Flightradar24 when in-flight

[Mersey Pilot]

Flying to Ibiza from Heathrow yesterday courtesy of BA, I switched on the Flightradar24 App to use residual map display. Although my Iphone was in the 'Flight Safe' mode, I was surprised to find my aircraft's position being displayed from just North of Toulouse to just South of Barcelona. No position displayed for the rest of the flight. Can anybody explain this. Ta!

[edi_local]

If your phone has saved enough of the map data in it's memory then it will track you based on that.

This has happened to me, although with Google, not FR24. I have had my phone on the meal tray, by the window, flight mode on, but location activated afterwards and my whole flight path was tracked pretty much exactly. Short haul flight mind you. When I went to my Google timeline it showed pretty much every turn we made and city we flew over, with a few blips along the way.

[Espada III]

Yes. I regularly keep Maps on during a flight. GPS receives but does not transmit, so in Flight Mode, the phone still monitors your location and displays it if you have a map on the screen. However, it only really works if you are in a window seat and the phone is close to the window. It is better to have all this operational before the doors close in my experience.

[DaveReidUK]

I prefer to look out the window and plot my track by dead-reckoning.

[Mersey Pilot]

Thanks for this guys. What I am still confused about is that my location was only showing for that part of the flight between Barcelona and Toulouse. For the rest of the flight there was no position indicated, just the map display. Very odd.

[Cazalet33]

Perhaps the GPS could only just get good enough LoPs and sightlines through the windows to get useable fixes on that leg of the sector?

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by Mersey Pilot

Flying to Ibiza from Heathrow yesterday courtesy of BA, I switched on the Flightradar24 App to use residual map display. Although my Iphone was in the 'Flight Safe' mode, I was surprised to find my aircraft's position being displayed from just North of Toulouse to just South of Barcelona. No position displayed for the rest of the flight. Can anybody explain this. Ta!

Was the app displaying any other aircraft ?

[Mersey Pilot]

No other aircraft. Just the little blue circle showing current location.

[DaveReidUK]

Then I agree with the suggestion that it was probably the aircraft's orientation relative to the satellites that accounted for the patchy GPS coverage.

[highwideandugly]

Emirates with in flight Wi fi let you..if you so desire..follow the whole flight on FR24..great for those passing aircraft outside the window and great for spotter people! Lots of interesting fly overs and flyunders!!!!
im sure other airlines do it.BTW Emirates charge..or they did..just 1$ for the flight!

[jimjim1]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

I prefer to look out the window and plot my track by dead-reckoning.

Are pigeons allowed on pprune?

[cee cee]

Originally Posted by Espada III

it [GPS] only really works if you are in a window seat and the phone is close to the window. It is better to have all this operational before the doors close in my experience.

I have never been able to get GPS working in a 787, even next to the windows. I assume that the dimmable windows block the GPS signals.