Privacy policy
Skyward Nav (the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch app "Skyward"). Effective 5 November 2026; updated 7 November 2026 (the tracks of flights you fly).
Skyward is a preflight app for pilots. It needs very little about you, keeps that only to serve you, and never sells it, shares it for advertising, or analyzes where people fly.
What stays on your device
Your logbook, aircraft, pilot profile, flights, personal minimums, saved airports and settings are stored on your device. Skyward has no copy of them unless you sign in (below), and then only the items listed there. You can remove Skyward's copy of your logbook at any time (More → Account) without touching the one on your device.
Using Skyward without an account
To show weather, airports, charts and the traffic-management picture, the app asks Skyward's server for public data about airports, routes and the national airspace system. Those requests are the same for every pilot and are not tied to you. When you brief a flight, the route, time, altitude, your minimums and your aircraft's speed and fuel are sent to compute the brief and are not stored. Our server does not keep request logs that pair your IP address with what you looked up.
If you sign in with Apple
Signing in is optional. It lets Skyward re-brief your watched flights and send you alerts when the app is closed. Skyward asks Apple for no name and no email address. We keep:
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Apple's anonymous user identifier for Skyward | To know it's you when you sign in again |
| Each signed-in device: a push token, the platform, sign-in token hashes | To send alerts and keep you signed in |
| Your personal minimums | To brief your watched flights against them |
| Watched flights: route, departure time, altitude, flight rules, your aircraft's speed and fuel, and the last verdict | To re-brief them and tell you when the verdict changes |
| Your planned flights (airports, route, time, altitude, aircraft) and your aircraft's details | To show the same flights and aircraft on each of your devices |
| Prices and amenities you report at an airport (for example a fuel price or a courtesy car), with the date, stored with a scrambled tag instead of your account so different pilots can be counted | To show other pilots what was reported, never with your name; to stop one person confirming their own report. Deleted when you delete your account |
| Saved airports, your home airport, alert switches, TFR radius, time zone | To send the alerts you turned on, and to respect your quiet hours |
| Your logbook entries and every earlier version of each, if logbook sync is on (it is, unless you turn it off in More → Account) | To keep a safe copy of your legal record and keep your iPhone and iPad in step |
| For each watched flight: the verdicts Skyward gave 24, 12, 6, 3 and 1 hours before departure, and the weather reports at the planned departure and arrival times | To show you how Skyward's verdicts held up for your flights (Flights → Receipts). Never combined with other pilots' flights |
| The track of each flight you fly with Skyward's moving map: about one position a second (with GPS and barometric altitude, speed, track and how accurate each was) from when you start flying it until you end it, and when you made route changes | To keep the flight's track with the flight and its logbook entry and show it to you on each of your devices. Your live position is never sent; only the recorded track, as part of your own flight record. Never read for anything else or combined with other pilots' flights; deleted with the flight's trail or your account |
| A record of each alert sent | So nothing is sent twice |
| Your subscription's product, status and dates, from Apple | To know what your plan includes |
This data is used only to provide Skyward to you. It is not used for analytics, advertising or profiling, and not shared with anyone except the service providers below, who process it only for us.
Purchases
Subscriptions are sold and billed by Apple. We never see your payment details. Apple tells us the product, status and dates of your subscription; when you're signed in, the purchase also carries your Skyward account identifier so the plan follows your account.
Service providers
- Apple: Sign in with Apple, push notifications, the App Store and payments.
- OVHcloud: the server Skyward runs on, in the United States (Oregon).
- Cloudflare: the network in front of the server, and storage for charts and for encrypted database backups.
The app contains no advertising, analytics or tracking software, and Skyward does not track you across other companies' apps or websites.
How long we keep it, and deleting it
We keep your account data while your account exists. Delete it any time in the app: More → Account → Delete account. That removes everything Skyward holds for you from the live database at once and revokes Sign in with Apple for Skyward. Encrypted backups are kept for about five weeks and then replaced, so deleted data is gone from them within that time. Signing out removes this device's sign-in and push token. What's stored on your device stays until you delete the app.
Security
Data travels encrypted (TLS). Sign-in tokens are stored only as hashes. Backups are encrypted. Access to the server is limited to the developer, by key.
Children
Skyward is not directed to children under 13 and does not knowingly collect their data.
Your choices and rights
You can use Skyward without an account, turn alerts off, sign out, or delete your account at any time. To ask what we hold about you, or for any privacy question, write to SkywardNav@gmail.com.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version is posted here with its date. A change that uses your data in a new way will be shown in the app first.
Skyward is not affiliated with or endorsed by the FAA, NOAA or the National Weather Service.