IPhone and the military user

[Jeep]

During a mission briefing earlier this year i was introduced to the IPhone app that has the METARs and TAFs and I thought thats clever. So yesterday I get shown an Iphone with an instrument pack on it (v-cockpit GPS), probably good enough to pass an IRT and get you down when the electronic screens go blank, even had GPS. We now have to keep post flight records of exact track, height and time of our low flying and there is an Iphone app for that surely. Should the Iphone be issued to all aircrew as a one shop nav bag? Any other priceless apps for the Iphone that I should be looking into?

Jeep

[Uncle Ginsters]

AeroWeather...all you need for TAFs & METARS.

Oh, and that little GPS track recording programme? Try Motion-X GPS - the 'Lite' version is free and gives you a pretty good taster. I wouldn't live without it now.

Darkness - to figure out the twilight times anywhere in the world.

..and for morale on those long dark night? You have to go a long way to beat 'Gym Babes' :ok:

Uncle G

[hello1]

Should it be issued to all aircrew? - Yes.:O

Will it be? - No chance :{

[Navaleye]

For my sins, I have two Blackberry's with GPS and I don't even use them on the ground. I use my iPhone for just about everything. It works well in the air.If you really want to turn it from a clever phone into a very powerful handheld computer then "Jailbreak" it. Its perfectly legal, free, reliable and gives you access the very powerful "dark side". Try Skype over 3G or the Edge, leaving apps running in background and some great free apps, such as downloading Youtube vids and storing/replaying them. PM if you want to know more, it takes 5 minutes.

[The Helpful Stacker]

Seeing as the iPhone has an incredibly short battery life when in GPS mode and the battery can't be swapped for a spare how were you chaps thinking of charging the phone up whilst in flight? I only ask because I've recently binned my iPhone for an alterative due to its pathetic battery life and the inability to charge it whilst out and about in the middle of the countryside. I'm no expert on cockpit layouts but I can't imagine there is a cigarette lighter socket to put a charger into!

[Ray Dahvectac]

how were you chaps thinking of charging the phone up whilst in flight?

https://powertraveller.com/iwantsome/primatepower/solargorilla/

Or for those who fly LL under cloud the whole time:

https://powertraveller.com/iwantsome/primatepower/000239/

[beardy]

I thought that operating a mobile phone in the air was illegal, something to do with contacting overlapping cells simultaneously and the network capacity. Maybe I misread the posts.

[ORAC]

Seeing as the iPhone has an incredibly short battery life when in GPS mode and the battery can't be swapped for a spare how were you chaps thinking of charging the phone up whilst in flight? Well I have a Juicepack from Mophie (http://www.mophie.com/Juice-Pack-3G-3GS-p/1058_jp-ip3g-blk.htm) and also one of their smaller Juicepack Air (http://www.mophie.com/juice-pack-air-p/1059_jpa-ip3g-blk.htm).

A bit bigger than a replacement battery, but easier to change - and without powering down. Just slid it out of one and into the other.

Engadget review. (http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/19/mophie-juice-pack-air-hands-on-and-impressions/)

[Top Bunk Tester]

Beardy

The iPhone has an aeroplane mode which disables all transmissions (Phone, Wifi, Bluetooth etc) from the phone. Therfore you are basically just using the 'phone' as a PDA and GPS receiver, hope that clears it up.

[Pontius Navigator]

Yet again technology exceeds the capacity of the fun police to legislate.

They will spend time and effort writing rules forbidding their use in case you lose your iPhone.

Instead of trust and sanctions they legislate and bollock. What happens? The more techno savvy always get round the issues.

[TheInquisitor]

Apple have gotten wise to 'Jailbreaking'....whilst it may be legal, if you jailbreak and then plug it into a PC running iTunes, it will 'brick' the phone and you will have to send it back to Apple to be 'restored'.....at a cost!!

Also....despite the great accelerometer the phone has, it would be rather useless for attitude info, as it's not a gyroscope...

[The Helpful Stacker]

TheInquisitor - Only certain serial numbered iPhones loaded with the latest firmware updates are likely to be 'bricked' if its been jailbroken and even if they do they can be 'unbricked' fairly easily using the methods found on the internet if you search for 'unbrick an iPhone'.

If you have the ability to jailbreak an iPhone you have the ability to unbrick it.

Don't fall for the Steve Jobs propaganda and stick with Apple Apps out of fear.

Of course other 'smart phones' are available and most of them freely allow non-approved apps, infact they encourage it.

[PPRuNeUser0211]

Not an iphone user myself but several of the chaps here have a whizz wheel app for theirs (good for those who still insist on using said whizz wheel rather than just doing maths;)!)

[collbar]

When on ex leased, large military transport aircraft, plug it into the wall..
Couldn't move for computer leads hanging from the wall on my flight home this week!!

[Aerouk]

Beardy,

I was under the impression that the CAA (last year) allowed the use of phones while in the air. A number of airlines (like Ryanair) are allowing you to use your phone will flying.

[vecvechookattack]

I don't know anyone who would even consider going flying without their phone........

The outbrief consists of......

Fags....Wallet....Phone....Navbag....

In that order.

[The Helpful Stacker]

Fags....Wallet....Phone....Navbag....

I understand the last three but could you clarify whether the first is the RN variety or the variety that cause cancer?

:p

[beardy]

And there was me thinking it was all so simple, the common sense thing about 'phones and flying I mean. I thought CAA had approved certain airlines who use an onboard relay point, and charge the earth for it, to allow pax to use a 'phone on those aircraft so fitted, that way they wouldn't try to connect to overlapping earth bound 'nodes,' and, because the onboard relay point is so close, the power output is very low. I was under the impression that another HMG department who looks after the airwaves doesn't want the mobile 'phone relay cells on the ground, outside the aircraft, to be overloaded and overtax the system, so doesn't want them accessed from the third dimension (above) where several cells can be 'seen' simultaneously; of course that wouldn't happen in an aircraft where the phone has already made its contract with the onboard relay point.
Now, I don't own one of these new fangled things, but I think I understand that some 'apps' seem to work independently of the outside world and don't need to 'talk' to anything outside the iphone, but others do. I suppose the temptation (when flying) could be to rely too much on the iphone and its 'apps' and ignore the engineering principles behind how and whether it needs to connect to a network, possibly leading to inadvertent network connection and overload (one phone connecting to several cells simultaneously when airborne.) This could possibly lead to the poor mobile phone companies needing to install more cells, which will mean more cost, higher bills and so on.
Am I wrong, is it really so simple?

[Pontius Navigator]

network overload (one phone connecting to several cells simultaneously when airborne.)

Phones on the ground also 'connect' to more than one cell simultaneously.

When your phone is switched on, but you are not making a call, it will be hand-shaking with the cell and adjacent cells establishing the best signal and also the location of the phone.

Unless you are in range of only one cell the system can triangulate you to a position in a cell.

All that would happen while airborne is more cells would try and hand shake and the strongest in-range cell would change frequently. I am sure there have been many, many phones left on in the air with no untoward disaster. Your inter-city 125s will pose a similar problem with several hundred phones hopping rapidly as you pass through a town.

[beardy]

Mobile phones on aircraft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_on_aircraft)

I know its wiki, so is not to be fully trusted, but it gives a better explanation than I can of why the FAA put a ban on cell phone useage from aircraft. Something to do with how many cells you can see from 5 miles up compared to from ground level. Its under USA channel reuse section.

[Navaleye]

Deleted by author.

[Gnd]

Any good 'Apps' or such like for these???

[bayete]

I remember a while back trialling tablet PCs on the C130K model for the nav to have a sort of moving map and mission control unit connected to a GPS antenna in the cockpit window.
It worked really well and there was the thought that we could Bluetooth the tablet PC to PDAs strapped to the 2 pilots knees/control yolk (fantastic). I believe the problem was touted that Bluetooth was not secure. So the fact that I can barely get my phone to link with my TomTom, how the hell is someone going to hack into your Bluetooth while you are flying in a Herc?
I would guess the same secirity issues would arise if you had an iPhone with all your info on it, if it is possibel to hack into a STARS terminal by looking throught the Sqn window at its screen it would probably be possible to hack into an iPhone.

[Navaleye]

Thanks for the gem on Gym Babes! Ideal for long meetings.