IPhone and the military user
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 194
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
IPhone and the military user
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
Jeep
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: In the Ether
Posts: 437
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
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'
Uncle G
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'
Uncle G
Suspicion breeds confidence
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.
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Temporarily missing from the Joe Louis Arena
Posts: 2,131
Received 27 Likes
on
16 Posts
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!
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 181
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
how were you chaps thinking of charging the phone up whilst in flight?
Or for those who fly LL under cloud the whole time:
https://powertraveller.com/iwantsome...epower/000239/
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.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
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?
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.
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Back from the sandpit
Age: 63
Posts: 492
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
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.
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.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
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.
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.
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: In Hyperspace...
Posts: 395
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
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...
Also....despite the great accelerometer the phone has, it would be rather useless for attitude info, as it's not a gyroscope...
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Temporarily missing from the Joe Louis Arena
Posts: 2,131
Received 27 Likes
on
16 Posts
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.
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.
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
!)
!)
Join Date: May 2008
Location: gloucester
Posts: 95
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Recharging!
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!!
Couldn't move for computer leads hanging from the wall on my flight home this week!!
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: UK.
Posts: 352
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
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.
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.
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Falmouth
Posts: 1,651
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
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 outbrief consists of......
Fags....Wallet....Phone....Navbag....
In that order.
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Temporarily missing from the Joe Louis Arena
Posts: 2,131
Received 27 Likes
on
16 Posts
Fags....Wallet....Phone....Navbag....
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?
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?
Last edited by beardy; 11th Sep 2009 at 17:23.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
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.
Mobile phones on aircraft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
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.