I-Phone 5

[Rocket2]

Simple question or two - does the I-Phone 5 have an inbuilt GPS or does it rely on cells to locate your position when that app is turned on? If it does have GPS inside, can I use it as a location aid when flying my slow moving puddle jumper?
One more to clear some office discussions - do you incur costs when using the phone in map mode?
Thanks for your help
Blue skies
R2

[Radix]

............

[mixture]

does the I-Phone 5 have an inbuilt GPS

Yes

does it rely on cells to locate your position when that app is turned on?

No. But it the nature of the chipset used means it is capable cell, bluetooth and crowed-sourced WiFi to enhance the accuracy your position.

But I'm pretty sure you can put iPhones and iPads into Airplane mode and force them to just use GPS and nothing else for your location. Of course you would need an offline map for it to be able to actually show you !

If it does have GPS inside, can I use it as a location aid when flying my slow moving puddle jumper?

Depends where you mount it ! Can't see it being much different than using it for satnav in a car.

One more to clear some office discussions - do you incur costs when using the phone in map mode?

If you have an offline map already loaded, no. (assuming your offline map provider doesn't have any online features).

If you have an online map (such as Google Maps, Apple Maps etc.) then you'll need to discuss the matter of charges with your contract provider, as what you do and do not get charged for will depend on what you have signed up for !

[Rocket2]

Many thanks for the replies folks, unable to negotiate with the SP as its a company phone, hence the reluctance to use the map mode in case I get hit with a big bill, it has the standard maps installed.
Blue Skies
R2

[Booglebox]

Back when I had an iPhone the maps app (Google-based at the time) cached a certain, limited amount of info. This was great as you could then turn off mobile data service, and enjoy GPS-guided maps for free while abroad.
Now I have a (vastly superior in every respect ) Windows phone, which has an integrated app where one can choose to download maps for offline use, per country. there's probably an app for iOS that will do something similar.

As long as you are not flying above FL600 and faster 1000 knots groundspeed, the GPS should function perfectly

[Keef]

I have the Airspace Aware app on my iPhone, and it shows me where I am relative to controlled etc airspace. The map is in the phone, with regular updates downloadable.

If you need more than that, there are quite a few aviation nav apps for mobile phones and tablets - SkyDemon is one such.

[Rocket2]

"As long as you are not flying above FL600 and faster 1000 knots groundspeed, the GPS should function perfectly"

Might cause some alarm if I tried that in the Venture
Thanks again everyone
R2

[ChickenHouse]

First, an iPhone 5 does have an internal A-GPS, assisted GPS (as do the cellular iPads, but with one important difference). The position is derived from two sources, first the built in GPS chip, second assisted by whatever is available. If your cellular is on, it will use the signal as assistance and improves especially first fix dramatically (remember GPS satellites do not send a continuous signal, so first fix with only GPS may take a while).

Second, yes you can use it as moving map, if you have sufficient maps on board. This can either be an online version (not very wise due to trouble if you loose cell connection) or an app with in-device maps. If you use online maps, yes, it does cost you data bandwidth and money according to your mobiles plan. Most prominent in aviation are offline capable solutions things like Skydemon, Airnavigation Pro, EasyVFR etc etc.

Now one more thing. If you put an iPhone or iPad in Flightmode, this will switch off your GPS, as it sits on the same chipset. This is where the big difference between iPhone and iPad is: at an iPad you switch off WLAN, BT and cellular data and the device is totally cellular silent, at an iPhone you cannot do this as the emergency telephone function stays active and pings to cell towers frequently. So, if you use an iDevice and want to comply with all rules, go iPad instead of iPhone!

[mixture]

If you put an iPhone or iPad in Flightmode, this will switch off your GPS, as it sits on the same chipset.

Have a feeling this is a bit of an old wives tale left over from old phones or old software. I am pretty sure I tested iphone in flight mode with offline map and it worked just fine. It may well have been you missed some setting somewhere

[mixture]

Rocket2,

Don't forget you can also set "Cellular->Cellular Data = OFF" on iPhones.