AIR³ Fly

AIR³ Fly turns your Android smartwatch into an instant acoustic variometer and flight computer for paragliding and hang gliding. It reacts the moment you enter lift, hears the weak thermals a normal vario stays silent through, shows you where you are on offline relief and road maps, guides you around competition tasks, and runs entirely on the watch — your phone can stay in the car.

INSTANT LIFT — THE KICK, NOT THE CONSEQUENCE
A barometric vario can only report a climb once you have already gained height. Instant Lift uses the watch's accelerometer and gyroscope to compute true vertical acceleration, and sounds the moment lift begins.

WEAK LIFT — FIND THE SMALL THERMALS
Much usable lift is air sinking less than the air beside it, which a normal vario never reports. Weak Lift gives that band its own voice, with its own threshold, resolution and averaging.

ONE FLIGHT SCREEN, SIMPLE GESTURES
In flight there is a single screen: your position in the middle, over a map if you want one, with the path you have just flown. Altitude, ground speed, the distance to your turnpoint and the wind sit in the four corners, and your climb rate is drawn as a ring around the edge. Tap to zoom, swipe to open the thermal assistant, long press to change a setting.

OFFLINE MAPS
Shaded relief, or relief with roads, villages and rivers, stored on the watch: no connection is needed in flight. Choose your areas on a world map in the phone app, square by square, or directly on the watch. The watch downloads them over Wi-Fi by itself, never in flight, and keeps them up to date.

THERMAL ASSISTANT
When you start circling, the assistant opens by itself: your recent track, with the climbs marked and the drift of the wind removed, and the estimated core to fly toward. It closes when you leave the thermal.

NAVIGATION AND COMPETITION TASKS
Fly back to takeoff, or load a competition task (XCTSK) by QR code, image, file or XContest cloud code — even directly on the watch. The arrow follows the optimised route, each turnpoint is drawn on the screen as you close in, and sound and vibration confirm every crossing.

SIGNED IGC FLIGHT LOGS
Every flight is recorded as a signed IGC file with your pilot and glider details, and saved on your phone after landing.

WORKS WITHOUT YOUR PHONE
Sensors, sound, GPS, maps, navigation and automatic detection all run on the watch alone. Every setting you might want before a flight is on the watch itself. Installed on your phone, the same AIR³ Fly app links to the watch over Bluetooth and offers them too, more comfortably, plus the advanced ones.

USER MANUAL
https://www.fly-air3.com/air3-vario-watch-manual

ON YOUR PHONE
Thresholds, averaging, Weak Lift, Instant Lift, altitude in QNH, QNE or GPS, units, map choice, pilot and glider details, task import and editing, and a diagnostic log.

CONTINUOUS BACKGROUND TRACKING
AIR³ Fly runs as a foreground service during your flight to track altitude, vertical speed and GPS in real time, even with the screen off. A persistent notification is shown while the service is active, and closing the app stops it.

FREE
- Altitude, ground speed and GPS status
- Sound test and altitude chart
- All settings in the phone app

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION
- The acoustic variometer, with Weak Lift and Instant Lift
- Offline maps and the thermal assistant
- Automatic takeoff and landing detection
- Navigation, including competition tasks
- Signed IGC flight logs
- Screen kept on and always-on display in flight

COMPATIBILITY
Requires an Android smartwatch (Android 10 or later) with a barometric pressure sensor and GPS. Without a barometer the app falls back to GPS altitude, which is far less responsive. The subscription can be taken on the watch itself or on the phone. An Android phone with AIR³ Fly is recommended for advanced settings, tasks and choosing maps comfortably.