Using SatNav in aircraft
Discussion
Strangely enough, I tried this only last week. However, I was in a Cessna 152, not some commercial passenger jet.
I certainly got a signal in the plane, and apparently it should be possible to get a signal in a passenger jet too. But you may need to be patient for it to lock on, and also sit by a window.
However, my experience was that it was verging on useless in a plane. You should get a pretty accurate speed reading, and that is about it. You are unlikely to be able to see where you are very well, if at all. Because the satnav will keep trying to lock on to roads. Which it cant do, as for a start, you wont be on/over a road much of course, and the other, you are going too fast for the sat nav to keep up anyway (even in a Cessna).
On top of all this. The satnav screen/interface is obviously trying to show you a suitable area of road space that you'd need for car use, which is way too small of an area for aircraft use. As car satnavs can't generally show you entire towns/states/counties on the screen, and actually show you where you are on it (IE, you cant zoom out enough, at least I couldn't anyway). I suspect the fact that you need a view looking down, rather than (3d)forwards as car satnavs do, also complicates matters. I think I can change the view on my satnav, but still I don't expect it will help so much.
One more issue too.. The altitude the plane will be at seriously throws off the mapping on a car sat nav. Again, even in a Cessna, it was out by several thousand feet in my experience. Im not sure if the altitude itself was to blame, or just the change from one altitude to another that confused it.
For the record, I was was using a Tomtom Go 700. It may well be that other brands of satnav behave differently. Maybe better, maybe worse. I have no idea..
And as has already been said, you probably wont be allowed to so much as switch it on in a commercial passenger plane anyway. For reasons of security, non approved/certified electronic device use and risk of interference with avionics etc etc. Although a car satnav is extremely unlikely to interfere with anything at all, plane or otherwise, as satnavs only receive signals. They don't generally send anything out. Except possibly bluetooth (which probably isn't allowed also)
In short, even if you were allowed to use it, it likely won't tell you as much as you'd hope for.
P,
I certainly got a signal in the plane, and apparently it should be possible to get a signal in a passenger jet too. But you may need to be patient for it to lock on, and also sit by a window.
However, my experience was that it was verging on useless in a plane. You should get a pretty accurate speed reading, and that is about it. You are unlikely to be able to see where you are very well, if at all. Because the satnav will keep trying to lock on to roads. Which it cant do, as for a start, you wont be on/over a road much of course, and the other, you are going too fast for the sat nav to keep up anyway (even in a Cessna).
On top of all this. The satnav screen/interface is obviously trying to show you a suitable area of road space that you'd need for car use, which is way too small of an area for aircraft use. As car satnavs can't generally show you entire towns/states/counties on the screen, and actually show you where you are on it (IE, you cant zoom out enough, at least I couldn't anyway). I suspect the fact that you need a view looking down, rather than (3d)forwards as car satnavs do, also complicates matters. I think I can change the view on my satnav, but still I don't expect it will help so much.
One more issue too.. The altitude the plane will be at seriously throws off the mapping on a car sat nav. Again, even in a Cessna, it was out by several thousand feet in my experience. Im not sure if the altitude itself was to blame, or just the change from one altitude to another that confused it.
For the record, I was was using a Tomtom Go 700. It may well be that other brands of satnav behave differently. Maybe better, maybe worse. I have no idea..
And as has already been said, you probably wont be allowed to so much as switch it on in a commercial passenger plane anyway. For reasons of security, non approved/certified electronic device use and risk of interference with avionics etc etc. Although a car satnav is extremely unlikely to interfere with anything at all, plane or otherwise, as satnavs only receive signals. They don't generally send anything out. Except possibly bluetooth (which probably isn't allowed also)
In short, even if you were allowed to use it, it likely won't tell you as much as you'd hope for.
P,
ec1 eex said:
You're not allowed to have GPS switched on inside the cabin while flying.
Where do you get that from? I believe it's up to the individual airlines but most allow it.Here is a lost of airlines that officially allow the use of GPS in the cabin.
http://gpsinformation.net/airgps/airgps.htm
Edited by kiwisr on Wednesday 25th July 10:27
erdnase said:
I read that civilian GPS doesn't work above a certain altitude, in order to stop folk from using it home made missiles.
Seems doubtful, for a start you need a 3d fix to get altitude so it will still give you a position with 2d and won't have a clue what the altitude is. Mine worked up to 38,000 feet without any problems.kiwisr said:
erdnase said:
I read that civilian GPS doesn't work above a certain altitude, in order to stop folk from using it home made missiles.
Seems doubtful, for a start you need a 3d fix to get altitude so it will still give you a position with 2d and won't have a clue what the altitude is. Mine worked up to 38,000 feet without any problems.
BTW, can GPS not get a 3d fix? I'd have thought that it's at least technically possible, with triangulation and more than 2 satellites. I was about to ask how GPS guided missiles work with only a 2d fix, but I daresay they could have an altimeter working with the GPS system.
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