About the app
BearingTrue Field Lab is a field laboratory for map-and-compass skills. Built for orienteering beginners, geography and outdoor-education students, SAR instructors, and anyone who wants to sharpen bearings, pacing, resection, and route choice without relying on the internet.
All data stays on your device. No camera, GPS, or sign-up required — just the map in your head and your answers in interactive drills. The UI follows a forest topo / brass compass palette: deep canopy greens, paper contour tones, and warm needle accents.
After a short onboarding flow you land on the Field Lab home with four tabs: Home, Courses, Tools, and Mastery. Progress across five skill pillars is shown on a 0–100 scale; successful tool runs automatically raise your mastery scores.
Course packs
Five seeded orienteering labs with topo excerpts, control codes, landmarks, and keyed solutions to verify your answers.
Mixed hardwood stand with spur ridges and a seasonal creek. 5 m contours; thick vegetation on the east bank. Landmarks: fire tower, creek bend, stone wall, trail junction.
Open ridge with a cliff band on the south face. Sparse pine, rocky outcrops every 200 m. Landmarks: summit cairn, cliff notch, pine island, col.
City park micro-orienteering. Paths as handrails; flower beds as catching features. Landmarks: bandstand, duck pond, playground, south gate.
SAR training grid. Rally at a grid intersection; multiple attack points from a forest-road handrail. Landmarks: forest road, abandoned cabin, helipad LZ, ridge notch.
Urban fringe woods at night. Reflective controls; limited headlamp cone; high magnetic declination. Unlocks when all five mastery pillars reach 40+.
Each course opens a detail page with topo summary, landmarks, control codes, scale, and declination. Filter by difficulty — Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced — to find the right pack fast.
Field tools
The Tools tab bundles four interactive modules for practice off the trail. Every calculation is checked against keyed course solutions.
- Bearing bench — interactive bearing dial, forward/back bearings, declination correction, and scale conversion (centimeters on map → meters on ground). Separate drills per unlocked course.
- Pace-count lab — save your double-pace, convert meters ↔ paces, and run timed legs. Ideal before a race leg or SAR march.
- Map stage editor — topo board with control and landmark markers. Drag points, undo, export the scene for teaching demos.
- Resection trainer — two bearings on known features; pick your position from four choices. Builds triangulation and terrain association.
On Home, the “Today’s bench” card jumps straight into the tools hub — Bearing · Pace · Resection in one tap.
Skill mastery
Mastery tracks five pillars. Each successful run in tools or deck scenarios raises your score from 0 to 100.
Forward/back azimuth, declination, scale math.
Double-pace, timed legs, distance conversion.
Two-bearing fixes, terrain association.
14 flash cards: contours, hydrography, vegetation, cliffs, man-made symbols.
6 scenarios: handrail vs straight, attack point, aiming-off, night catching feature, SAR rally, green slash choice.
Legend decks
Cards grouped by Contours, Hydrography, Vegetation, Cliffs, and Man-made. Tap to reveal hints — index contour, depression, spur, marsh, dense undergrowth, impassable cliff, trail junction, and more.
Route-choice scenarios
Tied to real courses: “Creek handrail vs straight” on Woodland Loop, “Attack point on ridge” on Ridge Traverse, “Night catching feature” on Night Sprint, “SAR rally attack” on Rescue Rally Point, and others. After each pick you get a rationale explaining why the safer route wins.
Field gear templates
Checklists for day hike kit, night-O kit, and instructor kit: baseplate compass, topo excerpt, whistle, headlamp, reflective cards, pace beads, first-aid roll, answer key cards. Tick packed items before you head out.
Widget, settings & offline mode
Daily Glance widget — your home screen shows a fresh micro-drill: a bearing prompt (e.g. “Convert 42° true → magnetic (decl −8.5°)”) or a legend flash with a symbol name. Refreshes locally via WorkManager — no network.
Settings:
- Metric units — meters and kilometers on course cards.
- Default declination — slider from −20° to +20° for your region.
- Theme — system, light, or dark (Night Ridge palette for low-light use).
BearingTrue Field Lab collects no personal data and needs no camera or internet. Everything runs on-device — great for camps, classrooms without Wi‑Fi, and field sessions.
Support
Questions about the app, mastery progress, unlocking Night Azimuth Sprint, or settings? Reach out — we typically reply within 1–2 business days with help on technical issues, learning modules, and bug reports.
Developer: Malynovskyi_Anatolii
Email (support & general inquiries): uitenbroekpocreva0x736@gmail.com
Include your device model, Android version, and a short description — it helps us respond faster.
Frequently asked questions
No. The app is fully offline: courses, tools, legend decks, and the widget all work without a network or account.
Raise all five mastery pillars — bearings, pacing, resection, legend, and route — to at least 40 points each. Progress builds from successful runs in Tools and Mastery.
Bearing Bench drills azimuth, back-bearing, declination, and course scale on an interactive dial. Pace Lab focuses on tempo: double-pace, distance conversion, and timed legs.
No. It is a map-and-compass training simulator — no geolocation, no photos, no external services.
It surfaces a daily bearing micro-drill or legend flash. Updates happen locally through WorkManager; open the app to check the full answer or run the deck.
Yes. In Settings, toggle metric units, set default declination with the slider, and pick system, light, or dark theme.
Orienteering beginners, students, SAR instructors, hikers, and anyone who wants to practice resection, route choice, and map legend reading before a real event or expedition.