Coach Companion
Desktop app for your simulator computer — Mac and Windows
Coach, the app on your phone or tablet, doesn't talk to your simulator directly. Coach Companion is a small desktop app that runs on the same computer as X-Plane or Microsoft Flight Simulator — it finds Coach automatically on your local network, reads the simulator's live position and instruments, and sends failures/attitude resets back the other way. It's the only path in: there's no longer a way to connect Coach straight to a simulator without it, and for MSFS it's the only way in at all, since MSFS has no equivalent of X-Plane's own API.
Free, and required for simulator flying. Auto-discovery means no manual IP address entry in the common case.
Neither app is code-signed yet (no Apple Developer ID or Windows code-signing certificate yet) — your OS will show a real, expected security prompt on first launch. Both platforms' instructions below say exactly how to get past it.
01Download
Pick your simulator computer's platform —
macOS this looks like you
Requires macOS 14 or later. Universal — runs on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
Download for Mac (v0.1.1)- Unzip the download, then drag Coach Companion.app into your Applications folder (or just double-click it wherever it is).
- First launch only: macOS will say it's "from an unidentified developer" and refuse to open it normally. Right-click (or Control-click) the app → Open → Open again in the dialog that follows. You only need to do this once.
- Look for the airplane icon in your menu bar (top right) — Coach Companion is a menu bar app, it won't show up in the Dock. Click it, then Settings… to see/set a pairing password if you want one.
- Open Coach on your phone or tablet, on the same Wi-Fi network as this Mac — it should find "Coach Companion" automatically. If it doesn't (some routers block this between Wi-Fi and a guest network), type in the address shown in Coach Companion's own Settings window instead.
Windows this looks like you
Requires Windows 10 or later, 64-bit. Nothing else to install first — this includes everything it needs.
Coming soon- Unzip the download — it's two files, CoachCompanion.App.exe and e_sqlite3.dll, and they need to stay together in the same folder. Run the .exe from there.
- First launch only: Windows SmartScreen will say "Windows protected your PC." Click More info, then Run anyway. You only need to do this once.
- Coach Companion opens as an ordinary window on your taskbar (not a system tray icon) — click the gear icon in it for Settings, to see/set a pairing password if you want one.
- Open Coach on your phone or tablet, on the same Wi-Fi network as this PC — it should find "Coach Companion" automatically. If it doesn't (some routers block this between Wi-Fi and a guest network), type in the address shown in Coach Companion's own Settings window instead.
02What it actually does
- Finds your simulator computer automatically. No typing in IP addresses in the common case — Coach discovers Coach Companion over your local network the same way an AirPlay speaker or a Chromecast shows up.
- Reads your simulator's live position and instruments. Position, altitude, heading, airspeed, and (X-Plane) needle deflections — the same data Coach's grading already uses.
- Injects failures and resets on request. Engine failures, unusual attitudes, and similar — the same lesson content Coach already runs, just executed on your simulator computer instead of over a direct connection.
- Never sends your flight data anywhere else. It talks to Coach on your own network, and (once you're signed in) to coach-api for your own account's entitlement — nothing more.
03Having trouble?
Most connection problems come down to network discovery, not the app itself — many home routers (and most guest networks) don't forward the local-discovery traffic between Wi-Fi and Ethernet. If Coach doesn't find Coach Companion automatically, open Coach Companion's own Settings window (menu bar on Mac, its own window on Windows) for the address to type in manually on your phone or tablet instead.