Originally Posted by
Loose rivets
I was answering a question on Quora about finding yourself without gyro instruments in an aircraft. I talked of the Foxtrot November accident - a Viscount of British Eagle carrying a known fault that couldn't be found for weeks.
At the end I suggested a backup via a phone App. Intrigued, I tried CockpitAid and was astonished; the movement extraordinarily lifelike. I don't have an aircraft to try it in, but is it conceivable it could be used in an emergency?
I'm going to try it in the car tomorrow to see how unwanted accelerative forces affect it.
I am going to say that it won't work. Your phone has accelerometers so it can sense change movement. It doesn't have gyroscopes, so it doesn't have a frame of reference needed to really back up your instruments. So if you're in a coordinated turn the horizon on your phone app would show straight and level. Sure someone else can explain better, there are several gyro equipt adsb receivers for sale that do back up your instruments.