Technology peav

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doan_1
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Re: Technology peav

Post by doan_1 »

As a 194 hour pilot, and a smartphone sales rep for the last 15 years, I'll tell you that most of these apps are written in the US and Europe where there is a lot more unlimited (or at least high amounts of) data included in plans. That said, there are a few flight planning apps with have offline storage. Air Nav Pro for example.

This may sound "old school" for the age of the portable device, But I wish there was a way to make your flight plan, with all the info you could need, on your computer and either sync it directly with a tablet/phone or with an on-line account that that can then be synced in the same way. Similar how to you can store Google Maps offline on Android.
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PointyEngine
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Re: Technology peav

Post by PointyEngine »

Download all the charts and plates on Wi-Fi, and ensure to keep updated on Wi-Fi. Pretty much no data will be used for day to day use, this applies to Forflight for those Apple things, and FltPlan Go.
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Posthumane
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Re: Technology peav

Post by Posthumane »

Fltplan Go has a "downloads" section where you can go and download the current version of all of the charts and pubs you'll need in the near future, while you're on WiFi. Canada is divided up into four quadrants (SE, SW, NE, NW) for charts and into provinces for some other things. I always go in and get Canada SW VNCs, VTA charts for Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, the CFS (it's all as one package). It will also tell you which of your downloaded files are current, and which have been superceded by a newer version and need to be replaced to be current.

Then, when you're in the map display, go into the options and tick the box labeled "use only downloaded charts" which will prevent it from downloading more on the fly.

For things like approach plates and airport diagrams, if you didn't download the entire quadrant you can download individual pages in the Airports section by clicking on them while you're on WiFi, it will save them for future use until they expire.
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AirFrame
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Re: Technology peav

Post by AirFrame »

AirNav, AirNavPro, FltPlanGo, and ForeFlight can all download everything you'll need for a trip while you're on WiFi and keep it for offline use. I've used all but ForeFlight personally.
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Ahmaxpower
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Re: Technology peav

Post by Ahmaxpower »

You can also buy $$$ a secondary GPS unit that doesn't use cellar data or cost anything to use, other then the purchase of the device. They work for almost all tablets and smartphones and work well integrated with ForeFlight and FltPlan Go and other aviaton/gps apps.

I have a Dual electronic GPS160 parred with my ipad mini using FltPlan GO app and love it. I do my VFR flight planning on SkyVector.com then input way points into Fltplan app, sync GPS and fly away. All backed up with paper charts. Uses no Data, other then Internet wifi, where ever that may be.
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AirFrame
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Re: Technology peav

Post by AirFrame »

The GPS in your Apple or Android device works with the data plan turned off. No external GPS is needed.

Edited to add: The Nexus tablets from Google also have dual GPS/GLONASS receivers, so they can lock using both the US and Russian satellites. Some other android tablets have this as well, I don't know if Apple included the GLONASS capable receiver or not.
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Last edited by AirFrame on Wed May 13, 2015 4:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Posthumane
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Re: Technology peav

Post by Posthumane »

As Airframe alluded to, even assisted-GPS devices which use WiFi hotspots and cell towers to help get their initial fix quickly don't actually use data that you have to pay for to do so. However, there are still benefits to using external GPS devices:
-A-GPS chipsets in many tables and phones are optimized to use the wifi/cell signal for faster cold fix, but take a really long time to get a GPS cold fix when you're away from cell/wifi coverage. I have seen this on my devices when removing my sim card for international travel. Without WiFi in range it sometimes went 45 min or more without getting a fix, despite a wide open sky.
-Many external GPS chipsets will have better accuracy and faster update rate. My cheap Holux bluetooth gps that I got years ago has 32 GPS channels (which helps track and eliminate some multipath errors), and a WAAS/EGNOS decoder, which results in a ~2m accuracy and less than a minute to cold start.
-Battery consumption while using a bluetooth or wired GPS receiver will be better on many devices compared to using the on-board GPS. This varies from device to device, and of course your external GPS will need to have it's own batteries charged, but the one I have lasts a lot longer on a single charge compared to my phone with GPS enabled.
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co-joe
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Re: Technology peav

Post by co-joe »

I just learned something the hard way with my S5, "Download Booster" means it uses wifi and mobile data together to increase speed and therefore increases how much of your expensive mobile data you use. Just downloading 2 sets of fltplan go charts used 199 megs of my data plan in about 10 seconds. I think that's about a $20 woops. Piss off since I'm at home.
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Last edited by co-joe on Mon Oct 02, 2017 12:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
photofly
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Re: Technology peav

Post by photofly »

In iPad settings you can disable the use of cellular data on an app-by-app basis. Don't want Foreflight connecting on your cellular data plan? Just disable it.
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VIA
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Re: Technology peav

Post by VIA »

We have been using a web based program with offline capabilities, and we love it!
Its a complete cockpit to AMO system... best part, is no more paper!

Program is called Propeller One, I'll include a video below and the contact info for the person we deal with

Cheers!

https://youtu.be/kaDb8krwYKE

edele@propeller.one
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CpnCrunch
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Re: Technology peav

Post by CpnCrunch »

Unfortunately on Android there is no way to restrict foreground mobile data, only background data. Even if you've downloaded everything and turned off all the layers like weather and TFRs, FltPlan Go still uses a lot of data displaying adverts and making requests to the website. I'm pretty sure it's a bug, as it seems to be constantly making unnecessary web requests. I pestered them about it a while ago, but gave up when they didn't seem to really care. Perhaps they've fixed it since then, but I mostly just use a tablet which doesn't have mobile data which solves the issue.

I do notice that if you have no internet access, FltPlan Go will sometimes hang for 30 seconds when you click on the CFS link for an airport (even if you've already downloaded the CFS). It eventually appears, but is quite annoying if you're actually flying and trying to bring up the airport info!
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AirFrame
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Re: Technology peav

Post by AirFrame »

CpnCrunch wrote:Unfortunately on Android there is no way to restrict foreground mobile data, only background data. Even if you've downloaded everything and turned off all the layers like weather and TFRs, FltPlan Go still uses a lot of data displaying adverts and making requests to the website. I'm pretty sure it's a bug, as it seems to be constantly making unnecessary web requests. I pestered them about it a while ago, but gave up when they didn't seem to really care. Perhaps they've fixed it since then, but I mostly just use a tablet which doesn't have mobile data which solves the issue.
Alternative: Turn on airplane mode when flying. Data and phone are turned off, GPS remains. Then all of the content is pulled from what you've already downloaded, and (bonus) no ads!
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CpnCrunch
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Re: Technology peav

Post by CpnCrunch »

AirFrame wrote: Alternative: Turn on airplane mode when flying. Data and phone are turned off, GPS remains. Then all of the content is pulled from what you've already downloaded, and (bonus) no ads!
I use mobile data for tracking.
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AirFrame
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Re: Technology peav

Post by AirFrame »

CpnCrunch wrote:I use mobile data for tracking.
Ah, right. How effective is that, given cell coverage is only really useful near built-up areas where you don't really need tracking?
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CpnCrunch
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Re: Technology peav

Post by CpnCrunch »

AirFrame wrote: Ah, right. How effective is that, given cell coverage is only really useful near built-up areas where you don't really need tracking?
I've found that I have cell coverage over pretty much all lower mainland, Vancouver Island, and most of the major valleys in the interior. The benefit is:

[1] If I get knocked out during a forced landing, someone will know roughly where I am
[2] If I do a forced landing, say, in the middle of Vancouver Island en-route to Tofino, there might not be any cell reception where I land, but there probably was 5 mins about when I was at 5000ft.

The only thing is that if I put my phone in my pocket, the tracking stops (I assume it can't get GPS reception). If it's on my lap, it works fine.
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AirFrame
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Re: Technology peav

Post by AirFrame »

CpnCrunch wrote:I've found that I have cell coverage over pretty much all lower mainland, Vancouver Island, and most of the major valleys in the interior.
Good to know, thanks. I flew to Calgary from Langley once and had my phone velcroed to the instrument panel so I could use AirNavPro on the way (this was before FltPlanGo became popular). Every time I looked at the phone I had cell coverage, with data (although sometimes Edge network only). I was mostly following highways though, so "sparsely settled" would describe it.

On a more recent flight to Springhouse Airpark, pretty much direct from Langley, I lost cell and data regularly along the way. That's when I was happy to have my SPOT.
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