Public Profile & Following Pilots
Your public profile is your aviation identity on PlaneWX — a shareable page where other pilots can see your routes, ratings, and activity. Everything is private by default; you choose exactly what to share.
Your Public Profile
Every PlaneWX pilot has a profile page at app.planewx.ai/pilot/yourhandle. Whether anyone besides you can actually see it is controlled by a toggle in Profile → Friends & Community — and it starts off, on purpose.
Trip Sharing: Off
DefaultYour public profile URL exists but shows no flights. Visitors who find it see your basic profile info only, with no featured trip.
Trip Sharing: Selected / All
Turn this on and your profile becomes visible to anyone with the link — no PlaneWX account or login required. Choose Selected to pick individual trips, or All to share every non-private flight going forward.
There's a second, related toggle: Profile Visible, which is on by default. It controls whether your profile page loads at all — turn it off and anyone visiting your URL sees a "profile not found" page instead, and you disappear from group rosters and pilot-discovery lists too. Trip Sharing then decides, separately, which of your flights show up if the profile itself is visible.
What Appears on Your Public Profile
When your profile is visible, here's the complete list of what a visitor can see — and what they can't:
Visible when Profile Visible is on
- Handle, display name, avatar, and bio
- Aircraft type and tail number (unless hidden)
- Recent and upcoming flights when Trip Sharing is on
- Achievement badges and social media links
- Public Journeys you've created
Hidden by default — you can turn these on
- Email address and phone number
- Certificates, ratings, and total hours
- Flight stats, PAVE rate, and leaderboard ranks
Never shown, regardless of settings
- Any trip you've marked private
The full AI briefing narrative is accessible on the shared briefing page to authenticated pilots who have been given access — it doesn't appear on your public profile card, but it's not hidden from everyone.
Hide tail number on public trips
A separate toggle next to Trip Sharing. Off by default — once trip sharing is on, your tail number shows along with the aircraft type unless you flip this on to hide just the N-number.
Social Media & Website Links
You can add links to your social media accounts and personal website in Profile → Friends & Community. They appear as clickable icons next to your handle on your public profile page. All are optional and completely separate from your privacy settings.
X (Twitter)
Enter your @handle
Enter your @handle
Enter your profile URL
YouTube
Enter your channel URL
Enter your profile URL
Website
Any URL
Links are only shown if your profile is visible. If Profile Visible is off, the links are stored but hidden until you turn it back on.
Achievement Badges
PlaneWX automatically awards badges for milestones like flying 25 briefed trips, completing PAVE consistently, or becoming a trusted mentor. Badges are awarded nightly — there's nothing to claim.
Where badges appear
On your public profile (next to your handle), on your pilot card in the Discover tab, and in your account settings regardless of privacy settings. You get an in-app notification the moment you earn a new badge.
PAVE Completion Rate
Your public profile can display the percentage of flights where you completed a PAVE self-assessment. This is opt-in via the privacy toggles in Profile → Friends & Community.
Which flights count: Only flights that were actually flown or explicitly cancelled are counted — not test briefings, not trips still in the planning phase. This keeps the number meaningful: it reflects your real-world PAVE discipline, not how many times you generated a briefing to look at the weather.
If you have only a few completed flights in PlaneWX, the number may not be representative yet. That's okay — it fills in as your history grows. If you'd rather not show it at all, the toggle to hide it is right there alongside the other field visibility controls.
Following Other Pilots
Following is simple and one-way: open a pilot's public profile and tap Follow. There's no request to accept and no approval step — it works more like following someone on a public feed than sending a friend request.
No approval needed
You can follow anyone with a public profile instantly.
Off by default
You're not following anyone until you choose to.
Unfollow anytime
One tap, no notification sent to them.
Where Followed Pilots Show Up
Two dashboard tabs work together here:
Discover tab
Search and browse pilots by home airport or aircraft type, and follow them directly from the results. This is where you find people to follow.
Friends tab
Once you follow someone, their upcoming public flights appear in your Friends tab feed — alongside anything shared with you directly through My Crew. Each entry shows their handle, aircraft type, route, date, WX Score, and flight rules.
The feed never shows a followed pilot's full briefing text, email, or phone number — only the same summary-level information visible on their public profile.
Public Journeys
Multi-leg trips can be grouped into a "journey" — a cross-country, a fly-out weekend, that kind of thing. Journeys have their own Make Public toggle, separate from your general Trip Sharing setting and off by default.
Turn it on and anyone with the link sees a leg-by-leg itinerary — route, date, and score for each leg — at its own URL. Turn it off and the journey link stops working immediately.
Everything You Can Turn Off
- Trip Sharing → Off stops any flights from appearing on your public profile. (This is the default.)
- Profile Visible → Off takes your entire profile page offline — visitors see "not found," and you're hidden from group and discovery lists too.
- Hide tail number keeps your N-number off any trip you do share.
- Individual journeys have their own Make Public toggle — sharing your profile doesn't automatically share a journey.
- You can unfollow any pilot at any time, and nothing you do (or don't do) with Following affects who can follow you.
None of these settings affect your private briefings, your WX Score, or anything used for your own go/no-go decisions — they only control what other people can see.
Social Features Handbook
Start here for the full picture — Friends, Discover, Groups, privacy, and setup checklist.
Community Groups
Airport, event, and aircraft-type groups — visibility table, moderation, and opt-out.
Badges & Leaderboards
All badges, the XP ranking system, and how the community leaderboards are calculated.
My Crew
Private, targeted sharing with named people — no public page, no following.