However, please see the notes below regarding older or lower end desktop computers. A note on RAM requirements.... Typically SkyGlass will utilize around 2GB of ram under normal operations. If you have less than 4GB of ram you may have trouble running SkyGlass. Advanced operations can use more ram, such as showing multiple long depth traces or flight history. For Mac users, we have found that SkyGlass will run on most machines with few exceptions. However older Apple computers may have trouble with SkyGlass. If you have a Mac that is 2012 or before, with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor or Intel Core i5 (or similar), you will most likely NOT be able to run the SkyGlass app. Such computers will immediately crash the SkyGlass app. For Windows, we have had success on most all machines running Windows 10 and 11. However if you have a Virtual Joystick installed this will disrupt the SkyGlass input system. Please disable any virtual joysticks or other virtual input devices before you run the SkyGlass app Generally speaking, while lower-end computers will run SkyGlass, they may be very slow to process the large amount of graphical data. If you want to use a desktop computer that is not very powerful, be sure to adjust your settings accordingly, such as reducing the search radius and other declutter options to reduce the overall number of aircraft being tracked. Regarding users of Chromebook's... Unfortunately these are Linux machines and SkyGlass will not run on these devices. SkyGlass in most cases under standard conditions uses about 2-2.5 GB of Ram when running. More complex or heavier load operations (such as Flight History, or showing multiple trace history lines) require significantly more resources in both processing and Ram. Also note that the speed of SkyGlass's interface is mostly dependent on the graphics processing potential of your machine. If you're using a computer with a graphics card that is not built for gaming or multi-media use, it may be slow or lagging when trying to adjust the camera or position.

To cancel your subscription, navigate to your account subscription page, show the details of your subscription and click on the Cancel Subscription link. First go to your account dropdown menu... Next find your subs... Get the details... Cancel your sub...

NOTICE: Starting with SkyGlass 2.1, .NET Framework 3.5 is no longer required. If you are using an older version of SkyGlass, please update to the latest version and you can remove the .NET Framework 3.5 as a enabled Windows feature. INTERNATIONAL USERS: If you are using a non-English version of Windows, there is a known issue that prevents the Mapbox map system from working properly. Switching to a standard English version of Windows should resolve the issue. This problem has been confirmed in Windows versions from Germany, Brazil, Canada (French), and Sweden. If you’re able, try this workaround that has helped other international Windows users: change your Windows region setting from “English (your country)” to “English (World).” After that, reboot your system, delete the SkyGlass preference file (see the FAQ for instructions), and restart SkyGlass. Your map should now display correctly! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you not seeing a ground map please do the following depending on your operating system... For Windows Versions: Please navigate to the following directory depending on your platform, and delete the following contents... Use the Windows File Explorer to navigate this path to the SkyGlass_psd.txt preferences file. Note you will need to "Show Hidden Files" on the File Explorer's "View" tab to see the AppData folder. This PC > Local Disk (C:) > Users > [ your windows username ] > AppData > LocalLow > AviarLabs > SkyGlass > SkyGlass_psd.txt Restart SkyGlass and you should have your map restored. However if that still does not bring your map back, you may need to install the .NET Framework 3.5 Windows component. If you are still not seeing a map and you are using SkyGlass 2.1 or newer, please contact support for assistance. If you are using an older version of SkyGlass on Windows, verify .NET Framework 3.5 is enabled on your system. For windows versions 8 or higher, you can verify this from within windows. Press the Windows key on your keyboard, type in "Windows Features", and press Enter. The Windows features dialog box appears. Select the .NET Framework 3.5 (which includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0) check box, select OK, and reboot your computer if prompted. Windows will make sure Net3.5 is installed for you at this point. If you find that Net 3.5 is already enabled on your system, your SkyGlass prefs file may be corrupted (be sure to take steps to save your watchlist from v1.1, otherwise you may lose your watchlist aircraft). You can download and install from here: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet-framework/net35-sp1 After the install of .NET Framework 3.5 is complete, restart your computer, launch SkyGlass and you should now have a map. For macOS Versions: If you’re using a Mac, you’ll need to delete the SkyGlass_psd.txt file to resolve this issue. To do this, follow these steps: 1. Enable Hidden Files: Use the keyboard shortcut Command + Shift + . (period) to show hidden files in Finder. 2. Locate the SkyGlass Preference File: • Open Finder and navigate to the following directory: ~/Library/Application Support/SkyGlass/ • Look for the file named SkyGlass_psd.txt and delete it. 3. Restart SkyGlass: After deleting the file, restart SkyGlass and the ground map should appear. • On macOS Ventura, Monterey, and Big Sur, the process remains the same, but if you’re on an older version like macOS Catalina or Mojave, you may need to enable hidden files using Terminal. Simply open Terminal and enter the following command: defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles true Then, relaunch Finder by typing 'killall Finder'. After you’ve completed these steps, the SkyGlass map should function as expected!

*** VPN USERS *** ... VPN's have difficulty connecting to the SkyGlass login server. If you are using a VPN, first try to disable your VPN, relaunch SkyGlass and try to login again. Once you are logged in you can re-enable your VPN. There are only a few reasons you may not be able to login to the SkyGlass app... Credential issue, such as a wrong password or username. Subscription issue, where your SkyGlass subscription has expired or has not been activated. Connection issue, where you cannot reach the SkyGlass login server. Firewall issue, where your computer firewall is preventing SkyGlass to reach the network. If you have a Credential or Subscription issues, reach out to me directly via the "Need Help?" chat button at the bottom of every webpage and I can assess your account status and help you get back online. If you just signed up and CREATED a user account inside of SkyGlass, be sure to look for the activation email from registration@skyglass.io. It may take a few minutes to arrive. If you don't get the email, reach out to me directly via the Contact Us chat button and I'll activate you manually. If you have a connection issue, when you launch the SkyGlass app you will see something like this.. If you see [VERSION CHECK] or [STATUS] below the logo and login input boxes you most likely running an out of date version of SkyGlass which is trying to reach the decommissioned login server. This server was plagued with connection issues so I upgraded and moved to a different host. Upgrade to the latest version of SkyGlass at the downloads are here. If the login server is reachable, you should see something like this, with your current version listed below the logo, in this case "SkyRider v1.3" If you try to login and you get "Please wait..." which just sits there, you may need to configure your firewall and ADD SkyGlass to the list of allowed programs. For Windows 11, the path is this... Open your System Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Open Windows Settings, then the Firewall & network protection, l and then click the button to Allow an app through firewall. Click on "Change Settings" at the top right, then click "Allow another app.." at the bottom. Click Browse and navigate to: C:\Program Files (x86)\SkyGlass\. Add SkyGlass.exe and then add UnityCrashHandler64 apps. Restart SkyGlass and try to login again. If none of the above apply. Please use the Support Form or the "Need Help?" chat widget to reach out for assistance. You can at anytime check the status of the SkyGlass login server here.

Touch screens are not compatible yet with SkyGlass. This is a known issue and is being addressed, but there is no ETA for a published release. In the meantime, a relatively easy workaround is to disable touch while using SkyGlass. Open the Device Manager and find the Human Interface area. Find the touch screen entry and disable / enable as appropriate. Restart SkyGlass and you should have correct mouse control. Here's a quick link with instructions: https://windowsclassroom.com/disable-touch-screen-windows-10/

Rarely the SkyGlass app preferences file gets corrupted which can cause the SkyGlass app to crash when launched. To fix this simply find and delete the SkyGlass app preference file. The next time you launch SkyGlass, the app will recreate a new prefs file and your app will be restored to the default state. Please note that you will lose all your prior setting and watchlist aircraft. If you have a watchlist, please see the additional FAQ on how to transfer your watchlist before you proceed. Please navigate to the following directory depending on your platform, and delete the following contents... Here is the path to the prefs file on Windows. Note you will need to "Show Hidden Files" to see the AppData folder.: This PC > Local Disk (C:) > Users > [ computer username ] > AppData > LocalLow > AviarLabs > SkyGlass > SkyGlass_psd.txt Here is the path to the prefs file on Mac: [Hard drive] > Users > [ computer username ] > Library > Application Support > AviarLabs > SkyGlass > SkyGlass_psd.txt After you delete the SkyGlass_psd.txt file, relaunch SkyGlass and you should be restored to the default state.

Rarely the SkyGlass app preferences file gets corrupted which can cause the SkyGlass app to crash when launched. To fix this simply find and delete the SkyGlass app preference file. The next time you launch SkyGlass, the app will recreate a new prefs file and your app will be restored to the default state. Please note that you will lose all your prior setting and watchlist aircraft. If you have a watchlist, please see the additional FAQ on how to transfer your watchlist before you proceed. Please navigate to the following directory depending on your platform, and delete the following contents... Here is the path to the prefs file on Windows. Note you will need to "Show Hidden Files" to see the AppData folder.: This PC > Local Disk (C:) > Users > [ computer username ] > AppData > LocalLow > AviarLabs > SkyGlass > SkyGlass_psd.txt Here is the path to the prefs file on Mac: [Hard drive] > Users > [ computer username ] > Library > Application Support > AviarLabs > SkyGlass > SkyGlass_psd.txt After you delete the SkyGlass_psd.txt file, relaunch SkyGlass and you should be restored to the default state.

There is a known incompatability with virtual joystick setups common among flight simulator users. Unfortunatley these are not compatible with the SkyGlass app at this time. To restore your inputs, please disconnect or disable the virtual joystick or usb device connected and restart SkyGlass. If your inputs and mouse movements are not restored, please reach out via Support. I am recently aware of this issue and will work to resolve it.

In rare cases, the SkyGlass installer will not complete successfully and gets stuck looking for missing files. In this case the following process has been successful. 1) First, delete the downloaded installer file 2) Disable your virus protection 3) Re-download the installer zip file and Extract the contents 4) Run the extracted file as an administrator. You do this by first right-clicking on the file and chose to run as an administrator. 5) Re-enable your virus-protection. SkyGlass should install correctly and a shortcut will be created on your desktop from which you can launch the SkyGlass app. If this does not solve your issue, feel free to use the support form or the "Need Help?" button for technical support.

INTERNATIONAL USERS: If you are using an international versions of Windows your settings may be set to use a "," instead of a "." when translating geoposition data, which will cause errors with the ground map within the SkyGlass app. If you are using a non-english version of Windows, if you switch to a standard English versions of Windows, your maps will work. (Confirmed cases for this issue include windows versions from Germany, Brazil, Canada (French) and Sweden.) You can also try this fix that worked for another international windows user ... Change the windows region setting from English(your country) to english (world). Reboot your system and then delete the SkyGlass preference file (see other FAQ). Then restart SkyGlass and you should have a ground map!

Feeders are awesome. Be awesome! It's the feeders that make it all go. We love feeders and would love for you to be part of that community! Here's how to get started... AVIAR Labs offers two types of plug-n-play feeders in our Be Awesome hardware line... The "Breathmint", a mini-mobile feeder designed and built by AVIAR Labs and the "Warthog", a larger dual-band unit supplied by the great folks at ADSB Exchange. All units include specialized SDR's (software defined radio USB dongle) from ADSB Exchange. What's more, if you purchase an AVIAR Labs feeder you will receive a full year of SkyGlass for free! If you want to do-it-yourself you need three components: A Raspberry Pi microcomputer (ideally with wifi support) At least one SDR with a 1090 mHz antenna (to pick up aircraft transponder signals) The ADSB Exchange boot image burned onto a microSD card (to drive the pi and feed into ADSBx system which in turn supplies SkyGlass) Once assembled, connect the Pi to your local network, configure the settings, and place your antenna. Setup can be done in minutes and your private feed can be displayed directly in SkyGlass! If you already have the right gear but just want to connect your feed to the ADSB Exchange system, visit the Adsb Exchange website for those details. See the additional FAQ for details on how to show your feed in SkyGlass.

Displaying your feeder's results directly in SkyGlass is easy to do. There are two ways to enable direct feeder access if you only have one feeder on your local network. Here's how to setup your SkyGlass preferences to show your local feeder's returns. First open up SkyGlass and click on the gear wheel icon in the main button stack on the bottom right to open the preferences panel. Find the preference area "Source Options" in the top middle of the prefs panel grid. Click the radio-button to toggle from "ADSB Exchange INTERNET FEED" to "Feed from LOCAL network address". In the field below that radio-button label, the local address default is "adsbexchange.local". You can use this default or enter the IP address of your feeder into the field. If you are not on your local network and you would like to see your feed remotely, you will need the "Anywhere ID" of your feeder. You can find the Anywhere ID by clicking on the "ADSBexchange Status" button from your feeders configuration page (https://adsbexchange.local) or by going to https://www.adsbexchange.com/myip/ while on your local network. The "Anywhere ID" is just above the smiling face. Copy that ID and return to the SkyGlass preferences and click the "Feed from an ANYWHERE ID address" radio-button. Enter your feeder's Anywhere ID into the field below that button label. Click "Save Changes" to close the Preference Panel and when you return to the main menu you will see the color background behind the Load Aircraft button in the main button stack has changed to magenta to reflect your feeding mode. Make sure your map "home" location is set appropriately to your feeder's location and then press the load ac button. You can also turn on auto-refresh and bring the refresh rate to as low as you like. Direct feed's can refreshed very quickly. After your SkyGlass preferences are setup correctly, you can switch from INTERNET FEED and LOCAL network feed directly from the Auxiliary Button Panel's Advanced Features sub-panel. First enable the Advanced Features sub panel by clicking the icon in the Aux Button Panel which has an aircraft within a gear icon with three nodes extending to the right. That will activate the sub panel above the aux button stack. Click the network icon which is the right most icon in that advanced features sub panel, which reveal an additional sub-panel above. A few notes for best results... First, be sure that you are in Standard Mode (not mil-mode) and the Standard aircraft toggle is ON or you won't see any aircraft. Next, you will not be able to see aircraft type information when you are pulling directly from your feeder unless you have the aircraft database enabled and loaded, which will slow down the load time due to the database lookups. If you have the database enabled, you should slow the auto-refresh speed. You will still be able to see telemetry, callsign and other details.

All aircraft position data is crowdsourced from nearly 9000 individual "feeders" across the globe which feed into a central data warehouse at ADSB Exchange which in turn feeds the SkyGlass app. A "feeder" is someone with the hardware and software needed to receive the transponder signals sent by aircraft in their local area. Feeding requires three components... Micro-computer such as a Raspberry Pi "Software Defined Radio" usb dongle (or SDR) with attached Antenna A customized software "image" burned onto a micoSD card which drives the Pi If you're interested in becoming a feeder see the additional FAQ section about becoming a feeder. Other information that supplements SkyGlass, such as weather, reverse geo-coding, aircraft type and manufacturer, etc are sourced from a variety of external API's and data that is part of the public domain.

ADS-B stands for Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast and refers to the system and standard which governs the transponders in aircraft. In 2020 all aircraft in the USA were required to upgrade their transponders to comply with this new standard. Here is a link to the FAA ADS-B program:

"Masked" is the term for aircraft which are enrolled in one of two FAA programs designed to exclude the position or transponder identifier information from the public domain. These are the Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed (LADD) program and Privacy ICAO aircraft address (PIA) program. SkyGlass is able to display these aircraft because all aircraft transponder broadcast their ADS-B data "in the clear" on unencrypted frequencies which are received by the community of crowdsourced feeders which supply ADSB Exchange. Other data suppliers are obligated by the FAA to filter their data given to the public of aircraft in the LADD and PIA programs.

In it's simplest terms, the hex code is the unique identifier of the aircraft's transponder. Transponders are the hardware on board the aricraft which broadcast the aircraft's position and other information specific the aircraft. All aircraft are required to have a transponder to operate in controlled airspace (airspace which is monitored by Air Traffic Control for safe aircraft seperation). It's called a "hex code" due to the hexidecimal formatting of the code. Hexidecimal uses 16 distinct symbols, most often the symbols "0"–"9" to represent values 0 to 9, and "A"–"F" (or alternatively "a"–"f") to represent values from 10 to 15. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_transponder_interrogation_modes#ICAO_24-bit_address : "Mode S equipped aircraft are assigned a unique ICAO 24-bit address or (informally) Mode-S "hex code" upon national registration and this address becomes a part of the aircraft's Certificate of Registration. Normally, the address is never changed, however, the transponders are reprogrammable and, occasionally, are moved from one aircraft to another (presumably for operational or cost purposes), either by maintenance or by changing the appropriate entry in the aircraft's Flight management system."