Variograph vs XCTrack: in the air, or after landing?

Most pilots who put these side by side ask the wrong question: "which is better?" The right question is which part of the flight are you in?

XCTrack works while you are airborne. Variograph works once you have landed. They sit at two ends of the same file and neither replaces the other.

What XCTrack does

XCTrack is a widely used in-flight instrument on Android. It gives you what you need while flying:

• Live vario, ground speed, altitude
• Map, airspace warnings, waypoint navigation
• Competition tasks: cylinders, start gate, distance remaining
• Live tracking and IGC logging

That is the screen you look at in the air. The numbers you need at the moment of decision — stay in this thermal or run for that cloud — are there.

What Variograph does

Variograph is a post-flight analysis platform. You upload the IGC or GPX file, the track is read again, and the shape of the flight comes out:

• Thermals and glides separated, each with duration, gain and average climb
• Net vario — the air's true climb, with your wing's sink added back
• Wind profile from thermal drift — wind by altitude band, from your own track rather than a forecast
• 3D visual analysis, playback, safety score and an incident list
• A season's archive: takeoff collection, per-wing performance, flight labels

None of that helps you in the air. All of it answers "what happened?" on the ground.

Two ends of the same file

In practice the loop is:

• Fly — with XCTrack. Task, airspace, live vario.
• Land — XCTrack saves the flight as IGC.
• Upload — drop the file into the dashboard.
• Understand — thermals, wind profile, scores, 3D replay.

You upload the raw file exactly as XCTrack wrote it; Variograph never rewrites it, so the G-record signature stays intact and the file remains usable as a competition submission.

Which question goes where

Ask XCTrack: How fast am I climbing right now? How far to the airspace? What is left on task? Where is the next turnpoint?

Ask Variograph: How strong was that thermal really, once my wing's sink is removed? What was the wind at 1800 m? Across 14 flights off the same hill this season, did I improve? Does my new wing glide better than the old one, or did I just have a tailwind?

The second set cannot be answered in the air — and should not be attempted there. Nobody reads a table while thermalling.

Common questions

Why bother with Variograph if I already use XCTrack?

XCTrack's IGC file is a record, not an analysis. The thousands of points inside it are a pile of numbers until something separates them into thermals and glides.

Can I use Variograph while flying?

No, it is not built for that. The live board is for watching a flight, not for flying one.

Will it damage my file?

No. The raw file is stored as-is; the analysis runs on a copy.

Is it free?

Uploading flights and the core analysis are free; some features such as the AI debrief sit behind Pro.

Further reading

How much you can trust the analysis depends on the quality of the track XCTrack recorded — sample rate, dropouts, GPS jumps: IGC data quality. For other instruments: FlySkyHy and LK8000.