GPS and Maps while Flying

Thargor

This is an Android question I dont know anything about Apple Maps/IOS.

When you're flying do you ever hold your phone up to the window to get a GPS lock to see where you are? Well recent updates of Google Maps have made this kind of useless, its often just a blank screen with the blue dot in the middle because you dont have data in the air.

Once upon a time maps had a pretty good offline atlas, not perfect but definitely mountains/rivers/lakes/international borders/towns etc that you could use offline or in low data areas with GPS to get a good idea of where you are, now it seems to download this data all the time every time and will just give a gray blank screen if you dont have a data connection. Even if it does load some kind of map it will be a crude outline with no features beyond the capital city of the country you're flying over.

I know you can download an offline version of your destination or any area you select but this is a bit useless when you're flying a long route.

I figured someone in this forum would have a solution, I just want to be able to identify what mountains/lake/towns etc Im passing over like you used to be able to.

L1011

Flight mode disables GPS on the vast majority of devices.

jmkennedyie

Maps.me is an alternative to google maps but routing etc calculated locally...you select what countries/regions to download detail for. Data from openstreetmap. It appears to have a default global high-level dataset which might be rich enough for your purposes...at least towns and main roads.

munchkin_utd

here (or "here we go") maps allows you to download an entire country with one click and is what I use when airbourne

Its the successor to Navteq maps which was the base for a lot of sat navs in the past, and is now owned and maintained by BMW/ Mercedes and some others as a map source for their navigation and location based services, so is comprehensive to say the least (and more accurate than Google maps which in places has roads randomly going through non existant lakes)

FuzzyZoeller

I was using Google Maps only last week flying DUB - PMI and it worked fine (major towns, cities, country boarders etc. all visible).

The only time I had an issue like you describe is when I had Maps set to save offline data to SD card and my SD card had become corrupt. As soon as I replaced it all was fine again.

Also check you are not using the "Lite" version of Google Maps as this may have limited offline data.

Noxegon

I use OsmAnd. Works well.
https://osmand.net

podgeandrodge

L1011 wrote: »

Flight mode disables GPS on the vast majority of devices.

It hasn't disabled GPS on most of my previous Android phones over the last few years.

Thargor wrote: »

When you're flying do you ever hold your phone up to the window to get a GPS lock to see where you are? Well recent updates of Google Maps have made this kind of useless, its often just a blank screen with the blue dot in the middle because you dont have data in the air.

As a quick 'fix', before going to Flight mode, open Google Maps before going to Flight mode (and maybe scroll in and out to make sure you've got the main maps loaded). That means you have enough maps (insofar as main cities etc.) in the display to get you past the "blue dot with no map" issue. Works for me anyway.

bigar

I also use Maps.me al the time when flying. You do sometimes have to wiggle your phone to get a signal but once you have it, you can follow your whole trip (battery permitting).

Just remember to download all maps of the regions you will fly over.

Thargor

podgeandrodge wrote: »

It hasn't disabled GPS on most of my previous Android phones over the last few years.



As a quick 'fix', before going to Flight mode, open Google Maps before going to Flight mode (and maybe scroll in and out to make sure you've got the main maps loaded). That means you have enough maps (insofar as main cities etc.) in the display to get you past the "blue dot with no map" issue. Works for me anyway.

Yeah but the problem with that is its a blank map and extremely crudely drawn, no lakes or rivers or towns, its not much better than a blank grey screen, only good for seeing what country you're in.

bigar wrote: »

I also use Maps.me al the time when flying. You do sometimes have to wiggle your phone to get a signal but once you have it, you can follow your whole trip (battery permitting).

Just remember to download all maps of the regions you will fly over.

Nah I dont want to have to do that, Im not looking for much detail, just to be able to say what mountain range Im looking at or whatever, an atlas basically, how big could an atlas be? A few MB (although Id gladly sacrifice a few GB, I have 256 on this phone. Could I tell it to just download the whole world?)

podgeandrodge

Thargor wrote: »

Yeah but the problem with that is its a blank map and extremely crudely drawn, no lakes or rivers or towns, its not much better than a blank grey screen, only good for seeing what country you're in.
Nah I dont want to have to do that, Im not looking for much detail, just to be able to say what mountain range Im looking at or whatever, an atlas basically, how big could an atlas be? A few MB (although Id gladly sacrifice a few GB, I have 256 on this phone. Could I tell it to just download the whole world?)

Ahh no, I'm talking decent maps with large towns, cities, not that crude

Thargor

podgeandrodge wrote: »

Ahh no, I'm talking decent maps with large towns, cities, not that crude

Hmmm, I just dont see that behaviour on my Google Maps, like I recently came back from Athens, on the flight home with the phone in Airplane mode I had a map of half of Greece, a map of Ireland and a grey wasteland in between, zooming in revealed very crude landscape and no roads or placenames.

What you describe is the way it used to be though and Id like to get back to that state.

beauf

Thargor wrote: »

This is an Android question I dont know anything about Apple Maps/IOS.
..

That's not maps. You can download offline maps. But what your are talking about Satellite view. As far as know you can't cache that in Google maps.

You'd probably have to buy a specific app for that.

Google earth can cache some stuff. Try that instead..

Tenger

There is an app called "flyover country", you input your flight details and it downloads the maps for your routing so you can identify towns, cities and points of interest.

Thargor

Tenger wrote: »

There is an app called "flyover country", you input your flight details and it downloads the maps for your routing so you can identify towns, cities and points of interest.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ionicframework.app303739&hl=en_IE

Well that looks very interesting, thanks for that.

Thargor

Tenger wrote: »

There is an app called "flyover country", you input your flight details and it downloads the maps for your routing so you can identify towns, cities and points of interest.

Nope, it's pretty bad, very little detail on saved paths and you still have to give it paths in the first place, my search continues.

jmkennedyie

Thargor wrote: »

Nah I dont want to have to do that, Im not looking for much detail, just to be able to say what mountain range Im looking at or whatever, an atlas basically, how big could an atlas be? A few MB (although Id gladly sacrifice a few GB, I have 256 on this phone. Could I tell it to just download the whole world?)

In case you missed it, try maps.me without downloading any detail.

Thargor

jmkennedyie wrote: »

In case you missed it, try maps.me without downloading any detail.

Yeah I tried it, I suppose its the best so far because it has a few towns as well as the country's capital but its still nowhere near what I'm looking for, no rivers, no mountains etc.

podgeandrodge

see screenshot I took last week from plane.

Thargor

Yeah I can do that aswell, its the rest of the world being a grey blob or a childs crayon drawing of a map with only the capital cities marked thats the problem. In Airplane mode would you be able to zoom in and get the names of any of those lakes or mountains in Wicklow though? Thats the problem.

Tabnabs

I always use an android app called GPS Test initially to show how many satellites are being picked up, the altitude, direction and speed also.

But I've had no issues with google maps and flight mode does not turn off the gps receiver.

Thargor

Tabnabs wrote: »

I always use an android app called GPS Test initially to show how many satellites are being picked up, the altitude, direction and speed also.

But I've had no issues with google maps and flight mode does not turn off the gps receiver.

What good is that going to do me with my issue?

You say you have no issues with Google Maps? So your Google Maps shows all the geographic features Im asking for when flying over countries with the phone in Airplane Mode?

FuzzyZoeller

This is the level of detail I get with Google maps and to be honest I have never looked for more than this (just want to know where in the air I am). Is this the same level of detail you are seeing and you are looking for more?

Tabnabs

Thargor wrote: »

What good is that going to do me with my issue?

You say you have no issues with Google Maps? So your Google Maps shows all the geographic features Im asking for when flying over countries with the phone in Airplane Mode?

If you can't establish that you have a good gps lock, then all the pretty maps in the world are going to be useless. The added bonus with this map is altitude, speed and heading, all in real time.

It adds to the experience for a bored passenger in a long metal tube.

Yeah, my google maps shows what I see out the window.

Thargor

FuzzyZoeller wrote: »

This is the level of detail I get with Google maps and to be honest I have never looked for more than this (just want to know where in the air I am). Is this the same level of detail you are seeing and you are looking for more?

Im looking for more, I want to be able to identify mountains and rivers and small towns etc, Im basically looking for an offline atlas with GPS functionality.

Tabnabs wrote: »

Yeah, my google maps shows what I see out the window.

Including the geographical features Im asking for in this thread?

Popoutman

You could pay for additional layers available in OSMAnd and get the level of detail you ware looking for?

I'm not very sure of the exact items listed, but I am confident that the standard OSMAnd maps are detailed enough to name geographical features. Add to that the ability to geolocate via GPS (may need to hold the phone to the window to get visibility of enough satellites) and you will be able to get a good idea of current location and path, and the visibility of features around you as you fly. I do enjoy this using the OSMAnd maps.

Thargor

Popoutman wrote: »

You could pay for additional layers available in OSMAnd and get the level of detail you ware looking for?

I'm not very sure of the exact items listed, but I am confident that the standard OSMAnd maps are detailed enough to name geographical features. Add to that the ability to geolocate via GPS (may need to hold the phone to the window to get visibility of enough satellites) and you will be able to get a good idea of current location and path, and the visibility of features around you as you fly. I do enjoy this using the OSMAnd maps.

Oh sorry missed your post...

Okay, that was a good rec thanks, as in its actually useful and Ill leave it on the phone instead of deleting it like all the others. The only reason its useful though is that it has a good chunk of the worlds towns and villages stored offline once you download the world overview layer...

Sorry to sound like a broken record though but apart from the towns (which are presented on a completely blank map) this seems to be the same issue as all the rest, you have to download blocks of maps for specific places if you want actually pick out what lakes/mountains/rivers/other features you're flying over, this is no good to me.

Is there really no version of the Collins World Atlas or some other alternative that has all these features with a bit of GPS integration? A quick look on some dodgy sites show good atlases coming in at about 200 mb, they have all the details I need in them, I just need it in an app.

Ha Long Bay

You can also use this app to see your elevation and speed during a flight.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2&hl=en_IE