Contestant Guide: Participating in an Event

New to ASLT? Read How ASLT Works first. It explains contests, routes, navigation tasks, teams and contestants in five minutes.

As a pilot or crew member, you use the mobile app to track your flight and the Mission Dashboard (app.airsports.no) to find events, register and look at results. This guide takes you in the order you will need things: install and sign in, get the phone ready, register, fly, and fix problems.

Android: “Air Sports Live Tracking” in Google Play.
iOS: “Air Sports Live Tracking” in the App Store (iPhone).

On first start the app shows a short tour (replayable from your profile). Then sign in with:

Email and password. Create an account with your email address and choose a password. The app sends a verification link: open it, then return to the app. “Forgot password” sends a reset link.
Google, or Sign in with Apple on iPhone.

Use the same email address everywhere. The website matches you to your flights by email, so a different address in the app and on the website means your flights will not show up.

Subscription: tracking needs a small annual subscription through the App Store or Google Play, which covers the server resources. Manage it under your profile (there is also Restore purchases). Some organizers or accounts have free access, which applies as soon as your profile is loaded.

2. Get the Phone Ready

Do this once, well before your first event.

Pre-flight check. The app checks that a flight is scheduled, your subscription, precise location, battery saver, battery level, internet, clock and GPS. Every problem has a button that fixes it. Run it again on the day.
Keep tracking reliable (under your profile) walks you through location permission and battery settings for your phone.
Location: “Always”. The app needs location access even when it is in the background, and precise location, not “While Using the App” or approximate.
Correct clock. Gate timing depends on a correct clock. On Android the app uses GPS time; on iPhone it checks the phone clock against network time and warns you if it is off.
Push notifications tell you when tracking opens soon, when no positions are arriving, and when your flight has been scored. Allow them.

3. Flying a Pre-Created Flight

In many events the Contest Manager does all the setup and you only make sure the phone tracks. Once the schedule is final you receive an email with a link to your flight order: maps with the route and gates, route information and your allocated start time. The same flight also appears on the app’s home screen.

On the day

Open the app. The home screen shows your next flight: contest and task, tracking window, take-off, airspeed and wind.
Run the pre-flight check, then press the play button in the bottom bar before take-off. Tracking works inside your tracking window (usually 15 to 30 minutes before take-off until after landing); before that the app says the flight is not active yet.
Keep the phone with the screen on or in a place where it has sky view. The app keeps the screen awake while tracking and warns you about low battery, lost GPS, upload problems, and “no position received”.
After landing, press stop. The app asks you to confirm and shows how long the flight ran. Tracking also stops by itself after 12 hours.

Timer and adaptive start

ASLT uses an Adaptive Start to accommodate pre-flight delays.

Flexibility: you have a 2-hour window (1 hour before to 1 hour after your scheduled time) to cross the start gate.
Synchronisation: scoring follows the actual time you cross the start line. If you are delayed by 5 minutes, your planned gate times shift by 5 minutes and your navigation scoring stays fair.
Timer tab: the Timer page counts down to a start on the nearest whole minute, with an optional countdown buffer.

Training mode

Where the organizer allows it, training mode shows after each timed gate how early or late you were. It is on by default and you can switch it off on the home screen. If the organizer has not enabled it for the task, you will not see it.

Photo observations

In tasks with observation registration, the Photos tab lets the crew mark photos with the current GPS position. Marks are queued if you are offline. They are final when the flight is over, and you get no scoring feedback during the flight.

After the flight

The home screen shows your score so far and a notice when live scoring has finished. My flights lists upcoming and past flights with results, rank and a replay. Every tracked session is also stored on the phone, and you can share it as a GPX file.

To go through the flight, open View your flight: the map shows your gates with their required and actual times, every penalty with where it happened, and a replay of your own flight. See The Live Map.

4. Self-Registration and Management

If the event allows “Self Management” (set by the Contest Manager), you can register yourself.

Think of it as two steps: a team registers once for the contest, then books a start time for each navigation task (each booking is one flight, called a contestant in the system). See How ASLT Works.

You can find open events in the app under Open for registration today, or on the website.

Step 1: Register for the Contest

Find your competition on the Mission Dashboard at app.airsports.no and open its card.
Select “Register my team” and enter your team details: co-pilot (optional), aircraft registration and club. You can change them later with “Edit team”, even after booking flights.

Step 2: Book Your Start Time

Select the Navigation Task you want to fly from the contest page.
Tap “Book start time”.
Complete the flight details: airspeed in knots, starting point time, wind speed and wind direction, and whether to use Adaptive Start (recommended).
Answer “How will you fly this?”: a real aircraft or the simulator. Choose carefully: positions from the other kind are ignored, and the app and the MSFS client show a notice if that happens. The app and the MSFS client choose for you; the website asks.
Tap “Book start time”. Your flight order is generated and emailed to you within minutes.

Step 3: Find Your Flights Later

Open My flights, on the website or in the app. Upcoming shows your booked flights with the flight order link and lets you cancel a flight; Past shows results, rank and a replay of your track.

5. Troubleshooting Tracking

If your track freezes, disappears, or the app says your positions are not being received:

Battery optimisation: on Android set the app to “Don’t optimize” or “Unrestricted”. Huawei, OnePlus and Samsung phones are known for stopping background apps. Keep tracking reliable in your profile shows the steps for your phone.
Location permissions: the app needs Always and precise location.
Tracking window: positions are only used inside the flight’s tracking window. If you test hours before take-off, nothing is recorded.
“Your flight is not being recorded”: the app shows the server’s reason on the home screen. The usual cause is a flight booked as a real flight while you track from the simulator, or the other way round.
GPS accuracy: tap the app version seven times to open a hidden view showing GPS accuracy and what it means for gate timing at your speed.

Still stuck? Write to support@airsports.no.

6. Flying in Microsoft Flight Simulator

The MSFS client works like the phone app: sign in with the same account, see your flights and press play. Whether an event accepts simulator flights is set per task by the organizer. See MSFS Integration.

7. Deleting Your Account

You can delete your account in the app under your profile. Your name is removed from results you appear in, and your personal details are deleted.