Community Groups
Connect with pilots at your home airport, at a fly-in, in your aircraft type — or create an ongoing club for your org. Every group has a roster, flight board, map, and member-only message board.
In this guide
Four Kinds of Groups
Every group has a member list, a flight board, a map, and a message board. How you join — and which trips show up — depends on the type.
Airport Groups
Auto-joinedNamed for a home airport — "KSQL Pilots," for example. PlaneWX creates one for every airport listed as a home base by at least one pilot with an active, visible profile.
You don't have to click Join. If your home airport is set and your profile is visible, you're added automatically. See the callout below for exactly why, and how to leave.
Event Groups
Dated · opt-inBuilt around a fly-in, like "Oshkosh 2026." These require an explicit tap on Join group — nothing happens automatically. Paid tiers can host events (separate quota from club groups).
Routes to the event airport appear on the map anonymously by default. To show your name and WX score on the flight board, tag the flight with Share to Group.
Aircraft-Type Groups
Opt-inConnect with other owners of the same aircraft family — "SR Series Pilots," "Vision Jet Pilots," "TBM Pilots," and similar. PlaneWX creates these when at least three eligible pilots share the same aircraft root in their profile.
You join manually. The Groups tab may suggest groups based on aircraft in your hangar — tap Join or dismiss with ✕.
Community (club) groups
You createOngoing clubs and orgs — a local mentoring group, flying club, or chapter — with no required end date. Invite-only by default and not listed in public discovery. Optional home airport only helps suggest local pilots to invite; nobody is auto-joined.
Trips appear only when a member uses Share to Group — PlaneWX never dumps every home-airport flight onto the board.
Create a Community Group
On the Groups tab, tap Create and choose Community group (or Event for a dated fly-in). Name the group, add an optional description and home airport, and leave invite-only on unless you want anyone with the link to join.
| Plan | Club groups you can host |
|---|---|
| Free | 0 — upgrade to create a club |
| Casual or Pro | 1 active community group |
| Pro+ | 3 active community groups |
| Enterprise | Unlimited |
Community-group slots are separate from event-hosting slots. Deleting a club frees the slot; there is no end-date release like events.
Owner controls
Only the creator can edit name, description, airport, and invite-only. The owner (or a PlaneWX site admin) can delete the group.
Invite-only by default
Invite-only clubs are not open to random visitors. Pilots need an invite (or a share notification from the creator) to open the page and ask to join.
Get People In
Right after you create a community group, PlaneWX opens a short sheet to help you grow it — nothing is posted to the Friends feed unless you choose to share.
Invite pilots
Suggestions prioritize people you follow (and who follow you), then pilots with the same home airport as the group, with mentors called out. Search by name, handle, or home airport code (e.g. 01TX / 66TE for multi-field clubs). Any member can invite.
Copy link
Share the group URL. For invite-only clubs, recipients still need an invite (or your in-app share) before they can open the page and join.
Share with followers
Opt-in: the creator can notify their followers in-app that they started the group. Followers see a teaser; joining an invite-only club still requires a real invite.
Mentor Requests From a Group
When you ask for a mentor from a briefing, you can optionally limit Need Help Now or Browse Mentors to mentors who are also members of a group you belong to — perfect for club or org mentoring.
- Mentors must still be enrolled as PlaneWX mentors.
- If nobody in that group is available, the urgent request does not silently expand to the global mentor pool — switch to All mentors and try again.
Finding & Dismissing Groups
The Groups tab has a search bar at the top. Type at least two characters to search by group name, aircraft type (e.g. "vision jet" or "SF50"), airport code, or description. Search results include groups you've dismissed from suggestions.
Suggested aircraft groups show an ✕ in the top-right corner. Dismissing hides the card from "Groups for your other aircraft" permanently — it does not block you from joining later if you search for that group and change your mind.
You may already be in your airport's group
If you have a home airport set, PlaneWX has already created a group for that airport and added you to it — you didn't have to do anything, and you weren't asked first. This is intentional: airport groups only work if the pilots who are actually based there show up on the roster.
You're only auto-added if your Profile Visible setting is on (it is, by default, but you may have turned it off). If Profile Visible is off, you're skipped entirely and will not be added.
To check: open the Groups tab on your dashboard. Anything under "Your Groups" is a group you're currently a member of.
To leave: open the group and tap Leave group. PlaneWX remembers that you opted out, so you won't be automatically re-added later.
What Membership Actually Shares
Joining a group — whether automatically or by choice — doesn't hand over your whole flight history. Here's the exact deal PlaneWX shows you before you join:
Membership and trip visibility are related but not identical — see Trip Tagging below. For community clubs, nothing auto-appears: only trips you explicitly Share to Group show on the board.
Who Can See What
For most airport, event, and aircraft groups, anyone with the link can view the roster, flight board, and map — even signed out. Invite-only community clubs are different: visitors need an invite or a creator share notification before the page opens. In every group type, the message board stays members-only.
| What | Public | Members only | Admins only |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group name, description, member count | ✓ | ||
| Member list (handles, names, home airport) | ✓ | ||
| Flight board (route, date, WX Score, mission) | ✓ | ||
| Flight map | ✓ | ||
| Reading message board posts and replies | ✓ | ||
| Posting, replying, and reacting on the message board | ✓ | ||
| Notification settings for the group | ✓ | ||
| Sharing your own trip to the group | ✓ | ||
| Removing or banning a member | ✓ |
The message board requires a PlaneWX account. You have to be signed in and a member of the group to read posts or participate. The flight board and map are public, but conversations stay within the community.
The Message Board
Every group has a Posts tab where members chat — trip reports, "who else is flying in this weekend," local wx tips, that kind of thing. A few rules govern it:
Posting & replying
Requires a PlaneWX account. If you're not already a member, your first post or reply joins you to the group automatically — you don't need to have clicked Join first.
Reacting
Reactions (✈️ 🌩️ 💪 🙏 🔥) require you to already be a member — reacting alone doesn't auto-join you.
Length limits
Posts: up to 2,000 characters. Replies: up to 1,000 characters. Plenty of room for a real trip report, not enough for a novel.
Images
JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP, up to 8 MB per image. Paste a screenshot, pick a file, or drag one onto the compose box. Good for a ramp photo or a sky-condition shot from your last flight.
Notifications
Every member sets their own notification level per group, from the bell icon in the group's header:
Muted
No notifications from this group at all.
Replies to my posts
The default. You're notified when someone replies to something you posted.
All new posts
Notified every time anyone posts in the group.
These settings only appear once you're a member — auto-joined airport group members get the default (Replies to my posts) until they change it.
Which of Your Flights Show Up
Being a member of a group and having your flights appear in it are two related, but separate, things. Here's exactly what each group type does:
Airport groups
A flight to or from your home airport appears on the group's flight board only if one of the following is true:
- 1.Your Trip Sharing setting (Profile → Friends & Community) is set to All trips — in that case, flights to and from your home airport appear automatically. Other flights to non-home airports do not appear just from airport group membership.
- 2.You explicitly tag the specific flight to the group using the Share to Group option on the trip's menu or briefing page. This works regardless of your overall Trip Sharing setting.
Event groups
Routes bound for the event airport appear on the map anonymously for pilots with a visible profile — WX-colored arcs, but no name or handle. To show your identity on the flight board, tag the flight with Share to Group on the trip menu or briefing page. Hide your profile or mark a leg private to stay off the map entirely.
Aircraft-type groups
Matching routes appear on the map anonymously by default (WX-colored, no name). Your name shows when Trip Sharing is All (or the trip is marked public), or when you tag the trip with Share to Group. Hide your profile or mark a leg private to stay off the map. Airport groups do not use anonymous arcs.
How to tag a trip to a group
- Open the trip on your dashboard or the full briefing page.
- Tap the ⋯ menu (three dots) on the trip card, or the Share button on the briefing page.
- Choose Share to Group and select the group(s) you want.
- A green "Shared" badge appears on the trip card confirming it's visible to the group.
For multi-leg journeys, you can tag each leg independently — sharing leg 1 does not automatically share leg 2, and vice versa.
In short: leaving a group is the surest way to remove all your flights from it immediately. But you can also just un-tag individual trips using the same Share to Group picker — toggling a green "Shared" badge back to grey removes that specific flight from the board instantly.
Moderation
Report a post
Any member can report a post. It notifies admins — it doesn't automatically hide the content.
Remove
An admin can remove a member from the group. They can rejoin later.
Ban
A banned member can still view the group and its posts, but can't post, reply, react, or rejoin.
If You'd Rather Not Participate at All
Totally fine — here's exactly how to stay out of groups entirely:
- Leave any group you're currently a member of — open the group and tap Leave group. For airport groups, this also prevents PlaneWX from adding you back automatically.
- Turn off Profile Visible in Profile → Friends & Community. This removes you from any auto-seeded airport group, hides you from every group's member and flight lists going forward, and takes your public profile offline too.
- Simply don't tap Join on any event group — nothing happens automatically there.
None of this affects your private trips, your briefings, or your WX Score. Groups are entirely optional.
Social Features Handbook
The complete guide — Friends, Discover, Groups, privacy, and how all three sharing models fit together.
Public Profile & Following Pilots
The other public-sharing model — your own profile page and one-way pilot following.
My Crew
Private, named sharing with family, friends, and mentors — no public page involved.