Got Questions?

To receive live ADS-B traffic on the Drone Pilot ADS-B app, you need an ADS-B receiver that is running pilotADSBos. You can purchase one from pilotADSB.com — fully optimized for Bluetooth communication and ready to fly out of the box — or build your own, or use one you already own or bought elsewhere. If you build your own or buy elsewhere, the unit needs to be based on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ or Pi 4B with at least a 1090ES SDR radio. Optional but highly recommended are a USB GNSS receiver, dual SDR radios, and a pressure or AHRS sensor. Our Pressure and Remote ID receivers ship with a BME280 pressure sensor, and our AHRS receivers with a BMP280, for correct altitude separation values. Not ready to buy? The app includes a full library of recorded ADS-B data so you can explore every feature before committing to any hardware.

Android: version 7.0 or higher, with 10 or higher recommended. Bluetooth ADS-B connectivity requires Bluetooth 4.0 BLE support, which is standard on all modern Android devices. iPhone and iPad: see the App Store listing for the current minimum iOS version.

Yes — the app is fully optimized for both phones and tablets. A larger tablet screen gives you a bigger map view, which many drone pilots prefer when monitoring airspace during a flight. The interface adapts automatically to your screen size.

Yes — Drone Pilot ADS-B is available for iPhone and iPad. Download it on the App Store. The Android version is on Google Play. Your subscription is handled by whichever store you download from.

Yes, with the pilotADSB Receiver with Remote ID. It picks up your drone's Remote ID broadcast and shows its position on the map, together with any other Remote ID drones flying nearby. The app only shows drones (UAS) that broadcast one of the FAA-accepted Remote ID protocols, either built into the drone or from an add-on Remote ID broadcast module. A drone that does not broadcast Remote ID will not appear. With any receiver, you can also import your flight route or mission perimeter via KML to see your planned boundary against approaching air traffic and listed obstacles.

The app provides both audible voice callouts and on-screen visual alerts so you can keep your eyes on the sky and your drone. Every alert is highly specific and fires according to the rules you set — the callout tells you the direction, altitude, and distance of the aircraft or object of concern. You can fully customize alert rules, distances, altitude thresholds, and which aircraft to mute individually.

No — live ADS-B traffic comes directly from your receiver by Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and needs no internet. Internet is still highly recommended: weather radar, lightning, TFRs, LAANC zones, wind data and live map updates need an active connection. Before you head somewhere with no signal, download your job site's map in the app (Map → Offline Maps → Download this area) and the map works with no signal. Our pilotADSB Receiver supports Bluetooth, which keeps your phone on its normal cellular or Wi-Fi connection so every feature works. See the Manual for the connection options.

ADS-B traffic reception works worldwide — the 1090 MHz frequency is a global standard, and the app supports both feet and meters. Some features currently use data for the USA only: LAANC zones, TFRs, drone NOTAMs, Special Use Airspace, weather radar and lightning, wind, obstacles, power lines, pipelines, and the satellite imagery map (outside the USA the app shows a street map). We are actively working to add international data for these features as it becomes available.

Quite a lot! Without a receiver you can still access the background map, weather radar, TFR alerts, LAANC authorization zones, obstacle layers (towers, power lines, pipelines), and the search tool — all with just an internet connection. You can also use our built-in library of recorded real ADS-B flight sessions to see exactly how the app behaves with live traffic, test your custom alert rules, and explore every setting before your receiver arrives.

Yes — provided it is the right hardware and it is running our firmware. Drone Pilot ADS-B is guaranteed to work with an ADS-B receiver based on the Raspberry Pi 3B+ or Pi 4B running our free pilotADSBos, including hardware sold as a Stratux. What makes a Stratux a Stratux is really the firmware on the SD card. Stratux is an open-source platform with several versions available online, and the core functionality is broadly similar. However, we built pilotADSBos from the ground up, and while there are some similarities, the operating system is completely different. The app requires our free OS, which is available for download on the BYOD page.

Automatically. Power on the receiver, open the app, and it finds your receiver and connects by itself every time. If your phone is on Wi-Fi, the receiver joins the same network; if your phone only has cellular data, it uses Bluetooth. Whenever the receiver is on Wi-Fi, Bluetooth stays connected as an instant backup.

If you'd rather choose yourself, Manual Connection offers four ways:

• Bluetooth — the simplest, and it leaves your phone's internet connection untouched.
• Wi-Fi using a router, Starlink or pocket hotspot, with your phone and the receiver both joining it.
• Your phone's own hotspot, with the receiver joining it. This keeps your phone's internet live. It only works with the app running on that same phone: phones block devices on their hotspot from reaching each other, so a tablet on a phone's hotspot can't reach the receiver.
• The receiver's own Wi-Fi, with your phone joining it. No internet on this one, so download your maps first.

We spent a lot of development time getting Bluetooth right between the app and the pilotADSB Receiver, and it works very nicely.

Our receiver ships pre-built, pre-tested, and pre-configured — ready to use in 60 seconds. It runs our custom pilotADSBos firmware, which enables Bluetooth GDL90 (so your phone stays on cellular for maps, weather and everything else), optimized SDR gain settings for maximum range, and reliable internet passthrough. Every unit is tested before shipping. It also includes a full year of the Drone Pilot ADS-B app subscription — a $99.99 value at no extra charge.

No. The receiver must be running our free pilotADSBos, which adds the seamless Bluetooth integration the app depends on. You can buy a pre-flashed 8GB SD card from us, or flash the image yourself. Swapping is simply a matter of changing SD cards — and if you ever need to run the Stratux OS again, power the receiver off and swap the card back. See the BYOD page for download and flashing instructions for pilotADSBos.

Only to connect a receiver. The app is a free download, and every feature except live aircraft and drone traffic works without one. To show live traffic from a receiver, the receiver needs a license: $9.99/month or $99.99/year, as a subscription through Google Play or the App Store, starting with a one-month free trial. If you purchase a pilotADSB Receiver, it comes with a full year included free — a $99.99 value, activated automatically the first time you connect, with no subscription and no payment method required.

Yes, as many as you like. The license belongs to the receiver, not to a phone or a store account, so any phone or tablet can use it. One device connects to the receiver by Bluetooth at a time, and any number of devices can receive its traffic over Wi-Fi at the same time.

Subscriptions are managed through the app store you bought them from. Android (Google Play): open the Play Store app → tap your profile icon → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions → Drone Pilot ADS-B → Cancel. iPhone or iPad (App Store): open Settings → tap your name → Subscriptions → Drone Pilot ADS-B → Cancel Subscription. Your access continues until the end of the paid billing period.

Never sold. We don't run ads and we don't sell user data. Your GPS location is used on your device to show traffic around you, and it stays there unless you choose to share it: a Live Feed sends your receiver's traffic, including your own position, so the people you share it with can watch; a recording you share to the website is kept there for up to 30 days; and cloud backup saves your app settings and custom map items under your receiver so they come back after a reinstall. Read our full Privacy Policy for complete details.

Yes — through our community forum. All support questions are handled in our pilot community forum rather than by email. This way every question and answer is visible to all users, other pilots can help each other, and solutions are searchable so the next person with the same question finds the answer instantly. Our team monitors the forum actively and jumps in where needed.

The Drone Pilot ADS-B Manual explains every screen in the app, with every way to open it and real screenshots — and you can search it. Our Tutorials page adds step-by-step videos, from first setup and receiver connection to alert rules, recording and playback. Inside the app, tap the ? on a window for help on that exact screen.

Start with the Troubleshooting chapter of the Manual — it covers no traffic on the map, connections that drop, updates that won't start, quiet alerts and altitudes that look wrong, with step-by-step fixes. If you are still stuck, post in our community forum with your device model, your Android or iOS version, and a description of the issue. Our team and fellow pilots monitor the forum actively and we fix reported problems fast.