# Vulture — Soaring planning & analysis

> Advanced soaring flight planning, navigation, and analysis tool for pilots. (iPhone/iPad app by Jelle Vandebeeck.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/vulture/id1468252627 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Jelle Vandebeeck](https://appshunter.io/developer/390780983)
- Category: Sports, Navigation
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 26.0 · 92 MB
- Languages: American English, Czech, Dutch, French (France), German (Germany), Italian, Polish, European Spanish
- Released: 2020-01-04
- Data updated: 2026-09-03
- Monetization: subscription
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/vulture/id1468252627/reviews.md

## What is Vulture?

Vulture is a soaring planning and analysis app built for glider, paragliding, and hang gliding pilots. Plan a task on the day, fly it with live airspace and weather, then replay every thermal back on the airfield — no laptop required.

Plan
* Build a task from waypoints, or import one from a CUP file, WeGlide, or SoaringSpot.
* Scan a task straight from a QR code — the codes XCTrack and the other gliding tools share tasks with.
* Edit any task to fit the weather of the day, with custom observation zones per turnpoint.
* Check the day with dozens of SkySight weather layers — thermals, cloud cover, storms, rain, and wind — before you commit to a task.
* Export a task to CUP or FLARM declaration files for your IGC-approved device, or share a FLARM declaration straight from the settings.
* Import OpenAir, CUB, and openAIP airspace files, pull predefined sets from XCSoar, or show OpenAIP airspace directly on the map as a live vector layer — so every task respects the airspace around it.

Fly
* See airspace and optimized flight information in the air, and navigate to any waypoint.
* Look up the nearest airfield and its frequency, provided by OurAirports.
* Long-press the map to see the airspace above that point as a vertical profile, with your own altitude marked in flight.
* Automatically detect your sport and apply optimized thresholds for thermals, takeoff, and landing.

Analyze
* Replay one or more flights with a barograph and detailed statistics as you scrub through them.
* Overlay satellite cloud imagery on the map and scrub the barograph to see the clouds at each moment during a flight (requires SkySight).
* Drag the graph handle for a calculated wind estimate at any point in a flight.
* Dig into thermal analytics to see where you gained — or lost — time and height.
* Review optimized distance, release point, maximum altitude, and much more.
* Add searchable remarks to saved flights, mark contests, and keep your favorites.
* Compare flights side by side with leader/leecher analysis — see who found thermals first, who waited, and who flew independently.
* Upload flights to SkyLines, WeGlide, SoaringSpot, or Charron without leaving the app.

Everywhere
* Sync flights, tasks, waypoints, airspace, and all settings across your devices with iCloud.
* Import flights by drag and drop, from Files, or straight from the share sheet.
* Open flights and tasks directly in Vulture from SoaringSpot and Charron using the Chrome extension.
* Share a Soaring Spot results link and it opens even without Vulture — that day's scoreboard, and every pilot's flight on a map.
* Preview flight, waypoint, and airspace files in Files before you import them.
* Find flights and tasks from Spotlight on your home screen.
* Widgets for the wind at your home base, tomorrow's forecast for the launch window, and a flight from your logbook drawn as its track — on the Home Screen, the Lock Screen, and in StandBy.
* Hardware keyboard shortcuts, pointer support, and dark mode included.

Try every feature free during the trial. Keep flying with Vulture by choosing a subscription plan whenever you're ready.

Tell us how we can make Vulture better.

Terms of use: https://vulture.aero/terms

## Key features

- Task planning from waypoints or imported files
- Live airspace and weather integration
- Detailed flight replay with barograph and statistics
- Thermal analytics and wind estimation
- Flight analysis and comparison tools
- Cloud sync across devices via iCloud

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Annual subscription | $40.99 | per year |
| Monthly subscription | $4.99 | per month |
| Quarterly subscription | $11.99 | per 3 months |


## Recent user reviews (1 of 1)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/vulture/id1468252627/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Very nice

*2026-05-02*

Nicely designed, has most of the featured you’d want especially for pre-flight planning and post-flight analysis. For in-flight navigation, SeeYou Navigator is more feature-rich at this time. Would prefer a one-time purchase option as an alternative to subscription. Works great on Mac and iPhone.

## Frequently asked questions about Vulture

### What is Vulture?

Vulture is a specialized app for glider, paragliding, and hang gliding pilots. It allows you to plan tasks, navigate during flights with live data, and analyze your performance afterward, all from your mobile device.

### Does Vulture have ads?

No, Vulture does not contain advertisements. The app is supported by subscription plans after an initial free trial period.

### What are the subscription options for Vulture?

Vulture offers monthly ($4.99/P1M) and annual ($40.99/P1Y) subscription plans, both including a 14-day free trial. A quarterly plan is also available for $11.99/P3M.

### Can I use Vulture offline?

While some features like live airspace and weather require an internet connection, core planning and analysis tools can be used offline. Flight data can be imported and reviewed without continuous connectivity.

### What devices does Vulture support?

Vulture is available on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, allowing for seamless integration and access across your Apple ecosystem.

### How often is Vulture updated?

The app was last updated on August 20, 2026, indicating recent development and ongoing support. Users can expect regular updates for new features and improvements.

### Can I import flight data into Vulture?

Yes, Vulture supports importing flights and tasks from various sources, including CUP files, WeGlide, SoaringSpot, and direct imports via drag and drop or the share sheet.

### What kind of analysis does Vulture provide?

Vulture offers detailed flight analysis, including barograph replays, thermal analytics, calculated wind estimates, and side-by-side flight comparisons to understand performance and identify areas for improvement.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 3.4.0 — 2026-09-02

The biggest update Vulture has had: a new flight detail, the airspace above you drawn as a profile, twice the SkySight weather, three widgets, and Soaring Spot results that open without the app.

Plan
* Scan a task from a QR code — the codes XCTrack and the other gliding tools share tasks with, assigned-area tasks included.
* Roughly twice as many SkySight layers: cloud cover, significant weather, CAPE and storms, rain, Cu depth, overdevelopment, and surface wind — each with its own legend and explanation, in your language, and matched to the sport you fly.
* The weather picker opens straight on the layers, with the days in a row and the time on a slider you sweep through the day.
* Drag a task onto the flight map to give every flight there that task, or drag a task out of the list as a CUP file.

Fly
* The airspace sheet draws the airspace above the point you tapped as a vertical profile — every band from its floor to its ceiling, with your altitude marked in flight. On iPad the selected sector's limits and frequency sit beside it.
* Sectors you have hidden can be kept in the sheet without coming back on the map.

Analyze
* The flight detail opens on the flight itself: its track drawn large, distance, duration, speed, and height gain, with one row per analysis page.
* Every flight row shows a thumbnail of the track you flew and every task row its shape, synced over iCloud.
* Run a finger along a thermal's climb graph and the glider follows on the map.
* Press and hold a flight or task in the list for a preview card with the track drawn large.

Widgets
* The METAR widget is a wind rose now, with a large size that lays tomorrow out in three-hour steps.
* A new Tomorrow widget shows the forecast for tomorrow's launch window, and a new Flight widget draws a flight from your logbook as the shape of its track. Both are made for the nightstand in StandBy.

Everywhere
* A Soaring Spot results link now opens without Vulture installed — the day's scoreboard, and each pilot's flight on a map.
* Airspace files show what is in them in Files and Finder, drawn as a map of their airspace, and a flight preview now shows its distance too.
* Settings, the lists, the file managers, and the service sign-ins are rebuilt for iOS 26, with search that unfolds from a button.
* Much better VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, Reduce Motion, and contrast support throughout.

Fixed
* Opening Vulture from a link, from Spotlight, from another device, or from the icon's shortcuts works again.
* The flight list no longer stutters while its thumbnails are drawn.
* An imported flight or logger download could be silently lost when iCloud had changed the same record.
* Uploading to WeGlide works again, and a whole Soaring Spot day now loads every flight.
* The GPS-altitude graph now leaves a gap where the recorder logged no GPS altitude, instead of plunging the line to zero.
* Siri's METAR answers and the location permission prompts now always appear in your own language.

### 3.3.0 — 2026-08-20

Satellite cloud overlay, sport detection, and comparison improvements:

* Satellite imagery: scrub the barograph to see the cloud formations present at each moment during your flight (requires SkySight login).
* Satellite overlay button: toggle the cloud layer and track download progress directly from the map.
* Auto-download satellite data when opening a flight (configurable in SkySight settings).
* Sport detection: automatically detect paragliding and hang gliding flights, with sport-specific thermal detection and map icons.
* Tap any comparison metric label to see what it means.
* Added detour distance to flight comparison, task legs, and optimization details.
* Improved leader/follower detection using track-based analysis with bearing geometry.
* Sync all settings across devices via iCloud.
* Reorganized flight and task context menus with clearer grouping and shorter labels.
* Chrome extension: open flights and tasks directly in Vulture from SoaringSpot and Charron.

### 3.2.0 — 2026-08-10

Leader / Leecher analysis, smarter competition tools, and comparison upgrades:

* Leader / Leecher: compare flights to see who found thermals first, who left first, wait time, leech time, and the percentage of the flight flown alone.
* SoaringSpot task: the competition task is now applied automatically when downloading flights.
* PEV-based start detection: automatically detect cylinder starts using pilot event markers (FAI Annex A 7.4.4).
* Ranked badges: highlight the top 3 values in compare and statistics views with gold, silver, and bronze.
* Align task start times across compared flights for a time-relative comparison.
* Sort SoaringSpot flights by competition ranking in the compare view and panel.
* Playback speed: choose from 10x, 25x, 50x, 100x, or 200x real-time multipliers.
* WeGlide: replaced OAuth login with API key authentication.
* Expanded flight color palette from 12 to 20 colors, assigned by competition ranking.
* Barograph Y-axis now starts at terrain elevation instead of zero.

### 3.1.0 — 2026-07-29

OpenAIP airspace, improved barograph, and a polished iOS 26 experience:

* OpenAIP airspace: see airspace directly on the map as a vector tile layer with tap-to-inspect, highlighting, and flight infringement detection — no file import needed.
* CUB airspace files: import Naviter SeeYou .cub airspace files (Beta).
* Hide for Today: temporarily hide an airspace so it reappears the next day.
* Barograph events: release, PEV, furthest, lowest, and highest points now appear as pill labels on the flight graph.
* Graph zoom: pinch or scroll to zoom the barograph, anchored at the pointer position.
* Tap the phase indicator on the flight map to highlight the current leg or center the thermal.
* Fully refreshed UI with iOS 26 liquid glass styling across lists, panels, popovers, and map overlays.

Bugfixes:

* Fixed several crashes related to Core Data threading, background snapshots, and airspace toggling.
* Fixed flight cell icons being unreadable when selected.
* Fixed airspace zoom and long-tap interactions.

### 3.0.0 — 2026-07-18

A fresh new chapter for Vulture:

* A brand-new look: a redesigned app icon built for iOS 26, with a matching one on your Apple Watch.
* Now in more languages: Vulture is now available in German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish and Czech.
* Smoother and more polished: fully updated for iOS 26 and watchOS 26, with refined flight statistics and plenty of behind-the-scenes improvements.

Bugfixes:

* Fixed Soaring Spot connectivity after SSL certificate renewal.
* Fixed a crash when importing WeGlide tasks with missing waypoint data.
* Fixed existing subscriptions not being recognized after updating.
* Fixed flight declarations via WiFi potentially truncating field values.
* Fixed flight graph and filter popover rendering issues on iOS 26.

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## More apps by Jelle Vandebeeck

- [RASP](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/rasp/id426040634)
- [Spoty](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/spoty/id446227723)
- [GPX Reader](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gpx-reader/id543308129)
- [Track - Read your log files](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/track-read-your-log-files/id1197989851)
- [Soaring Book Runway](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/soaring-book-runway/id1422856598)
- [Pace Up](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pace-up/id1467001497)

All apps by Jelle Vandebeeck: https://appshunter.io/developer/390780983

## Related topics

[vulture](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/vulture)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-03.*