Hoverpoint
What the app's features do, where to find them and what the colours and symbols on the map mean. Paths refer to the app; where the same feature exists in the web app, its address is shown too.
As of 20 October 2026 (app 7.18)
Create an account, add your drone and set up the app the way you need it.
You can try Hoverpoint without an account (“Continue without account”). For the community, the support chat, documents and accessories in the hangar you need an account with e-mail and password. You sign in to the web app with the same credentials.
“Choose from database” takes weight, C class and camera data from a known model; “Create manually” is for your own builds. The active drone determines which wind limits the weather check and flight windows use, how large the VLOS circle is and which distance rules the briefing checks. Switch it on the home screen under “Active drone” or in the map cockpit.
Under “How do you fly?” choose beginner, hobby or professional – Hoverpoint then puts together matching tiles. With “Customize” you arrange the tiles yourself.
Language (Deutsch, English, Français, Nederlands or the device language), interface mode (light, dark or auto by the position of the sun) and wind unit (km/h or m/s).
Under “Help & News” you'll find “What can Hoverpoint do?” (the feature library), “What's new?” and this guide; you can also switch help and tips on or off there and reset them. On the map, “More” → “Start tour” runs the introduction again.
Open the airspace map from the home screen with “Airspace”. On the left, the tabs “Conditions”, “NOTAMs” and “Weather warnings” appear when needed; “Map” and “More” hang on the right, and the cockpit sits at the bottom. The colours below are the same as in the app.
Teal drop without a name. It stays fixed on the screen, slightly left of centre, and you move the map underneath it. The app checks zones, weather and NOTAMs for exactly this point – the pill at the top and the tabs on the left refer to it.
If you tap the map, Hoverpoint shows the zones at that spot and places an orange “Pinned location” pin there. Weather, NOTAMs and zones then refer to this point instead of the map centre. Tap the pin and they follow the map centre again.
Blue dot with a light blue ring: your GPS position. The ring is only a marker and keeps its size when zooming – it is not a distance and not your VLOS.
Violet circle after tapping “VLOS” in the cockpit. It lies around the planning point, with a radius in metres that the app estimates from the size of your selected drone (rule of thumb). It grows as you zoom in; tapping its centre hides it.
Only in circle mode (draw button bottom left → circle icon). It starts at the planning point; tap the map and drag to set centre and radius yourself. In the app colour while it is clear, red as soon as it touches a zone.
Thin red circle around your GPS location. It appears when air traffic with warning is switched on: if an aircraft or helicopter enters it below the set altitude, the app warns you. It moves with you, not with the map. Not your flight circle.
Red-tinted areas from DIPUL or from the country's aviation authority. Outside Germany the authority sets the colours – in Spain (ENAIRE), for example, light red, orange, green (model flying) and pale yellow with a grey border (notices). Tapping shows type, rules and the responsible authority.
Red outline: officially documented areas missing from DIPUL. Yellow outline: airfields that exist according to OpenStreetMap but are missing from DIPUL – with a 1.5 km buffer. Only fly there with the airfield's consent.
Outside Germany: red hatching for bird sanctuaries, blue hatching for habitat sites (Natura 2000), pale areas for national protected areas such as national parks. Not a geo-zone, but nature conservation law still applies.
Short-term closures and notices, dashed. Dotted when the radius is only assumed.
Purple dashes: power lines (thick from 110 kV). Dashed 100 m circle: wind turbines not listed in DIPUL. Tower icon: tall structures with height where known. All of these are hints only – the official zones are what counts.
If you open a spot from your bookmarks, from “My spots” or from the search, it appears as a fixed marker with its name on the map. Tapping opens it in your bookmarks, the × hides it.
Aircraft icons: aeroplanes and helicopters nearby (ADS-B, no guarantee – an empty map never means the airspace is clear). Yellow group icons: planned fly-ins from the community.
Bottom left. Here you choose how you plan: point (default), circle (flight circle), area, measure (distance and height) and the camera footprint, which shows the area your camera covers from the set altitude.
The bar at the bottom: choose a drone, switch lens and aspect ratio (16:9 or 4:3), show or hide the VLOS circle and set the planned altitude. If the terrain rises or falls, the cockpit shows the difference.
Layers and view: geo-zones, zone filter, protected areas, NOTAM areas, low flying areas (LFA), tall structures, terrain shading, rain radar (DWD), spot ideas, my spots and black & white. Plus saving and managing offline maps, and the legend.
Explains every colour and line with its swatch – right in the app. At the bottom of the legend, “Full guide” leads here.
On the map: I'm flying here (live flight), air traffic (ADS-B), fly-ins, shadow cast, wind profile. For this place: weather check, camera assistant, 3D view, AR Spotter, spot finder. Plan & connect: bookmarks, waypoint routes, pilot comms and start tour.
What the pill at the top of the map and the tabs on the left tell you. Everything refers to the planning point or the pinned location.
Green “BRIEFING OK”: no geo-zone at this point. Yellow: “A3: UNDER 150 M” or “A3: DISTANCE TIGHT” (distance to residential, commercial, industrial and recreational areas in subcategory A3) or “WIND TURBINE < 100 M”. Orange “NO DATA – CHECK MANUALLY”: zone data is currently missing, a tap opens the rules. Grey “CHECKING ZONES …”: the query is running. Tapping the pill opens the zone briefing with the zones within 300 m.
If the point lies in a geo-zone, the pill disappears and the “Conditions” tab appears on the left. It lists every zone at this spot with type, rules and responsible authority. “Explained simply by Drohnie” sums up a rule in everyday language; the legal text remains binding.
The number on the tab counts the NOTAMs that apply at the point right now. Below, “Only applies later” and messages “Without a usable area of effect”, which you should read yourself, are listed separately.
Appears when something at the point speaks against flying – for example wind, rain, heat or cold, icing, fog, poor visibility or a GPS disturbance. The colour of the tab follows the most severe warning.
In the browser you check places or coordinates in the airspace check, also in full screen, measure with ruler and circle and see the terrain height.
Flight weather for your place, rated against the limits of your drone.
The traffic light at the top says “CLEAR TO FLY”, “RESTRICTED” or “NO-GO” – rated with your active drone. With “Change place” you search for another place, also by postcode and with districts.
One sentence that matches the traffic light: in good weather a hint for the flight, otherwise the reason (wind, rain, visibility, cold, heat, solar activity …) and a suggestion what to do instead. If you pick another hour on the timeline, it becomes “Tip for this time”.
“Altitude limits” shows up to which height your drone can safely fly against the wind (green), where the risk rises and from where the wind limit is exceeded. The wind profile shows wind and gusts at several altitudes.
Swipe through the coming hours – red drops mean rain risk, red wind symbols mean gusts above your drone's limit. The next days follow below.
The best times to fly in daylight, rated like the weather check, for your home location and your current location. Set your home location under Settings → Display & Controls → Home location or right in the flight windows.
For places in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: current readings from the nearest weather station (wind, gusts, temperature) with distance and time of measurement. “Choose another station” lists stations nearby; “Use” pins a station for this place. When you're signed in, your choice also applies in the web app.
Connect an Ecowitt station or a station on Weather Underground in the settings under “Display & Controls” or right in the “Measured nearby” card. Its readings appear as “Your station” when the place is no more than 30 km away. Private stations are often sheltered – treat them as a guide.
The Kp index shows how strongly solar activity disturbs the Earth's magnetic field. From about 5, GPS gets less accurate – the drone may drift or fly circles. The weather check also shows visibility, cloud base, humidity and dew point spread.
DWD rain radar as a layer on the map, with a timeline.
Prepare automated flights and export them for your drone.
New route → “Waypoint route”: place points on the map one by one and set altitude, speed and camera action for each. The route is checked against geo-zones. The web app has the same editor, there also in full screen.
For each waypoint you choose the heading: automatically towards the next point, fixed, controlled by the pilot or aimed at a point of interest. With a fixed heading, drag the handle on the selected waypoint across the map – the angle around the point is the viewing direction; on the web, the distance sets the camera angle.
Return to the take-off point (return-to-home, default), fly to the first waypoint, land at the last waypoint or hover there. When hovering you take over yourself – keep an eye on the battery.
“Circle or spiral flight” places waypoints in a circle around a subject, at several altitudes if you like – for example to photograph a tower all the way round. Single waypoints can be aimed at a centre point with “Orbit (POI)”.
New route → “Mapping”: tap the corners of an area on the map; Hoverpoint lays out the photo lanes for an orthophoto or 3D model and takes the terrain into account.
Potensic (folder), DJI (KMZ, beta – DJI Fly has no import of its own, you transfer the file with tools such as MavenBridge) and Litchi (CSV, beta, for the Mission Hub). You can import routes in the Potensic format.
Record, import and export your flights.
“Log flight” creates an entry with date, duration, drone, place and notes; you also pick the batteries you flew.
In the flight log menu, “Import DJI flights” reads the flight records of your DJI drone – with track, duration and batteries.
In the flight analysis of an imported flight, “Play flight” starts the replay: a drone icon follows the track at 1×, 4×, 16× or 64× speed while the charts run along.
In the menu: export as PDF or as CSV, all flights on the map, totals as image and the year in review.
Drones, batteries and documents in one place.
Per drone: settings, accessories (mounted accessories count towards the take-off mass), maintenance as a service book and documents such as proof of insurance or the receipt (PDF, JPG or PNG up to 20 MB, with expiry date).
Add batteries under accessories as “Spare battery”. Hoverpoint counts the charge cycles (start value plus flight log or DJI log), remembers the charge state – fully charged, storage voltage or empty – and gives care hints, for example when a battery has been full for too long. From an adjustable number of charge cycles, the app reminds you to check the battery.
Competency certificates, insurance, permits and maintenance with expiry date and reminder. “Deadlines and certificates as PDF” puts pilot, certificates, insurance, drones and all deadlines into one document – for clients or the authority.
A QR code for inspections that is valid for 15 or 60 minutes and shows only the documents you release. The inspector doesn't need an account.
Find and share spots, meet other pilots.
Flying spots from the community with photos, panoramas and conditions – browse them and share your own.
You see official aerial images of subjects in your area and swipe: right for “worth it”, left for “not really”. That's how spot ideas for everyone come about. You need an account to take part.
Places you save on the map, with folders, notes and “Weather at this spot”. The spot alert tells you when a NOTAM or a geo-zone is added at a saved spot.
Plan fly-ins, sign up and coordinate in the fly-in chat; the weather for the date is shown alongside. On the map, show fly-ins via More → Fly-ins.
Tap the pilot's name on a spot and then “Follow”. Hoverpoint notifies you of their new spots by push; in the spot list you can filter by “Only pilots I follow”.
Direct messages to other pilots – with blocking, reporting and your choice of who may write to you.
Which countries Hoverpoint covers with official zones and how to prepare a trip.
For these countries the zones come straight from the responsible authority – on the map, in the zone check and – except for Czechia – in offline maps:
Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City publish no geo-zone data. Hoverpoint shows the whole territory as one zone with a summary of national law, labelled “based on national law – no official geodata”.
For Malta and Andorra there is no zone data, but the travel check lists the key rules – in Malta every drone flight needs an authorisation from Transport Malta.
Pick your destination and read: Am I allowed to fly there? Does my drone fit (the country's weight thresholds)? Batteries on the plane with your airline's rules. Plus a “To do before you leave” list – registration, insurance, certificates, offline map and batteries.
Save the map including zones for your destination before you're out of coverage.
When something's not working or you're missing something.
With “New ticket” you write to us; you can attach photos, videos (up to 60 MB) and PDFs (up to 10 MB). You can reply to, copy and react to a message. Editing works in the first 15 minutes, deleting only as long as support hasn't replied yet. Under “My tickets” you search subjects and messages of all tickets.
When switched on, shaking your phone opens the feedback window with a screenshot of the current view.
Shows whether geo-zones, NOTAM, weather, maps and air traffic are responding right now – checked every 30 minutes. If data is missing in the app, look here first.
What has changed in the app and the web app, version by version.
Write to us in the support chat. Questions that come up often end up in this guide.
